Has anyone ever made there own highbanker or dredge?

[damz68]

Just curious. It seems to me it would not be hard. You can buy every thing you need at Home Depot and then a pump from Northern Hydralics. Seems like you could save a lot.

If people have done this here, do you have plans or can you get plans?

 

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[Bebop]

Where, can we see Hoser's dredges at. I never heard of a Hoser dredge befor. Is there a website we can go to. or photo of his dredges.

 

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[Jeffro]

If he wants to, he can relay the info. I believe he quit making them years ago, but they were some damn good designs....

As far as interpretation goes.... when he was speaking about the loss of power in the jet design, he was refering to head loss. The collar going into the seperate jets.... each one has to turn a 90 degree angle out of the collar into the actual jet, creating a loss of power. I have no idea how to calculate this exactly, but 20 percent or more sounds reasonable to me.

Ideally you want your pump outlet and your jet inlet to be in a straight line, minimal head loss...... but since that would mean placing your pump several feet in front of your dredge, the best design so far is a sweeping hose, generally oversized to reduce friction, but no 90's. This puts your pump back on your dredge frame. I dunno how to explain it any better than that....

 

[Bebop]

Here is some new drawing Jeffro of what I think you are saying, and see whatyou say.

 

[Jeffro]

Better, but still not quite the best... Max out the diameter at the coupler and taper it down to the jet, and it'll be pretty good.

I don't know for a fact that four jets are any better than two, too complex for fabrication. I have seen them before, though.

Nice drawing, by the way! Autocad can be fun, eh?

 

[Bebop]

Here you go Jeffro, The water supply tubes are max out and the tapper is better. But that design is only good for two to four nozzles. After that it gets a little complicated if you use six or eight or more nozzles. That is why my first drawing is better for more nozzles. Like I said more nozzles the better. I have used power jets with two nozzle like your design but after using a Jim Precision power jet with six nozzle that looks like that first drawing I made, I found out that more nozzle is more important then a few nozzle with good water supply. I got a drawing with eight nozzles to.

 

[Eu_citzen]

I have only mad a sluice box.. but I have a good link.
http://www.infowest.com/personal/w/wfletcher/prospecting.html
hope it helps.they have some plans there.

 

[olga1913-Alaska]

Hello,

My partner and I built a highbanker three years ago. It was a great project and it has performed well. We keep tinkering with it and making improvements. We start work on a 4 inch dredge just as soon as the cohos stop running. Good luck with your project and if I can be of any help with ideas please let me know.

Bruce

 

[Eu_citzen]

Hey olga1913-Alaska how did you use as "gold traps"?

 

[olga1913-Alaska]

Eu_citizen,

The gold traps or riffles are actually inserts from Keene sluice boxes. The upper insert is from a hand sluice and the lower riffle is from a Keene dredge. The upper 20 inches of the sluice is ribbed black matting. Almost all of the gold was in the matting and first 2 riffles of the upper insert. We ran tungsten through the unit with other material to make sure we were running at the correct water volume, sluice slope, and material rate. Tungsten and gold have almost identical specific gravity values (19.3). It is a pretty good indicator of your ability to capture fine gold. The sluice was bent up for me at a local boat building shop for a 12 pack of beer. There are two sections of miners moss under the sluice inserts. The inserts are held in place with standard draw latches. The hopper was made from metal from an old file cabinet. The frame is built from schedule 80 PVC. We have done most of the tinkering with the frame. It did not hold up well and needed some TLC, construction wire, and dowels to make it through. Any ideas for improvement on a highbanker stand would be appreciated. The unit is supplied by a 3.5 HP B&S running an older Homelite (Pacer style) pump. The intake was necked down to 1.5 inches and the discharge was also 1.5. We were able to run it through 100 ft of hose over a 40-45 foot lift.

We just bought a new Keene pump and a Honda 6.5 to build a dredge around. We may steal this set up to power the highbanker if we are working an area on a bench.

Any pictures of a home built 4 inch dredge would be appreciated as well.

Bruce

 

[alaskabill]

Just curious. It seems to me it would not be hard. You can buy every thing you need at Home Depot and then a pump from Northern Hydralics. Seems like you could save a lot.

If people have done this here, do you have plans or can you get plans?

Hi damz68,

I'm not sure if you are still watching this thread, but yes, I finished my own version of Don Honcoop's highbanker from his plans this past winter. I saved some bucks by making my riffle trays out of aluminum angle and carpet moulding with pop rivits and hand tools. Legs are adjustable in one inch increments. I used surplus aluminum crutches for the legs. I used a small Honda series "15" pump with 1.5 inch hose. I made the foot valve for 10 bucks from a Home Depot plumbing check valve.

It works great. You can check out the details on our chapter's website at this link:

http://www.alaskagolddiggers.org/highbanker_1.html

If any questions, just ask....

Bill

 

[Seamuss]

I have a friend that made a three inch gravity fed dredge. There is plenty of hose and claps for his system but it works really good.
Saves on gas.

 

[arizonaames]

You can see the 2 1/2 inch dredge, high banker (power sluice in NV), and gold-vac that I built on my yahoo blog, goldhunting. They are all better than you can buy and a lot less money....

 

[alaskabill]

You can see the 2 1/2 inch dredge, high banker (power sluice in NV), and gold-vac that I built on my yahoo blog, goldhunting. They are all better than you can buy and a lot less money....

Hi ArizonaAmes,

I am having difficulty finding your referenced blog on Yahoo and would like to see your homebuilt goldgetters. Could you provide a link?

Thanks in advance,

Bill

 

[Sierra Sam]

Home made highbanker (and 17 year old guard dog, Skippy.)

Home made classifier

Home made classifier

Home made highbanker made from old road signs, a planter box and hollywood bed frame legs and riffles.

It converts into a long tom

Grizzly made of leg sections of old road barricades

Yet another home made longtom. Again, hollywood bed frame riffles.

 

[prospector5454]

Making your own anything is akin to making a car by buying parts--costs 2-3 times as much.Your much well served to buy used,but not abused components,and modify or assemble the pieces yourself.I've made thru my ol'company PESCO thousands a dredges,drywashers,highbankers,and tens a thousands a sluice boxes. The few remaining manufacturers have been around for many years and many millions a hours a engineering and stealing of the many others patents and innovations,now gone due to age,illness and theft,have gone into designing some pretty good equipment.Your cash,your time BUT every day wasted runs outta dredge season and you NEVER know if the gold prices will drop like a rock!!Tons a au 2 u 2-John

I am An Industrial Maintenance Technician with a degree and about 30 years experience and I have built high bankers that out perform keene equipment for a 1/10th of the price, this stuff is very simple to build and tweek it to run correctly!!! The guys that have problems do not have any skills, you do not know what you are talking about!!!!

 

[prospectordamon]

Making your own anything is akin to making a car by buying parts--costs 2-3 times as much.Your much well served to buy used,but not abused components,and modify or assemble the pieces yourself.I've made thru my ol'company PESCO thousands a dredges,drywashers,highbankers,and tens a thousands a sluice boxes. The few remaining manufacturers have been around for many years and many millions a hours a engineering and stealing of the many others patents and innovations,now gone due to age,illness and theft,have gone into designing some pretty good equipment.Your cash,your time BUT every day wasted runs outta dredge season and you NEVER know if the gold prices will drop like a rock!!Tons a au 2 u 2-John

I am An Industrial Maintenance Technician with a degree and about 30 years experience and I have built high bankers that out perform keene equipment for a 1/10th of the price, this stuff is very simple to build and tweek it to run correctly!!! The guys that have problems do not have any skills, you do not know what you are talking about!!!!

OUCH! thats a pretty BOLD statement from a newbie!

 

[oragonads]

Making your own anything is akin to making a car by buying parts--costs 2-3 times as much.Your much well served to buy used,but not abused components,and modify or assemble the pieces yourself.I've made thru my ol'company PESCO thousands a dredges,drywashers,highbankers,and tens a thousands a sluice boxes. The few remaining manufacturers have been around for many years and many millions a hours a engineering and stealing of the many others patents and innovations,now gone due to age,illness and theft,have gone into designing some pretty good equipment.Your cash,your time BUT every day wasted runs outta dredge season and you NEVER know if the gold prices will drop like a rock!!Tons a au 2 u 2-John

I am An Industrial Maintenance Technician with a degree and about 30 years experience and I have built high bankers that out perform keene equipment for a 1/10th of the price, this stuff is very simple to build and tweek it to run correctly!!! The guys that have problems do not have any skills, you do not know what you are talking about!!!!

If you have experience in fabrication and design then its possible to make a decent running machine. But most people who ask, such as the ones who ask questions like these, don't have that kind of design and fabrication skills. Trial and error can get expensive.

So don't join a forum and bash its members. Especially the most knowledgeable and experienced ones

 

[enamel7]

And why, pray tell, would a newbie drag up this old topic just to bash someone? Live under a bridge?
HH
enamel7

 

[oragonads]

And why, pray tell, would a newbie drag up this old topic just to bash someone? Live under a bridge?
HH
enamel7

Exactly what I was thinking

 

[russau]

ive been seeing a surge in some "newbies" giving their "expert advice" on some websites and i think (possibly) that they are greenies logging in to stire the pot! telling Hoser that he dont know what hes talking about shows this persons level of expertise on everything! yes there are people that can make something work out of a pile of stuff, but most cant or dont want to go through the R&D/work involved with doing it. as John says, its quicker/cheaper/easier and most times,its better to buy used and not abused equipment.and yes, ive seen some REALLY nice home built equipment,but for the most part (and i include myself) some of it dont look very good but it works good enough for them to go out and get started!