noob from ohio lookin for some highbanking help

[dieseltorkin]

Hello,
Been snoopin around the site here for a few months now. all the info on here is great!
I have a keene A52 with highbanker/dredge conversion and an A51 keene added to the end with a keene
P90 pump. I am new to all of this as of this past spring and i have been fighting setting up this machine since day one. I have tried just about every angle mentioned on the web adjusted water flow. never seem to get it just right. either riffles are too full or too much gets washed out the end. any and all advice would be great! thank for your input!

 

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[Goodyguy]

Sounds to me like you have a classification problem. In Ohio most of the gold in the creeks is going to be smaller than 1/8"
Usually a lot smaller, down to micro size even.

Try running all your material through a 1/8" screen before feeding it through the highbanker sluice. That way your material will be of a more uniform size and it will be much easier to adjust your sluice accordingly. And you'll retain more gold.

As far as dredging into your highbanker goes, that is way more difficult of a challenge to get it set up properly to catch the fine gold when you're blowing it out due to the increased water flow coupled with many sizes of gravels that also tend to knock the fines out.

What really needs to happen while dredging into your A-52 is a way to make sure you are capturing the fine gold without loading up the riffles. And the only sure fire way is to have an "over under" set up, whereby the fines drop under through a punch plate onto a carpet or mat and the large gravels and such get washed over the punch plate and over the riffles and out the end. Its like two sluices stacked up but only for the first couple of feet. The last two feet is just the regular a-52.

GG~

 

[joe710]

The trouble with looking for gold is due the fact that people listen to the wrong info. first of all a highbanker is a wash plant,no need for classifying unless you change the grizzly. (not recommended). now my h/b is a older model,deep box with a blue miners moss,deep v mat installed,other than that no change. as far as leveling is concerned, you want to slow the water down to where the rocks just moves off the punch plate. now you are set up to get fine gold. before anyone wants to argue that point give it a try.

 

[Vance in AK]

Joe, having spent a fair amount of time with the same type of highbanker, I have to respectfully disagree with you o classification. Classify for the size gold that is predominate in your ground & then adjust water flow & sluice angle from there.
Yes it is just a "wash plant", but I have several friends that are successful comercial miners, & every one of the classifies the material that goes into their plant based on the size of the plant & the gold. They may only classify down to 4 or 6", but they are feeding the plants with excevators or backhoes.
For the gold in most areas the Keene grizzly bars could be set much closer together.
Don't forget that Keene also makes at least 2 different riffle sets for that box, one specifically for dredging.

 

[joe710]

I agree with classification,but not while you are running a highbanker, the highbanker does the work for you. let me explain about my set up,sluice box set just to wash the rocks off the punch plate,upper box set at just above level, two poop tubes under the sluice box. my partner pushes out the rocks & garbage. the poop tubes are the first to be cleaned out, of the many clean ups i have done i've only found a few micro pieces. now my electric recirculating highbanker is classified to 1/4". then i classifi at my clean up to #12,#20.

 

[Oakview2]

Without see your setup running it is hard to offer advice. If your are running a lot of water threw the box, you might want to flatten you angle of the sluice. Count a number of lead sinkers and throw them in your box with some junk dirt, and experiment with your set up. Cut the sinkers in different sizes and shapes, flatten some with a hammer until your setup recovers you lead nuggets every time.... Best of luck... Good health and good hunting