Has anyone ever made there own highbanker or dredge?

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?

You can get a pump with a either honda or B&S engine at Harbor Frieght for cheap.  Then get the jet fittings @ Keene Eng.  Then HD, and build your own dredge.  Comes out a lot less,for the same type thing, though for full time dredgeing, you cant beat a real well made one.

Sam Radding's book of plans. I can't remember if its Vol. 1 or 2. Good plans for all sorts of gold catchers.

I've seen plans from the Honcoop co. for about 25.00 in there past product listings. And yes at weekend outings there are a few people who have built there own units.

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

My first dredge that I built was a 3", saved a lot of money, it worked OK for my first. Then I built a 10" saved a tone on it, but it was to big for one person to do good, and my power jet did not work well. But I decided to sell it off and buy a 8" keene because I was running out of time for that year. The power jet is one of the parts that needs to be the best design, so you don't wast gas. You can have a dredge sucks or a dredge that rips, then the next in-portion part is the sluice box, ask ten dredgers and you will get ten different antseers. You can buy used dredge's on the river like the Klamath in northen cal. or in the gold miner journal adds. Precision makes the best pumps and the best power jets, then keens is a good one. That was true back in the mid 90's on the river. but I haven't been dredging in a long time. I used bouth.

Someone must have esp! This is exactilly why I came to the forums tonight! As mentioned, sometimes making things don't come out cheaper, but honestly you will know your machine much better then just taking it out of the box. Secondly, without trying to re-invent the wheel, I'd like to modify my dredge to catch flour gold. I don't live in a typical gold state like those out west, or back east, I'm just outside of Chicago, where a "nugget" might be an 1/8" long! lol

I've pretty much go the design of the sluice box down, it's the floatation that's got me stumped. Basically, I would like to build an alaskan beach box and put it up on floats. Just how big and placing those floats so it's balanced correctly, I don't know how to calculate. Just for the record I'm thinking the P90 honda pump keene sells.

Any suggestions would be greatly appericated!

Jax

You can look at the way keene got theres set up to get a ruff idea, then you will need a test hole to put your dredge in to so you can move your engine and sluice box around to get it balance, and you should have some gravel in the sluice to emulate the way it will be when your dredging. Then before you nail everything down take it out for a test drive and make sure it the way you want it ,then nail it down.

I kinda understand bebop, but let me explain. I was laid off back in april, after 20+ years in retail, I've become fed up with it. Sooo, since I was laid off, I automatically qualify for state paid retraining in any trade I choose. And I chose welding. I want to make this whole thing out of aluminum and perhaps stainless. Save for the jet flare which is marlex. (I'll buy this too from Keene).

Just like the Alaskan beach boxes, the sluice will be 72" long and 24" wide. Figure I'll have to make some sort of adapter plate for the 10" wide flare jet. But unlike the beach boxes, I want to have some punch plates to help classify down the material. I noticed on  the Keene website thier smallest dredge uses the 52a sluce, which is only 51" long and uses 41" long pontoons. I had thought about placing the motor in the middle of the sluice, but I can see two potential problems. First and most obvious, this would make clean up more difficult. And while this would balance the unit somewhat, but what about drag that the jetflare, power jet, and hoses would place on that end of the rig.

Something that would be of a great help to me, would be if someone on the board that has a triple stage sluice could take some close up pictures of it. After doing several sketches of what I'm trying to build, I think I forgot one important point and I need to verify something. At the top end of the sluice where the flare jet is located and the first punch plate is, I'ld like to place 1/8" punch plate so anything that size or smaller will fall down onto 1/2" riffles (with ribbed mate under them). If I understand it correctly, the second punch plate rests ontop of those riffles which are also level with the second set of riffles. Since it seems it's best to put larger riffles in the lower portions, say 1" tall with a 1/4" lip, wouldn't i need to build up the bottom of the rear end so everything is level? (note: the front riffles will also have miner's moss under them)

This leaves me with....

1)How big (length and width) should the pontoons be?
2)Engine placement?
3)Building up rear end of sluice so there's proper water flow?
4)Suggestions on how to make this all portable. I have no partner to help me carry stuff.


Sorry about the long post, I just wanted to get out what I'm trying to accomplish.


Jax

You might do a search for Bob Dahlke's 4" backpacker, may give you some ideas. Stick with aluminum for portability on the main box. For stiffness, use steel 1/8 wall square tube for the frame. PVC pipe can be used for floats, you'll have to judge for yourself what wall thickness seems appropriate, a balance between weight and ruggedness. Sunlight breaks down PVC and makes it brittle, so rattlecan it to keep out the sunlight. And your punchplate should be mounted with a space above the riffles for better flow.

 Something I've always wanted to try, an over and under type setup like your talking about, but run both the fines and overs the full length. The punch plate would cover the top half of the box, and a slickplate the bottom. Riffles would go down the full length of this.

 Underneath would be your fine riffles, expanded metal, ribbed mat and/or miners moss.

 It would take some playing around with to get the hole size right on your punchplate for the correct flow underneath. Start with smaller holes on say, 1/2 inch centers and drill them out until you get the optimum flow.

 Just some thoughts and ideas to play around with.... No matter what you do, there will be alot of trial and error going on, so be prepared for some serious brainstorming, LOL!

jeffro,

Never thought of that! If the box is 6' long have the top half with 1/4" holes and the bottom plate with 1/8" holes, each 3' long. Have a 5' long riffle section leaving the top 1' without them, ribbed matt there and moss the rest of the length... Hhmmm... What size riffles though? 1/2"? 3/4" 1"?

Jax

Your water flow will be a factor, since its such a wide box. probably start with smaller and see how it goes.

The pontoons should support your dredge ,with all the Weight of your dredge, and all the water that will be going throw it and gravel and anything you might put on it, and still have 25% of the pontoon above the water. Remember when you are running, the back of the dredge will drop into the water. So by moving the sluice box farther out from your pontoons you can change the angle of your sluice box, and you can balance the dredge. You might have the box out a foot or two from the pontoons. Use thin wall square tubbing 1/2" or 3/4" for the dredge frame. Your 2" or 2.5" dredge won't be very heavy. If you use PVC for pontoons they will be heavy if you use water line. You can use the thin wall PVC sewer line, and use more then one tube on each side like out riggers. They will be cheap and easy to make and you can replace them quick and cheaply. I made my 3" dredge frame so it worked as a dredge frame and a Carrier frame like a deer Carrier with two bicycle wheels on it. So I could take them off when I got to where I was going, and you might make two trips instead of one. On a over and under box the head of the box has punch plat. and the ripple for the upper sluice or down the box. There is a skid plate that you pull out to expose more or less of the punch plate to control the water flow. If you are going for fine gold then use 1/8" or 3/16" punch plate. Don't use miners moss in the under sluice you will plug up the ripple with miners moss, and use 1/2" or 3/4" ripple, they will fill up to a point and work as long as the water is flowing right. Get Dave McCracken books on dredging like, Gold mining in the 21st. century, and Advanced dredging techniques, they are a must at. http://www.goldgold.com/shopping/booksvideos.htm. If I can I will make up some drawing of the power jet and will post them.

Many years ago we had to make our own Dredges because there were not to many good ones around. Buy a dredge and run it this season. When the snow comes work on your idea's. You will have a better idea of what you need to do. You may even find that most of these new dredges retain micro gold pretty darn good...Art

Here are some drawing I made up, of a four nozzle power jet. The more the nozzle the better the power jet works. The nozzles are set at 11 degree from the power jet. The lower the sluice box sets to the water the more power the power jet has. When I ran my 8" dredge I run the pump pressure at 57lb. witch was ripping. If you want to test your pump pressure, with your power jet, you can make a manifold made out of pip tee , and pip nipples. If your power jet is going to be using two nozzle then use two nipples on the manifold and run your pump engine at 3/4 full throttle to test your pump pressure. To change your pump pressure, change the size of the nozzle. 40lb. to 60lb. should be good. Then when you get the diameter of the nipple to were you like it then you can use that size to make your nozzles. You can call Keene up and ask them what pump pressure they use on there dredges. If you want more detailed drawing, then I can email them to you.

I just bought a nice little backpack hibanker from RDH on ebay. it is good quality stuff. I paid under $150 for it.

Depends on how far you have to carry it as to how big you may want to build it. I plan on doing some back country prospecting next summer and didn't want to pack my 5' sluice around. This little ditty is sweet.. Can run on a motor cycle or ATV battery.. has a boat bilge as a pump.

I made "thousands" of 3/4 inductor jets and this one has some glaring defects-26% loss to begin with. You NEVER have a straight feedin to your pressure chamber because you lose 18% of your flow pressure and blast a hole thru your jet in no time flat!! It should be cut sideways and mounted the same in a Q fashion WITHOUT that 90 degree angle,straight in only,as there goes  another 8 % of your flow.EVERYTHING matters and when it's added up your mistakes make a lousy mini sucker instead of a hand grabbn' rock sucking monster!!Tons a au 2 u 2-John

Hoser John can we see some drawing of your designs so we can better understand.

IMHO the beach box will not work with a dredge setup. my reason is the beach box is to be feed slowly with only so much water. depending on the pump/dredge size/hose size and the dredge nozzel requirments will superced these requirments. maybe if you only used a 2 inch line/nozzel but then your throwing tons of rocks. learn patience! and use a dredge and learn to feed slowly and have the dredge setup for fine gold like i do here in missouri.the beach box will be to top heavy to work on floats. i made a alumnimum beach box years ago of my design and paul over on www.iowagold.com posted a picture of it.look in his lists of options,"new gold gear. how to pages, build your own equipment,then to the bottom of that page look for "beach box" there are three pics of my beach box. at the lower end of my box i put two peices of aluiminum sheeting across the exit of the box. DONT DO THIS! it clogged up my material from dropping off the box. i had a bucket under it to check my loss. waste of time!

I gotta tell ya, Hoser and I don't see eye to eye on a few things, but when it comes to dredge designs, he's the man!

 There is a fairly well known dredge design out there from a few years back- it's Hoser's....

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.

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....

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

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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....

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