Walbanker help/finetuning

OK, have taken the Walbanker for a quick spin & found it needed a few tweeks. First of all I made the legs less of a snug fit to the slots for easier removal (when wet & dirty), also made the adjustment holes bigger to take irrigation pins rather than the small fiddly hand-grenade pins I was using. Second fix required was on the classifying screen - moved the supporting lengths of aluminium to make it more snug, this way less stones will get down the gaps at the edge, also bent the holding hooks on the banker itself so the screen does not pull-off so easily (when the scraper hits a stone lodged in the screen itself).

Wal I noted from your instructional video that you talked about the correct angle for the banker being anywhere from 1 in 3 to 1 in 7, depending on the ground you are working. I am mostly working the Castlemaine area which has very little in the way of black sands but a fair bit of iron stone ...... have made up a couple of pieces of wood as a guide that have the 1:4 & 1:5 gradient but on setting it up I'm wondering if I have misunderstood ..... looks quite steep! The 1:4 is the first image and the second is the !:5:

I am thinking that the short run I did was probably more around the 1:8 angle and was likely blocking-up the gold traps .... If that's the case then I probably caught gold for the first fifteen minutes and then it was simply washing straight over the top after that. The end section (for gemstones) was fairly full (......not of gemstones), I would have thought that if I had the angle right then this would not be the case. Cheers Drewe.

G'day Drewe,

The second pic is closer to the angle you need. Remember its a combination of angle and water speed that determines the fine tune. The pump needs to deliver enough water so that 20 -30mm runs across the riffles. You need to tilt the box so that the riffle section remains about 1/2 full.

The Sapphire section is specifically for gems only and the lower end of the box needs to have sideways shaking about every 10 shovels to pulsate the Sapphires/ Zircons/ Spinels to the bottom of the screen. You cannot work it the same as the gold only mesh ( sloped expanded ), which requires no shaking movement.

Send me a PM and i can explain in detail the procedure for each system.

Cheers Wal.

Hi guys,

New on the forum here but have been reading for some time.

Looking at building a Walbanker, but I only have an arc welder, no access to TIG or MIG

Has anybody had success with using rivets to put one together?

Cheers

Rivets work just fine.
Speaking from experience.

There maybe a few for sale in our section for you mate.
Dont rush in but. Have a good read up in prospecting equipment as well.
Things have improved since that design hey.
Even improvement mods to the walbanker design.

Cheers Mirrors, that's the answer i was hoping for

Mudgee hunter; Cheers mate, I've been keeping an eye on the "for sale" section so hopefully something comes up sooner or later.
I actually didn't realize how old the Walbanker design was until I went back to the first page of the specification thread

Jeremy

The last 3 I built we used a air riveter no troubles :Y:

You can solder aluminium, just an option.
Matt T

Nothing wrong with old designs.
The catwalk mesh principal is fantastic. I still use it and swear by it.
But there are good mods to consider.
Eg, length... it is a large cumbersome unit. So if your not really a serious gem chaser. A lot of length can be reduced. Gems will still be caughtht up top anyhow.
The rear legs... fit them to at ghe rear like any standard unit. stability, and if you end up cutting it down.... gunna do a back flip.
There is no rule/ fact that cable tray needs to be parrael to the base. An angle on it will assist waste material to fall away under gravity.
A skid plate fitted facing rearwards starting at the end of the spray zone, ending 50mm from the rear wall, and 50mm above the base will make monumental improvement to the way the flow behaves up top in catwalk area.
This will also cut down about 350mm of that wasted base skid plate length.
And makes all the water and material flow in an uninterrupted wave.
After the Cat walk, honestly, get a bit of dream mat, and your done. Forget the breadcrete mat etc if your just after gold.
Sell the off cut dream,.you really only need 350mm of it after the catwalk.
I do prefer the 22mm catwalk over the 16mm stuff.
Before you commit to a width, make sure it blends in with say your dream mat widths. Work out the internal width in inches rather than metric. As 12"s is not 300mm