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The Warren Classifier (High Banker)

I have been involved in recreational gold mining since coming to Colorado in 1959, first by panning, then by building a wooden sluice box. It worked okay, but carrying buckets of dirt after screening it then feeding it slowly into the sluice by hand got old very quickly. There were any number of gold-saving devices on the market, but not having much money, there might as well have been none.

Then in 1967, I went to work as an aviation machinist which introduced me to a field that was ready-made for me: engineering and the production of a wide range of hardware (we produced over 3,000 different parts). This gave me the background I needed to start designing my own equipment.

The first item I built was a screening device made from a 55-gallon drum with endless holes drilled in it, set on a stand with rollers, driven by a belt and a DC motor. It was a great screening device, leaving only the sand to carry and feed into the sluice. However, it had two definite drawbacks, size and weight. The drum itself was close to 50 pounds!

I then bought a small dredge. This proved to be more trouble than it was worth! The little 2-cylinder motor didn’t run very well above 7,000 feet altitude which reduced its usefulness beyond what I could accept. Plus, I would spend 20 minutes dredging and 30 minutes unclogging the intake! I then put a 4-cylinder motor on it. The new motor took care of the horsepower problem but did nothing for the clogging. So I decided to forget the dredge idea.

It was then that an idea for an efficient high banker began to take shape. I had an idea in mind for what I wanted in a high banker, but after looking in every prospector catalog and shop I could find, there was nothing like what I wanted. So I decided to design and build my own. The first one was all aluminum and worked. However, the rocks refused to slide on the aluminum table. So the next one was 16-gauge steel that worked like a dream except that it was heavy. The legs folded up so it would fit in a small space but the weight required a cart to transport it where you wanted to use it. This unit worked very well until my two sons went off to college, then it proved too much for me to handle by myself.

It was at this time I started work on the prototype for the units I now have for my own use and which I am making available for purchase. These units weigh 19 pounds ready-to-use (see photo) and fold up small enough to fit in a box 40 x 22 x 12 inches! The slide plate is stainless steel so rocks slide off easily!

The Warren Clasifier, at 19 pounds, can be carried with one hand

With a couple of bungee cords everything can be attached to the unit and carried with one hand. The pump (not included but available) can be carried in the other hand. The entire setup that I use, including the motor, 30 feet of hose, intake, shovel, and a gallon of gas, weighs less than 50 pounds!

I have heard people claim that they could run their units on tailings and get more gold than another person was getting from the stream gravel. Well, if they could do this behind one of my units, they would have to be getting microscopic gold because I have panned my tailings over and over and have yet to find more than one or two small specs and these were very thin.

The capacity of these units is well beyond what any two people could shovel for any length of time. My partner and I were shoveling well over two cubic yards per hour and the unit we were using could have handled considerably more. Now I can only speak for myself but if I'm going to work for more than 20 minutes, this is way beyond my capacity!

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The Warren Classifier

SPECIFICATIONS

Weight: 19 pounds
Height (set up): 36 inches
Dimensions (folded): 38 x 21 x 11 inches
Operating capacity: More than two cubic yards per hour
Water required: Approximately 30 gallons per minute
Slide plate: Stainless steel

Price is $495.00.

It is being marketed by:

Flash Masters, LLC
1065 1st St. (Hwy 287)
Berthoud, CO 80513
Phone: 970-532-1492
Fax: 970-532-2060
Email: info @ flashllc.com
Website: www.flashllc.com/sluice.html

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