Made a small recirculating miller table

[Astrobouncer]

So lately I been wanting some kind of cleanup machine to pickup the small gold I know I been missing with panning when doing my cleanups at home. I was looking through a bunch of designs on here and on the internet and I figured I would try a recirculating slate miller table because it seemed really easy and cost effective (ie cheap to build!). Plus its very portable if I want to set it up somewhere outdoors, its runs off any 12 battery.

I got the 800 pump from wal mart, its one of those cartridge deals, it was around 25 dollars (Thanks SCBuzz for the idea). The tubing came from lowes for a couple bucks. I used pvc pipe with a manual valve to adjust the water flow and that was like 6 dollars for tubing + valve. The wood was some scrap I had laying around the house. The slate board for the base came from hobby lobby. I think it was 4 dollars.

I built it yesterday and then today tried it out on 2 pans worth of cons from Friday's gold. Stuff I had already panned really carefully and got out all the visible gold that I seen.

Here is some pics of it. Its nothing super fancy to look at, but boy does it work. It caught gold so fine you cant see it in the picture, and it got more then I thought it would for just 2 pans worth of already panned cons. I have so many cons still to go through that its gonna take me awhile, but at least it gives me something to do when I cant get out in the field.

I have it setup next to my mustang to use the car battery for a test, till I get a small boat battery to use instead. I also installed a 5 amp fuse just in case.






Here's the cleanup, there's some specs in there so small you cant see them in the picture!

 

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[maui]

au seeker, thanks for the info. and i did check the site for the table and it looks pretty good.
the guy that sells them lives in arizona.
his store's name is pro gold prospecting.
take care and be safe out there. ron

 

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[Jack Hamilton]

Here are my before and after pics as promised. I had read that a rounded edge at the lower end of the table would expedite the removal of overburden. So I decided to test it. Here is a before and after set of pics. One, you can clearly see the square edge and the black sand stacking up the table. The second pic shows the slab granite expose after rounding it over, and less black sands being stacked due to water tension. The third pic is just a test I did with a vial of fine gold to see if the "Rustoleum" brand chalkboard paint would stop gold in its tracks. 99% of the gold was stopped, but a few pieces tried to wash through. I snuffered them up quickly hehe. I guess no safe methods are 100%.

I also added some grooves that you can see. These were quickly filled with black sand and didn't appear to serve much purpose as most, all of the fine gold was trapped where it hit the paint. Which was at the top.

 

[maui]

looks like it works pretty good and that's the main thing.
so the grooves did not really help that much.
i also thought the grooves would help and maybe if they were alittle bit wider.
just throwing that out there.
thanks for the pic's and keep use up to date on any mod.'s
take care and be safe out there. ron

 

[Darshevo]

Hey Jack, in your before / after pics the water is foamy, is that from jet dri (or equivalent) in your recovery system?

-Lance

 

[ohiochris]

This thread and others like it have got me experimenting with miller table designs. I made 2 little ones just thrown together out of things I scrounged in the garage , just to get a good grasp on the concept , I have to see something work before my mind can wrap around the idea for some reason. Neither worked very well since there was very little water control ( garden hose ) , and just not good materials.. But I was at a garage sale the other day and noticed an old mirror , 12 inches wide and about 30 inches long , the old kind that are thick and heavy. The back has a gray coating that already has a good surface and feels like a chalkboard. Im planning to take some fine sandpaper to it and put some texture or chalkboard paint on it anyway , but I really dont have to since the coating already has tooth. I glued it to a piece of 2 X 12 , smooth side down with liquid nails for strength and support , so its a little heavy but should be perfectly flat and straight. I am thinking this should turn out as a pretty good table surface. Now all I need to do is put some type of sides on it , set up the water supply somehow , and come up with a way of adjusting the angle and level , and its good to go. Building these contraptions are atleast half the fun of the prospecting hobby. The only thing I am unsure of is almost all of the gold I see in the pan is so tiny that its just barely visible , it seems like its gonna take very slow water and almost no angle at all for the table , if the table will even work at all.

 

[Goodyguy]

Guess now I know what my next project will be
And to think of all the pool table slate that I threw into a dumpster when I helped a billiard mfg dispose of their rejects

GG~

 

[russau]

over on microngold at yahoogroups they have directions on building/useing a Miller table.

 

[mu50stang]

You guys got me motivated to build on of these. This is what I came up with. I'm going to move the spray bar further down to reduce the amount of bubbles coming out. Also Im going to add an attatchmnent for a garden hose sprayer to wash the gold down in a pan when I'm done. The 2nd pic is about 3 tablespoons of 30 mesh. Seems to be working pretty good.

 

[ohiochris]

You guys got me motivated to build on of these. This is what I came up with. I'm going to move the spray bar further down to reduce the amount of bubbles coming out. Also Im going to add an attatchmnent for a garden hose sprayer to wash the gold down in a pan when I'm done. The 2nd pic is about 3 tablespoons of 30 mesh. Seems to be working pretty good.

Good job. Can you post any more pics of it ? Its hard to see what it looks like from the 2 you have on here. I got started on mine and Im about 90% done with it , I just have to locate a water pump of some kind. Im hoping to locate a used one so I can do this as cheaply as I need to , if not I will eventually buy a new one if I have to. Should be someone out there with a used pond or bilge pump out there so I keep looking.

 

[ohiochris]

I am trying to figure out what size submersible pump I need to recirculate water to the table I am building. The table width surface will be around 10 inches and about 30 inches or so long. I copied a couple others ideas on here and have a reservior like box at the top with an adjustable baffle in front to control water flow. To all you guys who have already been building these , about how much water flow ( GPH ) would I need out of a pump ? I am trying to keep the cost low , so no need to have more water than required.

I used chalkboard paint for the table surface on this one but if anybody is interested , there is a paint just called "textured" ( spray paint ) that has just a little more tooth , just slightly more rough but not much , you can see what it feels like by touching the plastic top on the can. I used it on the earlier experiments I did with scraps I found in the garage and a garden hose. There are atleast 2 versions of the "textured" variety , the one I am talking about is just like the chalkboard but slightly more rough , not the kind that looks almost like truck bed paint....though Ive heard some people use that too.

 

[russau]

keeping the spraybar close to the surface will help in riding yourself of rippeled/wavey water. another better solution is to add the (for those that made wooden devices) wooden gate at the head of the sluice, so you can adjust/spreadout the water to maintain the smooth surface of the water. i use a thin rubber damper on mine (my Miller table has a alum. frame and slate surface) i itll help to use a aurofeeder to feed your screened cons to that table. they are EZ to make and are worth the time todo so!

 

[ohiochris]

I finished my table. I need to tweak it a bit but it works. I found a small statuary pump at Lowes that works pretty well at recirculating the water. Here is a link to a short video I made of it.

 

[ohiochris]

 

[russau]

Criss the first video has the water running to rough. the second and third video the water is perfect! the water needs to be flat and smooth as glass. the diverter or gate you put in with that material really makes a big differance. and id rerun everything again from the first video.i really like my table. a auto feeder is so EZ to make and frees you up todo other things. id recommend it highly!

 

[Goodyguy]

Russau,

Quit teasing..........
Please tell us more about this autofeeder system of yours. Plans, drawings, diagrams, photos, ....something.

GG~

 

[russau]

they are so simple! a aluminum tray(with 2-3 inch deep sides) in a triangle shape except long on one side and open on the end of that corner. i have mine on a adjustable stand, where i can raise/lower/tilt for the application i need. i use it on all of my cleanup equipment. it is used in my recycleing recovery setup. i use Claygone and jet dry in the water. i use 2 750GPH 12vdc bilge pumps and 3/4 inch poly tubing to each device. as the water is pumped up to the autofeeder it conects to a ball valve and from there it splits in two directions along the sides inside the autofeeder using 1/4 inch poly tubeing again. there are lots of 3/16 holes drilled in the tubeing inside the autofeeder to go over the screened cons to wash/move them down the tray to feed whatever equiment your using.you can controll the feed by several means. 1) adjust the water stream. 2) adjust the height or angle of the autofeeder. once this is up-n-running for the feed you want, you can walk away and let it do its thing.remeber evertyhing is recycling so you can readjust this and run it again to see if youve lost antyhing back into the tub. i use this on my Miller table , blue bowl,wheel (sold it). now im decideing to make my Miller table smaller. my slate is big!i didnt want to cut it. but using my circular saw and a masonary blade it shouldnt be a proble. it looks like i could make 4 tables out of what i have now. this autofeeder is so simple, even i could make/use it!

 

[Goodyguy]

they are so simple! a aluminum tray(with 2-3 inch deep sides) in a triangle shape except long on one side and open on the end of that corner. i have mine on a adjustable stand, where i can raise/lower/tilt for the application i need. i use it on all of my cleanup equipment. it is used in my recycling recovery setup. i use Claygone and jet dry in the water. i use 2 750GPH 12vdc bilge pumps and 3/4 inch poly tubing to each device. as the water is pumped up to the autofeeder it connects to a ball valve and from there it splits in two directions along the sides inside the autofeeder using 1/4 inch poly tubing again. there are lots of 3/16 holes drilled in the tubing inside the autofeeder to go over the screened cons to wash/move them down the tray to feed whatever equipment your using.you can control the feed by several means. 1) adjust the water stream. 2) adjust the height or angle of the autofeeder. once this is up-n-running for the feed you want, you can walk away and let it do its thing.remember everything is recycling so you can readjust this and run it again to see if you've lost anything back into the tub. i use this on my Miller table , blue bowl,wheel (sold it). now I'm deciding to make my Miller table smaller. my slate is big!i didn't want to cut it. but using my circular saw and a masonry blade it shouldn't be a problem. it looks like i could make 4 tables out of what i have now. this autofeeder is so simple, even i could make/use it!

A photo would sure be worth a thousand words.

GG~

 

[russau]

but getting that photo or ANY photo uploaded is the problem for this ole goat!

 

[ohiochris]

My table works , but if I am not there to tend it or atleast check back often , the sand will load up and not all wash away. So I run my fingers through it now and then to flatten it out again and get it moving. If I jack up the water flow to solve the problem I think more of the smaller gold will escape , since even though the water flow is miniscule I still find fly poop sized specks of gold down the full length of it. So I am inclined to think that an auto feeder may be more suited to larger tables with larger gold flakes and might just end up making a mess in mine. Now if I was finding larger gold with more water flow it would make a lot of sense. But I am still learning and tinkering with the table to see how I can improve it.

 

[russau]

Chris you need to screen your material finer and keep all of your settings the same!that will eliminate your black sand problem. and a autofeeder will work on all of the fine gold if you screen it all to the same size and run each screening seperatly! trust me on this!