DizzyDigger
Gold Member
- Dec 9, 2012
- 5,825
- 11,557
- Detector(s) used
- Nokta FoRs Gold, a Gold Cube, 2 Keene Sluices and Lord only knows how many pans....not to mention a load of other gear my wife still doesn't know about!
- Primary Interest:
- Prospecting
Warning...there is a high risk of addiction....when using a Miller Table!..
Finished up my Miller Table project on Sat. afternoon, and once I got the
plumbing bugs worked out it ran like a dream..
Had about 2 gal. of mixed black sand cons that had been previously panned (x2),
and I figured that would make for a good test of the table's capabilities.
Biggest hassle of all was the valve used, as it was so stiff it took everything
I had to turn it, and when it did turn it wasn't smooth. Even tried using a
crescent wrench for extra leverage, and even that didn't allow for any fine
adjustments. Fortunately, I hadn't glued up any of the connections, so
it's sitting here ready to go back to the store tomorrow for a replacement,
and this time it'll be a multi-turn brass valve with a round knob for precise
flow control.
Finally was able to get the flow close enough, and had only the thinnest layer
of water flowing smoothly from top to bottom. Didn't really have a chance to
measure how thin it was, but when I placed a penny down on the table it didn't
cover even half the thickness of the edge.
Fired the table up about 6PM, and didn't shut it off till the next morning..
Does it catch gold?? HELL YES!
After running the first couple spoonfuls of material I couldn't really see any
gold, but there were "suspects" that were too small to ID with the naked eye.
Grabbed the old magnifying glass (with an added "super magnify" spot), and
as I looked over the table at these "suspects" it was clear they were specks
of very, very small gold. No idea the mesh size, but they were barely visible
bits.
What was soooo cool about it was I could lay out a couple lines of black sand,
then just leave it for a few min. and let it run. When I came back the table was
completely clear of all black sand, and only those little specks of gold remained.
I became concerned that maybe it was washing down any larger pieces, so
as a test I placed 3 small flakes (from my previous finds) into a tablespoon of
black sand and let it run; got my answer in less than a minute, as those flakes
were parked on the table and didn't move one bit while all the other material
washed away around them.
No more sitting for hours on end panning out the days con's a teaspoon
at a time. Instead, I'll take the cons and run them through a #20 mesh
classifier, pan out the big stuff and miller table the rest. Sweet!
Yep.....I'm hooked, and hooked bad. Hope my wife doesn't get jealous!
[edit: Tried to get a pic of all the tiny gold, and even though there were
nearly 100 specks of it piled up there still wasn't enough there to be able
to focus the camera on.]
Finished up my Miller Table project on Sat. afternoon, and once I got the
plumbing bugs worked out it ran like a dream..
Had about 2 gal. of mixed black sand cons that had been previously panned (x2),
and I figured that would make for a good test of the table's capabilities.
Biggest hassle of all was the valve used, as it was so stiff it took everything
I had to turn it, and when it did turn it wasn't smooth. Even tried using a
crescent wrench for extra leverage, and even that didn't allow for any fine
adjustments. Fortunately, I hadn't glued up any of the connections, so
it's sitting here ready to go back to the store tomorrow for a replacement,
and this time it'll be a multi-turn brass valve with a round knob for precise
flow control.
Finally was able to get the flow close enough, and had only the thinnest layer
of water flowing smoothly from top to bottom. Didn't really have a chance to
measure how thin it was, but when I placed a penny down on the table it didn't
cover even half the thickness of the edge.
Fired the table up about 6PM, and didn't shut it off till the next morning..
Does it catch gold?? HELL YES!
After running the first couple spoonfuls of material I couldn't really see any
gold, but there were "suspects" that were too small to ID with the naked eye.
Grabbed the old magnifying glass (with an added "super magnify" spot), and
as I looked over the table at these "suspects" it was clear they were specks
of very, very small gold. No idea the mesh size, but they were barely visible
bits.
What was soooo cool about it was I could lay out a couple lines of black sand,
then just leave it for a few min. and let it run. When I came back the table was
completely clear of all black sand, and only those little specks of gold remained.
I became concerned that maybe it was washing down any larger pieces, so
as a test I placed 3 small flakes (from my previous finds) into a tablespoon of
black sand and let it run; got my answer in less than a minute, as those flakes
were parked on the table and didn't move one bit while all the other material
washed away around them.
No more sitting for hours on end panning out the days con's a teaspoon
at a time. Instead, I'll take the cons and run them through a #20 mesh
classifier, pan out the big stuff and miller table the rest. Sweet!
Yep.....I'm hooked, and hooked bad. Hope my wife doesn't get jealous!
[edit: Tried to get a pic of all the tiny gold, and even though there were
nearly 100 specks of it piled up there still wasn't enough there to be able
to focus the camera on.]
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