Building a slate miller table

[Gold4Mike]

I have a friend who rebuilds pool tables. After reading about slate slabs being used for miller tables I happened to ask him if he had any slate pieces destined for the garbage bin. He did! So I scored a broken up piece of 1" thick slate. I cut it down to about 15" by 24" to eliminate cracks and other damage. I will be attempting to build my own miller table with it. I have read quite a bit and have some ideas based off of the knowledge, skills, testing, etc of many people so I think I can come up with something that works pretty well. My question is on the setting of the slate. I've read quite a few comments and threads where those using miller tables have said it is not necessary to have long surfaces, and possibly better to have a wide surface with shorter slope. I am thinking I will run my piece as 24" across the top and 15" slope rather than the other way around. I was wondering what people think and if one way would be better than the other?

 

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[No gold in NY]

I would drill from the top side in case there is any chipping from the breakout. Maybe better if you could set your bed on another piece of slate. I would check with Russau.

 

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[Capt Nemo]

Ha, I had been putting material on the table all day and learning as I went, but my wife came home from work and I threw her in the hot seat for a picture.
Thanks for the tips, the learning curve is steep right now and we are definitely learning each and every day from our experiences and from suggestions and tips from those of you who having been doing this a while. We are excited thinking about having all summer to keep practicing and getting more gold!
I'm not sure what 5 degrees looks like, but I've seen that angle mentioned several times. I did use a level and found a slight downward angle just from the concrete pad it was sitting on and started with that. I was trying different water flows to test how the material ran and figure I can then add changing angles to see what works best. The best part is the gold did stick (hopefully not losing anything visible) and was easy to spot! Today I found a container of concentrates that I forgot about, ran that through the table, and found another small flake!

You will loose some visible gold. Some will stick to the brush and fly down the table. Some will fly if you get the brush near it. Some will fly as you add it to the table. But for the most part your gold will stay put. I always check pan the tailings to pull those fliers out.

 

[russau]

I would drill from the top side in case there is any chipping from the breakout. Maybe better if you could set your bed on another piece of slate. I would check with Russau.

A check in the mail is ALWAYS a good thing! BUT drilling slowly with ONLY a slight amount of pressure with a small stream of water will help in reducing the slate chipping. And using a Sharpe or new masonry bit helps a LOT!

 

[Gold4Mike]

Not the best picture unfortunately, but cell phone had to do. Hard to tell with the sky glare, but the slate did a good job grabbing some gold today, including my biggest flake to date!

 

[No gold in NY]

Nice gold there Mike.