I have a miller table and I can get a lot of black sand.

[cyberdan]

But it takes forever to process anything.

What does any one think if I bought a matt, like a Martin Gold stop and cut it to size and slipped it on top of the table? do you think it would be an improvement? Would I need to get a bigger pump and raise the top end to a higher level?

Miller Table I bought this one.

 

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[goldenIrishman]

Dan, You have to remember that a Miller Table is not designed for processing mass quantities of materials. It's a "Finishing tool" and as such it's limited by several factors. Size alone is going to limit how much you can run at a time. Raw materials will require a longer length to give the gold time to settle to the bottom so it can be caught.

I feel that you would be much better off with a sluice that is about 3-4ft long X 10 inches wide and a good pump that puts out at least 1500 gallons per hour. If you up the pump to 2200 gph you could run the sluice flatter and have a better chance of catching more of that micro gold. Angle, flow, feed rate and surface are all factors in gold recovery. Keep it level side to side, adjust the flow so it's not blowing the materials through the sluice like a jet engine and trying different drop angles along the length and with a little trial and error you'll be able to recover 90%+ of any gold in your materials. Once you've concentrated the materials down with the real sluice, run the cons on the Miller Table. Depending on the materials you could use several different types of mats to catch the gold. I'd recommend using a couple different types in the box. Having the same stuff all the way down the sluice is insanity. Different surfaces (ribbed mat, moss, expanded metal etc) will each catch gold in different ways. If you only have a single type of surface in the sluice it only gives you one way to catch the gold. Read up on changing recovery surfaces on the GoldHog site. Doc does a much better job of explaining it than I can.

EDIT: Getting every bit of gold is not an easy thing to do. Even the Big Boys loose some during processing. How much you get will depend on how much time you want to spend on it. Some folks (like me) save up black sands after we've gotten all the visible gold out to process further. Things like crushing, roasting or amalgamating take time and many don't want to dedicate a small lab to be able to do these processes in a timely manner. The extra gold you get out of these processes isn't much, but I'm an old lab rat and like to do this kind of stuff.

 

[kcm]

Don't forget to classify your material and run each size separately.

Irish hit the nail on the head, that your table is a finishing tool. As for the pump, if you're working this at home, could also use 2 cheaper electric pumps to up your GPM's.

Play with it, run several times under different settings/flow rates, and see how it all turns out. If you want to catch the super fine gold, maybe scale back to 1 pump and classify for the super fine size.

 

[goldenIrishman]

KCM is correct on the classifying. (I forgot to mention it) Sluicing, using a miller table etc is nothing more than sorting materials by specific gravity which is much more effective when everything is close to the same size.

 

[Jeff95531]

First off, all said above is true. I use a tablespoon to feed miine. In addition, try different flow rates and drop, using some fine gold for testing. I cannot stress this enough cuz real gold don't lie and does what gold does. If I had my Miller Table 2 years ago, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble collecting chit. A small amount of fines is cheap enuff to play with and you can dial it in from there. Not like you will lose any of it.

 

[Oregon Viking]

Nesika beach just up the coast from you Dan, I have seen these Keene Super Black Sand Concentrator (kscr) and every type of sluice, highbanker you can imagine. All of the guys running them said Gold Cube.... The best tool for this super fine black sand.

Oregon Beach Placers. Gold Prospecting at the Oregon Coast

 

[winners58]

I changed over my recirculating sluice to Gold hog washer mats saves a lot of time working down the black sands
I screen to 18mesh then i can run a bucket in about 10min, at least 90% recovery rate on the first run.
Gold Washer Mat - Concentrator Sluice Mat

 

[Capt Nemo]

The way I feed my table is with a PE squirt bottle. Get the ones at Harbor Freight (3 pack) and cut the very end of the tip off. (~3/16" diameter opening) Use the bottle like a snuffer in your wet cons and then use it to apply sand to the table. Filling the 8oz bottle to about 6oz of sand and the rest water seems to work best. Do classify the cons smaller than the width of the tip opening, or the clogs will frustrate you to no end.

I run with a homebuilt acrylic cutting mat table that's about 10"x17". It runs a Alpine 180 GPH AC pump, instead of the Pacific Hydrostar (knock off) pictured in the link. I also added 2 LED gooseneck clamp lights for the table. I keep them to the sides crosslighting the head of the table. That really makes the gold stand out, and makes IDing with a loupe easier. I did sand the mat with 400 grit to scuff the mat. Only bent/flat/foil gold leaves the table. That stuff will lift off and fly off the table with little provocation. Get the brush near it, and it's gone! Have to pan that stuff. I also built mine with an adjustable dam, and I have it set currently to penny height. For water smoothing and bubble control, I added a piece of humidifier belt, and later a piece of Scotchbright pad.

For speed, figure about 2-3 days for 1/3 gallon of cons.

I've thought about adding a thin mat and using the table as a sluice to ultraconcentrate things. With the adjustable dam, I could do it if the mat is thin enough. I do have some vinyl runner with 1/32" ribs that might work if I can keep the mat flat enough. I do have enough head of water behind the dam to run.

 

[Hoser John]

Small tables runs small amounts and classification is the king of recovery. I run a D.A.M. Industries bowl(now blue bowl) and much more production for me and equal recovery and a lot less $$$$$$$. Lots of luck as just slow down and just learn to enjoy your tool as it is what it is. Now a REAL Miller table rock quanity. John