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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[TerryC]

Astro,
Your miller's table is very interesting. Can you explain to me (and for others) the concept? May I also add that if you add a fitting th the other end of the sprinkler bar, you can run the table at home using a garden hose. I did that with my highbanker but found out the water pressure here is not good enough for the highbanker. That small table should do just fine! TTC

 

[Astrobouncer]

Good idea Terry. My fitting is just screw on capped at the other end and easily removable so it would be easy to add an attachment for that.

From what research I have done, the Miller table is named after the inventor of the concept in the 1800s. Its a real easy way to get super fine gold. The slate holds the gold tight and the lighter material is pushed away from the gold by the water and by gravity. Gemstones also seem to stick to the surface, and some minerals and rocks. The black sand, the heavy gray sand and the platinum colored sand are all carried away by the water leaving the gold behind.

Basically you want a 1/8 inch bead of water coming down over the entire surface, and material that's screened to at least 20 mesh for best recovery. Though I have read you can run unscreened material as well and it will still work well.

Here's some more links to miller tables, note that the table is usually done with just a trickle of water and either a very slight or small slope. However, since I did not have the longer slate boards required to pull that off, I went with a steeper slope for the same effect just in a shorter area. I seen a video somewhere that convinced me to build one, I will try to find the link sometime today.

http://gpex.ca/smf/index.php?topic=1416.0

http://gpex.ca/smf/index.php?topic=2571.0

http://www.scribd.com/doc/28318404/How-to-Build-and-Operate-a-Miller-Table

 

[TerryC]

Thanks Astro,
I'll be looking into one soon! TTC

 

[SCBUZZ]

Good job astro. Here is what I do know about slate tables. they need to be nearly flat. And the water needs to move out of the spray bar and down the table slowly and without bubbles . You do this by putting a small bar at the height which would be the depth you want the water to flow.

I don't think length is a big an issue as they flow of the water and the angle. Here are some vids of slate tables in action.




this one is too fast and full of bubbles and he loaded the material too fast . But even with all that it works.


This one is at the correct angle and water speed but he needs a bar to even the water and stop the bubbles. This tho about the best one I have seen other than on GPAA show. Which is where I saw the proper set up.



Astro call me bro . I got my phone off charge now. LOL

 

[maui]

astro, good job and it looks pretty cool also, keep up the good work.
thanks much for sharing, take care and be safe out there. ron

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HI, a plain sheet of 4 x 8 plywood given a black water proof coating, and the spray bar will recover Gold so fine that you prob can't see some of it while eliminating most, if not all of the heavy sands.. Naturally you have to adjust the flow and angle of the table.

Dn Jose de La Mancha

 

[Jack Hamilton]

I made one of these in the last few days. I made mine out of some slab granite scraps I had. Painted it with chalkboard paint. I ran some black sand classified to 80 mesh. I didn't get a chance to run much. I have probably 6-7 pounds. I put a few spoon fulls through it and found more specs. These black sands I have, have been run through a desert fox and a blue bowl, and the slate table caught specs neither one of those machines found. Granted, I hadn't classified the black sands to 80 mesh when put through them. Both work very well, but I really like the slate table. What is nice is the ability to snuffer up specs as you see them and before they can be lost.

Nice job Astro

 

[maui]

jack, would like to see pictures when you get a chance to post them.
thanks much, take care and be carefull out there. ron

 

[Jack Hamilton]

Here are several pics of my attempt at a slate table. So far so good. It will catch textured specs so small you can hardly see them. Any micro thin flakes ride the water and flow through. I used rustoleum chalkboard spray paint for the finish. I have heard that Krylon is the brand to use for its unique texture. I'll try that along with some wet dry 400-800 grit sand paper. Cant hurt to experiment eh? Construction is slab granite, cut and epoxied. 1/8 gap under small wall that confines my water supply. Painted with chalkboard paint. Didn't mean to hijack Astro's thread, but I was asked to share. I think its good to keep ideas on the same subject in one place for everyone to stay focused at any rate. Thanks for starting the thread Astro.

 

[Astrobouncer]

Awesome table Jack, that's the kinda setup I like to see! And no worries, I would love to see this thread become more useful. I like the ideas in here and my next table is going to be both portable and able to process more cons. This first table was just a test, and it definitely made me see how useful one of these tables can be.

 

[Jack Hamilton]

I dumped a vial I have with a couple hundred specs and flakes into clean running water with no black sand or anything just to see if the paint would make the gold stick. I lost some very fine specs into my catch pan, bout 5-10. I caught a few specs while running some black sands I have but not many. Like I said earlier the black sands have already been run a few times. I will post updates and modifications I make to the table. I have already added a rubber v'groove clamped in place to reduce water volume. It was a scrap from my sluice project. I have some pics, and will post later.

 

[maui]

jack, looks good and thanks much for sharing.
all you guys come up with some great idea's and shareing them with us is appreciated.
take care and be carefull out there. ron

 

[AU Seeker]

Here are a few pictures of a commercial 1980 era "miller table" A.K.A slate table, note that it has very shallow and narrow grooves/drop riffles cut into the table and a expaned metal section at the end of the sluice, and also note that the water tube has the holes on the top and the water flows down around the tube before dropping onto the sluice, instead of the "jets" of water just dribbling or blasting onto the sluice bed thus getting rid of any bubbles.

Skip

 

[Jack Hamilton]

Thanks for sharing skip. I have a tile saw that would create those saw curfs. Just lift the cutting head and set the cut depth. Looks like 1/16" to an 1/8" max would suffice. I like making these trial versions before I commit to going full bore on any project. I made 2 sluices before my last one. I've made one drywasher(I'm happy with) but I have plans for an improved unit. Same goes for the miller table. Now that I have made a tester, and one of decent size along with your pics I think I have a pretty good handle on it. I suppose the expanded metal is for running larger material as a nugget trap maybe? Maybe you could expand on that, no pun intended I have used tester nuggs on my table, even almost round chunky balls and they dont even move. I have been under the impression this type of cleanup machine was for fines only. Maybe my water supply is insufficient at 100 gph?

 

[maui]

AU seeker, nice table, did you make it? also great pictures. how long is the table?
thanks much for sharing, take care and be safe out there. ron


jack, kinda of off subject but i assume that you are a tile and stone guy. ron

 

[Astrobouncer]

Thank you for the pictures Skip, that table is very nice. I was debating whether or not to add small grooves to my next table, as I noticed the small groove where the table ended tended to back up with all kinds of heavies (as long as the water flow was not too fast).

I like the idea to trickle the water out the top to reduce bubbles, though I haven't had a problem with bubbles on the current design. My original table was too small for the volume of cons I am bringing home.

Here's the amount of sluice cons I am bringing back from one trip. I need to be able to process 2-4 buckets in a timely manner. This picture is after I already worked another 5 gallon bucket that was half full, and brought all these back from Saturday. I run two sluices back to back and then I clean them up in their own buckets to see if the back one is catching gold. So far it has been though the gold is fine, -40 mesh.

 

[Jack Hamilton]

Ron I am a tile contractor. I work with ceramic, porcelain, granite marble slate etc, etc. What I have read, and have not done yet is round over the end of my table where the overburden washes off. The squared edge creates water tension that allows the overburden to stack up. Astro it looks as though you could just use sandpaper to do that to your table. I have granite tools and plan on rounding off the edge on mine this eve. I took a pic of the material stacking up. I will post a before and after once I have made the adjustment. Also, I have heard along with avoiding bubbles you want as flat a water flow as possible. I added a sheet of rubber that backs up the water in my feed box ever so slightly and the result is a nice flat plane of water with minimal variation in the ripples. Its flow is very constant and smooth. Wish I could do video.

 

[airborne1092]

Great job on the table.


A couple years ago, I was dreaming about makeing one very similar to yours - I thought I had a unique idea! lol I was an Army recruiter in North Idaho and wanted something to do on the weekends. My thinking was, I would load up dirt and riverbed sand throughout the week while 'working' and store it in my garage to sift through on the weekends.

Please allow me to share my concept and a recommendation or two with you;

I was going to build it similar to the one in AU Seeker's pictures. I wanted to get an old shopping cart (or flatbed from Home Depot) for transportability in and around my garage. I was going to get a 5 gallon bucket and cut it in half, height-wise. I would place my pump inside the bucket, and the bucket inside one of those large 30 gallon (or so) containers to mix concrete in. That way, the water level inside the larger container would spill over, into the 5 gallon bucket thus keeping most of the particles out of my pump. This container would go on the bottom of the shopping cart. The slide would go from the kid seat to the end of the cart, and the water would fall into the concrete mix container sticking out at the end and recirculate back up to the top at the handle. I would advise putting a screen 'stand-off' device under your pump intake, as I'm sure the fine grit and sand will ruin the pump over time.

Again, great job and awesome concept! let us know how well it works over time!

 

[AU Seeker]

I should have stated when posting the pictures that this is not my miller table, I wished it was, these pictures were post by someone several years ago on the Alaska Gold Forum, I'm not sure or nor do I remember if the person that posted the pictures is the owner or not.

I saved the pictures for ideas in building my own miller table, and I also post them whenever anyone is thinking about building a table to help with ideas in their builds.

If I ever run across one of these I will have it if at all possible.

I would guess the size of the table judging from other items in the pictures to be around 12" to 14" wide, and about 48" long, the grooves I would say are about 1/8" X 1/8" at max(saw blade width) but sizes in pictures can be deceiving, I think that this miller table was made to run somewhat larger material then what most would run on most homemade miller tables, hence the expanded at the end of the sluice, I think you could run most any size from -1/2" on down to very fine gold, as mentioned this table was a "Commercial Table" and sold as such, it is not a "homemade" table, if I had a table like this I would definitely classify and run the different sizes with the appropriate water flow according to the sizes rather than run dredge or stream sluice cons without classification.

Astro, I think a table of this size and design would run your amount of cons in very little time, using any miller table I would recommend constructing an "auto feeder" so it could be more of a "walk away" and do something else while to cons ran thru the table, this of course would require that the table setup and feed was correct for the sizes of cons being ran, I would use an auto feeder when using any kind of "cleanup" equipment whether it be a bowl, wheel, or any cleanup sluice, I don't like spoon feeding, too slow for me to just sit there.

Jack, a 100 GPH is not enough, I have several bilge pumps that I use, 500 GPH being the smallest and the biggest is 3000 GPH, get the largest pump you can afford and use a valve to control the flow, Wal-mart has some good deals on bilge pumps.

I have a diagram of a hose setup for a bilge pump that was posted on another forum to let the extra pressure go back into your reservoir, which keeps the back pressure when using a valve from putting to much load on your pump, which will make the life of your pump last longer, if I can find the diagram in my computer and I will post it.

Airborne, your idea will work great, I also use the double container system and it helps a lot in keeping the water cleaner, I would also recommend putting your pump in a nylon stocking to help screen the finer sediments from getting into your pump.

I also just recently saw a video of another "miller type table" that is just being put on the market for around $120 for the setup, it uses a special rubberized bed in the sluice and work very similar to a "slate/miller table", I will try to post the video, (well the video posted, I not sure why there are two of them!!! )

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