DIY Miller Table Recovering A LOT Of Fine Gold From My Yard
DIY Miller Table Recovering A LOT Of Fine Gold From My Yard
And A Miller Table Explained
I converted my sluice box into a Miller Table quite easily by painting it and then roughing up the paint so it would not repel water so badly.
But first, what is a Miller Table?
A Miller Table is a fine gold recovery system using a very fine flow of water across a wide surface at a slow rate. The water gently flows over the entire surface of the table. When you put black sand and gold concentrates on the Miller Table, the gold is pressed flat to the table surface while the black sand rolls down and off the table at the lower end. For fine flour gold recovery there are not many systems which match the Miller Table.
I have been using the Blue Bowl gold recovery system for a while now but I have also seen fine flour gold fly right up the cone and down the center hole along with the black sands. Fine placer gold can catch the water flowing past and get swept away. I have read that the Blue Bowl is best with gold that is freed up from its native rocks while The Miller Table with its fine flow of water seems to keep the placer gold flat to the mat.
For my normal YouTube viewers who are reading this to learn new things, placer gold is what was deposited and left behind by melting glaciers. This is gold that was displaced and carried along with the glaciers for hundreds of miles from its original source. Everything in the path of the glacier was ground up into sand, rocks and boulders. The gold found in placer deposits is generally very fine and squashed flat in most cases. This flattened, pepper fine placer gold is what the Miller Table catches very well.
If you are crushing quartz and other rocks to release the native gold inside then you will likely prefer using the Blue Bowl gold recovery system. This gold will generally still be rounded in shape.
Buy The Miller Table Fine Gold Recovery System
My Budget Miller Table Conversion
Many of you reading this have found my article through my videos. Most of you have seen my homemade sluice box from the past summer. I got the idea of simply removing the sluice mats and using the box as a Miller Table.
I got some flat black weather resistant and UV resistant paint and applied three coats of paint to the sluice box table. I put a generous amount of paint into the gaps and cracks to seal them up and prevent leaking.
When that was dry I put some silicone sealant on the cracks to be extra sure there would be no leaks. Any leaks could mean a loss of gold later.
I built a box around the water outlet to prevent overspray and splashing and to help control the water flow a bit better. I also put a valve on the water input side to help control the water flow precisely.
On my first run of my homemade Miller Table, the water pooled away from the painted surface and flowed on one side or the other in rivers instead of covering the entire surface of the table. So I roughed it up some with steel wool which helped a lot. Now I have a good flow of water over the entire surface of the Miller Table.
I had classified (sifted) some of my back yard sand to 50 mesh and 100 mesh (holes per inch). I hand panned the larger stuff but I did not find any nuggets. I then hand panned the 100 mesh but I did not find any gold so I tossed that out. Then I panned the 50 mesh and did not find any gold. I got the idea of putting this onto the Miller Table and, to my surprise, I was finding gold. With each teaspoon of black sand concentrates from my gold pan, I found more fine flour gold. In the end I shut down the table and I could see a lot of tiny specks of gold. The gold is so fine and tiny there is no way I could have panned it out by hand.
So I have learned two things. First, my homemade Miller Table works! And second, there is a lot more gold in my back yard sand than I had originally thought. I can't believe how much gold I have been throwing away in the psat year. The Miller Table fine gold recovery really catches the placer gold and holds it there.
Now I have a sluice box for running a massive amount of material through. I can then remove the mats and I have a Miller Table. The concentrates from the sluice mats can be run directly on the table underneath to capture the fine flour gold.
About the Author
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Troy Reid |
