Hobbico Mat Miller Table Build

I'm not much of a videographer and this is my first attempt at movie making so please excuse the quality. This is a Miller Table I made out of a piece of melamine shelving, a Hobbico self healing mat and a couple of odds and ends I had laying around. Instead of the mat you can use chalkboard paint or truck bed liner spray paint and they will work almost as well. These tables work very well for separating gold from the black sands and other materials.

I wanted a smaller more compact table for processing cons that would take up very little room and could be used at home with a small fountain pump or out in the field with a battery powered bilge pump. This one is much larger than it needs to be but the mat was 12" x 18" and I decided to make it the same size as the mat so that I wouldn't have to cut it. This only needs about a 200 GPH pump to run and Harbor Freight sells 2 that work very well. A 200 GPH and a 264 GPH.

After I clean the cons out of my sluice I set this up and it will give me nice clean gold in a very short time and is much faster than the Blue Bowls and other similar machines. I have recovered -200 mesh and smaller with it.

UPDATE: Nov 25, 2015
I have just uploaded a new video for those who are interested in building one of these. It addresses a problem some of the folks have had with water leakage. You can find the new video here:

   • BUILDING A MILLER TABLE  

On the water bar, A "T" shaped water bar like is shown here gives the most even water flow across the table. Drill the holes 1/8" in diameter 1/2" apart. Point the holes so the water hits the back wall of the table just about where the floor and the back wall come together. Adjust the water smoothing board so there is about 1/16" gap underneath. I use a quarter to set the gap. This should give you a very smooth glass like flow.

To Run: Set the table to nearly level. Turn on the pump. Place a spoonful of material on the table and then adjust the nut on the elevation bolt till the light material just starts to move down the table. If you have black sand adjust the angle until it just starts to move down the table. This will be about the best angle to run this. You can put a valve on the water hose to help control the water flow as well. You can screen your cons to different mesh sizes and run each one separately and adjust the water flow and angle to work the best with each size. Use a brush to spread the material over the width of the table. When the gold comes in contact with the table it will stay where it makes contact. It can ride down the table on the lighter sand so it's important to spread the material out so the gold comes in contact with the table. I found that a basting brush with plastic bristles found in the cooking accessories part of your grocery store works best. The sand and gold won't stick to it.

You can also check out my other video where I show it in action.