From Miller Table to the end of a season

[Jeff95531]

Well my sunny day arrived right on time Tue morn at 7:45 or so. In my excitement of seeing sunny skies a'coming...I forgot to read the fine print on TWC. I awoke and checked the outside temp at 8 and it was 32 with a good dose of humidity and sustained winds of 10 to 15 mph out of the North. So I waited till noon and 44.

I wore my tennis shoes like I always do. Soaked my feet right away like I always do...even tho I have water proof boots right there and even tho I was certain that a table top sluice couldn't possibly get me soaked. Spoiler...look closely at the last two pics (when the 20 minutes of sun came thru the trees) for signs of my equipment failures and the result of me putting off maintenance till the very last use of the year. Side note: The Miller Table works great but the pump has never been quite right. That said...and me learning what the pump can and cannot handle has taught me a lot. I will likely upgrade the pump for next season and ensure it can handle 1) me only classifying down to 20 AND 2) some sort of filter. The current pump chokes on a knee high.

Anyway here's some pics I was able to take in my 4 hour day/shot at finishing up. Unfortunately the total is still too dirty to show off but will finish it up and post here when I can. (It is stormin like crazy here...the wind makes it sound as if the river is right outside our door...good thing it ain't...an RV park down the road from us has been w/o power for 4 days...rivers gonna flood again...and they're saying wait till you see Monday!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmnNGps1zo&feature=youtu.be



my clean up from my last few samples

The time capsule ID gold



The sun came out and so did the leaks.

 

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[Jeff95531]

Hey Dizzy, remember the empty lot across the street from Eller's?

 

[goldenIrishman]

Well Jeff, I have to say you've done a lot of learning this last season. You've had a few setbacks but you've used them to learn even more. Your attitude has remained good through out it all and you've gotten Gold. All in all I'd have to say you've done good Grasshopper! Now... Next season we want to see you quadruple your take because I know you're gong to be researching new areas you can hit and learning more recovery tricks.

 

[Hoser John]

The life of a miner is definitely a school of hard knocks....and frozen toes as it just rips here in Redding YAHOO. John

 

[nh.nugget]

JEFF YOU DID IT!!! See a pile and not a steamer! Way to go! Try not to get washed AWAY! LOL!

 

[DizzyDigger]

Hey Dizzy, remember the empty lot across the street from Eller's?

Looking a bit soggy down there Jeff..but know that this too shall pass...

We've degraded into wetter, colder days now, and it'll probably stay that way
until about mid-June. Temps in the low 30's, maybe getting up to 40 in the daytime,
and liquid sunshine falling by the bucket. 33F. and raining keeps me inside my shop
with the heater going all day...no place for man nor beast outside.

I'd be much happier with 5 degrees and snow, cause going out in this there's
no way to stay completely dry, and hypothermia is waiting just right around the
corner.

That looks like some nice gold you got there...and it ain't mica...

 

[Jeff95531]

It stopped raining from 9 am to 6 pm today. Felt good to be outside again. Took task to the grizzly on the high banker and cleaned it out good. Panned it all down and found none, so a good thing I quess. I removed the never used gate valve assembly so I can downsize the pipe a bit and hopefully up the flow some. Also need to sand and re-stain the frame next spring. Since this time I'm not building it, just maintaining, I'll spring for Thompson's and maybe get more than a couple of years out of it. Oh yeah, I got my second replacement trowel from Fiskar in the mail today. They sent the first thru UPS to my box# Another story for another time BUT Fiskar came thru in 30 days and x2.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Hummmm.... You sure you're thinking right on that plumbing Jeffro? Downsizing the pipe for more flow sounds like Military and intelligence to my line of thinking. Maybe you should call me when ya have some time. I'm free all weekend.

 

[Jeff95531]

Yeah I was afraid of somebody tagging me for saying that. What I should have said is I hope to improve flow and reap some benefit that was lacking before. Much like smoothing air flow to an engine. Do something better than stock and hopefully get some benefit from it.

This...




NOT this




Cost for upgrade $6.01

Additional benefit...hose connection is now a snap with the 3" pipe slide together coupling.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Ahhh... So in other words you wanted it ported and polished? Have you put it on the dyno yet? Yes.... 3,438.5 comedians out of work and I'm putting in an application!

 

[Jeff95531]

I just saw the coming weather forecast (easy enuf...100% rain next four days) and have just been informed we are getting out of the house now! 2 Hours to work with and I of course said ok but didn't tell her I was doing research just this morning at the snow line on a new to me, successful old and not so long ago old placer mine and maybe I can work it in. I'll call ya as soon as I get back or tomorrow Jeff.

 

[Jeff95531]

Holy crap. Just got home from a three hour cruise. I found my Area 2 along the way and it was nearly dark. Problem is (like always) the FS gate mandates a 2 mile hike to get to my final destination. So...I hiked in a bit and took a sample from a feeder creek to a feeder creek. I found a deep hole in the stream, took a gallon jug that had been cut out like a scoop (used for black berry picking) cleared out the big rocks, scooped and dumped into a plastic coffee can and back to the truck. Got home and dumped the sample into the super sluice pan. Some didn't come out no matter what so I filled it with hot water and poured all of it into the small pan. Twelve colors (small but there) in a teaspoon of material! Yes! 12! From a sample almost two miles from the source?!! I couldn't believe it...showed Karen, confirmed.

OMG right? Can''t wait to pan the unclassified stuff in the big pan...but I'm starving and gotta eat. Check your pm Jeff

Land Matters rocks!

 

[goldenIrishman]

Don't ya just love it when you can sneak up on Mother Nature and win a round in this game of hide and seek for a change? WTG Grasshopper!!!! You do know of course that we expect to see some pics of the take man.

PMs read and will be looking at the info you sent shortly.

 

[delnorter]

Nice gold Jeff. Looks like you're getting that miller table dialed in good.

I hope we can get together soon to run some of my concentrates. Not much material really. I have already removed the magnetic material and screen it to various mesh so it should be pretty quick.

With these storms, today is the first day I've had off from work in a while. 13 days straight and quite a few of them 12 hour days. There's more stormy weather on the way. Hoping to get Christmas off at least.

Mike

 

[Jeff95531]

Well I got a good portion of the sample panned and...more of the same. Tiny minus 40 that looks good only to it's finder. I did try a couple times for pics but just too small for the phone and couldn't master thru the magnifying glass either. Got a bit more left over to pan then just add it to the pile for the final panning and photo.

 

[AzViper]

Hi Jeff,

Looks like you have been recovering some gold. How is the Miller Table working for you now that you had a season to play with it?

 

[Jeff95531]

It works super good Keith! Only problem was the pump picking up sand and plugging up the pad. I cut out a plastic coffee can and set the pump inside it. Solved!

 

[nh.nugget]

Hey Jeff! Have you tried suspending your pump in your water supply? Getting it up off the bottom helps. one of my pumps had a foam filter it was a coarse foam so the water would go through but not the dirt worked good.

 

[goldenIrishman]

A box made out of window screen wil also work well Grasshopper.

 

[Jeff95531]

A box made out of window screen wil also work well Grasshopper.

Yep and it sure didn't like the knee high I tried on it. Course... I hate to see em too and they're as rare as hen's teeth anyway sooo.