Shaker Table

[mu50stang]

I just bought the keene shaker table and can't figure this thing out for the life of me. Has anyone used this before. I'm getting most of my gold in port 1 but also alot of black sand. I try and re-run the black sand with the gold a second time with a little more slope and some of the gold goes into port 2 with the black sand and port 1 gets the same. I thought that port 1 was supposed to be all gold and no black sand. The instructions suck. Anything I have ever bought from Keene come with crappy instructions. Any help is appreciated.

 

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[TerryC]

In have never used a shaker table but have seen one in action. Elmer Stapleton, one of the owners of the Y Not claim near Stanton, AZ had one set up next to my RV slot. It was a WONDER to behold! He had the gold (with some black sand) going into the top port, blacksand in the middle, and brown sand in the bottom. WOW! All I can say his latch up with someone who uses one and DON'T GIVE UP! I know they are expensive so don't give up. TTC

 

[russau]

congratulations for stepping up to the plate with buying a table!! next, id try increasing the water flow a little at a time (at your current table tilt) to see if that improves your removal of the BS. all of the adjustments are with using the same cons. i wish i livedcloser to you!id come over to help you set it up!

 

[Chris In W Georgia]

I just bought the keene shaker table and can't figure this thing out for the life of me. Has anyone used this before. I'm getting most of my gold in port 1 but also alot of black sand. I try and re-run the black sand with the gold a second time with a little more slope and some of the gold goes into port 2 with the black sand and port 1 gets the same. I thought that port 1 was supposed to be all gold and no black sand. The instructions suck. Anything I have ever bought from Keene come with crappy instructions. Any help is appreciated.

I have and use the Rp4 table which is the same thing Keene sells as their table, I need more info on your setup,did you buy the frame also and is it bolted down to concrete,and what are you classifying to,how are you feeding it......ect .... Chris In W Georgia

 

[mu50stang]

Thanks russau, if your ever south of Chicago let me know. I bought the stand and have it bolted down to a concrete slab. Stand is level and so is the back of the shaker table from bolt to bolt. I've tried sloping it 1/16, 1/8, 1/4 and no luck. I didn't buy them pump but I'm using a 1400 gph pump. Not sure if this is enough for it. Im slowly spoon feeding it because I'm not sure where to get a good auto feeder or if its needed. All my cons are 1/16 and smaller.

 

[Chris In W Georgia]

Thanks russau, if your ever south of Chicago let me know. I bought the stand and have it bolted down to a concrete slab. Stand is level and so is the back of the shaker table from bolt to bolt. I've tried sloping it 1/16, 1/8, 1/4 and no luck. I didn't buy them pump but I'm using a 1400 gph pump. Not sure if this is enough for it. Im slowly spoon feeding it because I'm not sure where to get a good auto feeder or if its needed. All my cons are 1/16 and smaller.

An auto feeder is a must, I screen to 20 mesh and the fill the feeder and then once the table has enough cons I adjust it to take all the gold and heavies in cut 2 and the rest of the blacksand in cut 3 and all light waste goes off the bottom of the table about 2" from the bottom left corner,the key is to keep an even feed on the table at all times,also I use a 1200 gph pump with a valve to regulate water flow. Once all cons have been concentrated you can start off with just a little slope on the table and take all the gold and very little black sand in the 1st cut. It will take some time to get the feel for the table just make your adjustments slow and you be be amazed how small the gold it will catch... Hope this helps ya out some.....Chris In W Georgia

 

[mu50stang]

Thanks for the info. Where can I get an autofeeder from. Also on the first run, how much slope is needed.

 

[Chris In W Georgia]

Thanks for the info. Where can I get an autofeeder from. Also on the first run, how much slope is needed.

If you look at the Gold Screw auto feeder you could build one that's similar.. As far as the slope needed, that depends on your material, my cons have lots of magnetite so I run a fairly steep slope with a steady but slower feed and about a 1/2" wide flow of blacksand and all the gold drop into cut 2.

 

[russau]

Mustang, Chris has some good info! the auto feeder is so simple to make.all it is,is a container that has a small water supply going to it to SLOWLY wash the screened cons out at a specific rate to feed the material into what ever type of equipment you are using. it can be as simple as a 5 gallon bucket layed ove on its side. the one i made is out of alum. with adjustable (up-down-tilt)settingsand a 1/4 inch poly tube to gently spray water over the cons to feed them to my equipment. heres a addy to look over one of these. http://goldscrew.com/id6.html

 

[mu50stang]

I ended up changing the cheap valve that came with table due to the fact that I wasnt getting enough water flow. How high to you adjust your water. Also I put some jet dry in the water and get bubbles floating on the table if the pressure is to high. Should I leave the jet dry out.

 

[Sam Burgin]

Standing in front of the table, draw a line from the upper right corner of the deck to the middle of the 2nd nugget trap. If you will set-up your table so that there is a constant carpet of lights covering that area, you will be in the ballpark. Any less than that, you are starving the table, so change something – water, angle, or thru-put until you reach an equilibrium. The finer the materials, generally the flatter you need to run the table.

This table isn't suitable for temporary installations, it needs a fixed and solid base.

Feeding the machine from the front is a very wet affair. Run a 3 foot capped piece of 6 inch pipe cut on a diagonal with a simple hose feed in the cap and mount it to the back of the table. Fill up the feeder with material and a little water flow to move the material onto the table. It will drop material right on top of the screen. The little traps in the normal feed position are basically worthless.

The one thing that I see most people do incorrectly is the water that drips onto the table from the drip rail. Cut the water back until the drip nearest the upper right hand corner of the table is a steady, but a perceptible drip drip drip. This will allow the perfect amount of water for the left side of the table.

Don't forget to pan everything in your nugget traps when you clean up, and don't forget to wash under the rubber baffle at the top of the table.

Sam

 

[cwear]

What are the best type of shaker table to buy? We are looking at buy one.

Thanks
Chris

 

[Goodyguy]

I ended up changing the cheap valve that came with table due to the fact that I wasnt getting enough water flow. How high to you adjust your water. Also I put some jet dry in the water and get bubbles floating on the table if the pressure is to high. Should I leave the jet dry out.

Only takes 2-3 drops of jet dry to treat 5 gallons of water.




RP-4 OPERATING INFORMATION


All shaker tables must be firmly secured to a dense solid mounting base. Wooden stands will set up harmonics and vibrations. Dense concrete or solid bed rock is preferred or a heavy braced steel table sitting on concrete. Mount shaker table to solid bedrock when operating in the field. Vibrations or harmonics will have a negative effect on the concentrating action of the gold and a negative scattering effect. Global Mining shaker tables do not vibrate, they oscillate in a perfect smooth motion. If you want to save micron sized gold, remove all harmonics from the oscillating shaker table.


LEVELING


(Important) Do not level across or on top of the deck riffles. Place a level on top of the lower steel bar that extends between the two bolts that hold down the mounting feet. Use flat washers installed under either end of the mounting feet for precise level adjustment in the long axis. Horizontal slope of table will change by adjusting the T handle slope tilting screw. Adjust deck up or down for precise control of concentrate line.




DEFLOCCULANTS AND WETTING AGENTS


Use 65% soda ash, 25% sodium silicate and 10% sodium hexametaphosphate as a “DEFLOCCULANT”. Omit the phosphate if you are concerned with EPA. Union Carbide Tergitol surfactant should be used as a wetting agent. Check ph with litmus paper for ph 10 or more. Sometimes lime may be substituted for the deflocculant. Dissolve in a vessel for about an hour and then allow to settle into a clear solution. Add the clear lime solution as needed to recirculating water for maintaining a ph of 10. Lime will clear the water more effectively then soda but will not dissolve the clays as well. Liquid Dawn and Jet Dry work well also.


GOLD LOSSES


Pine oils and vegetation oils regularly coat the surface of placer gold. Sometimes up to fifty percent of the smaller gold will float to the surface and into the tails. The pine oil flotation method for floating gold is still in use today. A good wetting agent will aid in the settling and recovery of oil coated gold.


OPERATION OF THE RP-4 SHAKER TABLE
Separation of concentrate from tails


Minerals or substances that differ in specific gravity of 2.5 or to an appreciable extent, can be separated on shaker tables with substantially complete recovery. A difference in the shape of particles will aid concentration in some instances and losses in others. Generally speaking, flat particles rise to the surface of the feed material while in the presence of rounded particles of the same specific gravity. Particles of the same specific gravity, but varying in particle size, can be separated to a certain extent, removing the larger from the smaller, such as washing slime from granular products. Mill practice has found it advantageous in having the concentrate particles smaller than the tailing product. Small heavy magnetite particles will crowd out larger particles of flat gold making a good concentrate almost impossible with standard gravity concentrating devices. The RP table,using magnetics, overcame this problem and sends the magnetite into the tails, leaving the non magnetics to concentrate normally.


SIZING OF HEAD FEED MATERIAL


No established mathematical relationship exists for the determination of the smallest size of concentrate particle and the largest size of tailing particle that can be treated together. Other factors, such as character of feed material, shape of deck and volume of cross flow wash water will alter the final concentrate. Size of feed material will determine the table settings. Pulverized rod mill pulps for gravity recovery tables should not exceed 65-minus to 100-minus 95% except where specific gravity, size, and shape will allow good recovery. Recovery of precious metals can be made when processing slime size particles down to 500-minus,ifthe accompanying gangue is not so coarse as to require excessive wash water or excessive grade to remove the gangue to the tails. Wetting agents must be used for settling small micron sized gold particles. Once settled, 400-minus to 500-minus gold particles are readily moved and saved by the RP shaker table head motion. Over sized feed material will require excess grade to remove the large sized gangue, thus forcing large pieces of gold further down slope and into the middling. Too much grade and the fine gold will lift off the deck and wash into the tailings. Close screening of the concentrate into several sizes requires less grade to remove the gangue and will produce a cleaner product. A more economical method is to screen the head ore to screen size, 16-minus or smaller and rerun the middling and cons to recover the larger gold. This concept can be used on the RP tables and will recover all the gold with no extra screens. A general rule for good recovery is less grade for the table deck and as much wash water as possible without scouring off the fine gold. Re-processing on two tables will yield a clean concentrate without excess screening. Oversized gold that will not pass through screen size mounted on RP tables, will be saved in the nugget trap. On the first run, at least one inch or more of the black concentrate line should be split out and saved into the #2 concentrate bin. This concentrate will be re-run and the clean gold saved into the #1 concentrate pocket. Argentite silver will be gray to dull black in color and many times this product would be lost in the middling if too close of a split is made.


SCREEN SIZING OR CLASSIFICATION


Generally speaking, the riffled portion of a shaker table separates coarse non-sized feed material better than the un-riffled cleaning portion. Upon entering the non-riffled cleaning plane, small gangue material will crowd out and force the larger pieces of gold further down slope into the middling. Screen or to classify. The largest feed particles should not exceed 1/16 inch in size. It is recommended that a 16-minus or smaller screen be used before processing ¾ inch or smaller feed material, is factory installed onto screening devices. Perfect screen sizing of feed material is uneconomical, almost impossible, and is not recommended below 65-minus.




PVC WATER DISTRIBUTOR RP-4


The PVC distribution bar is pre-drilled with individual water volume outlets, supplying a precision water flow. Water volume adjustment can be accomplished by installing a 1” mechanical PVC ball valve for restricting the flow of water to the water distributing holes. The valve may be attached between the garden hose attachment and water distributing bar. More water at the head end and less water at the concentrate end is the general rule for precise water flow. More feed material will occupy the head end of the shaker table deck in deep troughs and less material will occupy the concentrate end on the cleaning plane. A normal water flow will completely cover the feed material over the entire table and flow with no water turbulence. A rubber wave cloth is installed to create a water interface and to smooth out all water turbulence. Bottom of water cloth must smoothing out all the water turbulence. Bottom of water cloth must contact the deck. A shallow turbulent water flow without the wave cloth, no deflocculant or wetting agent and excess table grade will wash the gold further down slope and into the middling. For the operation of the table, twelve to fifteen gallons of water per minute is required.


HORIZONTAL TABLE SLOPE
AVOID EXCESSIVE SLOPE AND SHALLOW TURBULENT WATER


For new installations, all horizontal grade/slope adjustments should be calculated measuring from the concentrate end of the steel frame to the mounting base. For fine gold, the deck should be adjusted almost flat. An example, fine feeds 200-minus or smaller will require 1/8 inch or less of slope for each foot of horizontal sloping table surface and coarse feeds will require up to horizontal sloping table surface and coarse feeds will require up to ¼ inch per ft. of slope. Slope or grade must not be so excessive as to cause the concentrate to be scoured out and washed too far down slope. For the RP table, ¼ inch down slope per running foot from level (measuring from the underside of the steel frame of the machine to the mounting base) will be a good starting point for most black sands operations. Maximum water with little grade should be used when processing very small gold particles. Excessive slope, shallow turbulent water and no wetting surfactant account for 99% of all gold losses when operating shaker tables.


CONTROL OF CONCENTRATE LINE


At some point on the concentrate end of the RP table, separation of middling and concentrate must occur. Small changes in the volume of feed material, wash water, deck slope and other factors will affect and change the concentrate line formed on the cleaning plane, thus requiring attention. A belt feeder for dry or commercial operations. Hand feeding is tedious and one can not feed at a continuous rate, which will cause the concentrate line to change continually. Deck horizontal slope/grade is used for the final control of the concentrate line and for accurate splitting of the concentrate. A slope T handle adjusting screw on the RP-4 and an automatic leveler on the RP-4 is located at the concentrate end of the table. The entire table assembly rotates, thus eliminating complicated splitting devices. Middling will always contain some values and should be re-run if operating at a high volume or the concentrate line was split too close. Save at least 1inch of the top concentrate line into the #2 concentrate pocket on the first run.


RP-4 NUGGET TRAP


A live bed nugget trap is molded into the tailings drain trough and will save all oversized gold that will not pass the submerged deck screen. The nugget trap should be cleaned periodically. When cleaning nugget trap, the wash water and table deck should continue to operate with the head feed material shut off. This will allow the nugget trap to clean itself of all tails gangue. After the remaining tails material has moved off and out of the nugget trap, stop the water and reciprocating action of the table. The remaining heavy material should be hand washed out of the nugget trap, into a gold pan or, etc., and inspected for values. Excessive slope overloading of feed material or no wetting agent during operations, will result in fine gold trapped in the nugget trap. Continued operation of the table with water, during cleanup of nugget trap without a protective cover of sand in the nugget trap, will result in some fine gold being scoured out of the nugget trap. Large gold nuggets will withstand the normal flow of water in the drain trough and will not be scoured out of the nugget trap.




CAUTION: Do not allow ABS top to stand in direct sunlight without water. Always keep covered and out of sun when not in use as heat may cause the deck to warp.


CAUTION: Do not lift or pull on the ABS plastic top, always lift using the steel frame.


CAUTION: Do not attach anything to the ABS plastic top. Do not attach pvc pipe to concentrate discharge tubes. Constant vibration from the excess weight will cause stress failure of the plastic.


WARNING: Do not reach or place hands under the machine when in operation as serious injury may occur due to exposed moving parts (pulleys, belts, spinning blades) and/or electrical terminals may cause shock.


WARNING: Do not remove ground plug or use any electrical outlet that does not have a properly grounded outlet. Serious electrical shock may result if not properly grounded.




MAINTENANCE


1. All bearings are sealed and no grease maintenance is required.
2. ABS deck should be periodically cleaned with hydrochloric acid (swimming pool acid) (do not use paint thinners or ketones. (Grease, gold, and tables do not mix)
3. A small amount of grease should be applied to the adjustable T handle which is used for changing the slope of deck.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Mustang, Chris has some good info! the auto feeder is so simple to make.all it is,is a container that has a small water supply going to it to SLOWLY wash the screened cons out at a specific rate to feed the material into what ever type of equipment you are using. it can be as simple as a 5 gallon bucket layed ove on its side. the one i made is out of alum. with adjustable (up-down-tilt)settingsand a 1/4 inch poly tube to gently spray water over the cons to feed them to my equipment. heres a addy to look over one of these. Gold Screw Feeder

For a better look at the Gold Screw automatic feeder, here is a video.

I suggest, as russau did, that you build your own; they think very highly of their feeder ($225).

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Goodyguy, as usual, you come up with great info. I am sure your information will help tremendously.

russau, you apparently have used the shaker table and I know you have used (and made) Miller tables. Given the price differential (over $2000 vs less than $100), I would guess the Miller table is a far better option. However, since I have never used a shaker table, is the actual recovery better? If the answer is yes, can you make up the difference in recovery on the Miller table simply running the tails again?

TIA, and anyone else with experience with both tables, please chime in.

 

[Goodyguy]

Goodyguy, as usual, you come up with great info. I am sure your information will help tremendously.

russau, you apparently have used the shaker table and I know you have used (and made) Miller tables. Given the price differential (over $2000 vs less than $100), I would guess the Miller table is a far better option. However, since I have never used a shaker table, is the actual recovery better? If the answer is yes, can you make up the difference in recovery on the Miller table simply running the tails again?

TIA, and anyone else with experience with both tables, please chime in.

Both do the same job but the shaker will run way more volume in way less time.
(my brother shares his RP4 wave table with me when I have gallons of cons to run)


GG~

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Both do the same job but the shaker will run way more volume in way less time.
(my brother shares his RP4 wave table with me when I have gallons of cons to run)


GG~

From my reading about the shaker table I thought perhaps that volume might be the main difference factor. My thought was a cheaper alternative might be to run your cons through a Gold Cube and then the Miller table; if you don't have the money to buy a shaker table, but have the time to run the cons.... Well, we often trade the time and money factor. Many of us make our own equipment due to that constraint. Also I know many make their own equipment because they want to know how it works and think they can make a better piece of equipment than they can buy anyway.

OK, it looks like we got an answer on the shaker table vs Miller table question; thanks Goodyguy--like I said you often contribute great information and ideas. (The rest of you feel free to chime in also).

So, to put a twist on the question, let's throw in a wave table. How does that compare? Anybody actually use, or have used, all three? If you build a wave table it is more expensive than a Miller table, but not nearly as much as a shaker table. I know bakergeol has done a very nice DIY wave table and shared his ideas on how to build one (check here on TN; it is also on other forums). I want to build one, but it is on the list of projects I intend to do when time is available.

 

[russau]

Well for me, I don't have the money for a wave or a shaker table OR the amount of cons to qualify the need for either! Plus im getting to old and beat up to do much more now-a-days! my Miller table works just fine for my amount of cons that I get and its well inline with my budget! plus I don't have the space for more equipment. time to sell it off because of my back/knees/ankles!

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Well for me, I don't have the money for a wave or a shaker table OR the amount of cons to qualify the need for either! Plus im getting to old and beat up to do much more now-a-days! my Miller table works just fine for my amount of cons that I get and its well inline with my budget! plus I don't have the space for more equipment. time to sell it off because of my back/knees/ankles!

My wife says I should sell my equipment off too, because she is going to trash it all when I die. Though I am starting to have some back, knee and ankle problems (mostly due to football when I was younger), I am not dead yet nor too bad off to get in the creek again this year.

 

[bakergeol]

I must be getting old. I answered the wrong shaker table thread. NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR TABLE. Remember
it is a displacement table. Gold displaces the black sand. For small amounts of gold you will never get a clean con.
Yes a lot of the very fine gold goes into the middlings. A lot of folks run their final cons thru a miller table.
I used to own a RP4 table and sold it for the above reason. It works just fine if you have ounces of gold but for small
amounts of gold-No you will not get a clean con. That's why I own several wave tables.




George