I've recently been on a hunt for some way to further refine the black sand concentrates I bring home from sluicing or panning or other methods. A half bucket of heavy black sand super cons and gold mixed in takes forever to pan out. So. Here's what I've tried so far.
(Disclaimer. These things might work great for many. These are just my experiences.)
California Bucket Sluice Concentrator. 
(lightweight thin plastic form). Inexpensive. About $30 plus shipping.
Hose is barely long enough and keeps popping out when flow is reduced no matter how tight I wiggle it down.
Black sand cons quickly filled up the rib shapes along with the gold then everything just swept through. Increased flow cleaned out the ribs better but also took out gold. Adjusted flow and slope different ways but still limited results. I finished panned the tailings. Same as what was in the gizmo. Didn't work well for me. Maybe it's for blonds and larger bits. Or, maybe it's to reduce material down to black sand cons and that's about it.
Micro Clean Up Sluice Jr.
Very innovative. Everything fits in a bucket. About $130 plus shipping.
Comes with extra parts which is nice. Square mesh metal over rubber rib mat. Plastic sluice tray.
Metal cross clips and plastic tubing over the metal mesh quickly plugs up with black sand. I tried taking the clips off and also the mesh. It worked better. Kinda like a miller table with rubber ribs. Works very well with very small gold to fine mesh. But flour gold will wash out and if flow or slope is reduced then it will plug up quickly with black sand. Maybe Dirt Hogg matts will work better. Will try that later.
Needs to be cleaned out often because it does not work well as the ribs fill up. If flow or slope is increased then that will increase losses. Larger gold that doesn't fit in the ribs will wash out. I finished pan the tailings and got some fine gold but not too much. I'd like to try this with some extra Gold Hog matting that I have and see how it does with super black sand cons. Maybe it will exchange better and not plug up so badly and quickly. The idea of "mounting" the pump in foam so it floats away from the slurry is a good one. This might be a cool rig to do on site sampling as it all fits in a 5 gallon bucket and doesn't need much water to work. Just fill the bucket and then turn the pump on.
Black Magic Miller Table 
About $105. This works for most gold but not flour gold. The slope and rate of flow adjusted for flour gold does not wash away fine black sand. For larger gold it works fine and as advertised but painfully slow. Like the Blue Bowl, the flow has to be adjusted constantly according to what is happening on the table to get best results. Super fine black sand cons give it a hard time if there's flour gold mixed in. Reduced flow and slope works some for that but did I say it was slow? Might be the answer for those that do not enjoy finish panning. I'm not sure how other "miller tables" with different finishes work so this is not a comparison. Also, some shapes of gold like thin flakes will catch the current and wash out.
Blue Bowl 
About $130. This works well for most gold but not flour gold or light thin flakey gold because the current that is enough to wash fine black sand away will also lift that type of gold as well as flour and micro gold. They wash out and the micro black sand stays. Larger gold bits are okay. The Blue Bowl has a severe learning curve as far as techniques to adjust the rate of flow as well as how to manipulate the currents. It also has to be watched very closely and adjusted according to what is happening. It is not a walk away and forget machine. In the hands of an expert with a lot of patience this is a great machine. But, it is somewhat slow.
Gold Rush Nugget Bucket (classify and concentrator)
About $110. One bucket of material run through. Heavy Arizona black sands, clay, and river gravel. Bottom catch bowl fills up quickly with heavies and then everything coming down flows out through the sides. The catch bowl was surrounded by a mound of black sand while heavy clays gunked up the inside of the bowl where the "gold ring" was supposed to show up, or at least heavier gold. Nope. Cheaper to preclassify with regular pan classifiers and run the result through a garett supersluice pan. The cons will be cleaner and definitely way way less loss of fine gold. I contacted the sellers and their customer service was outstanding. They reminded me to fill the catch bowl with pebbles to prevent cons blowout. I had indeed tried all kinds of combinations but it still got overwhelmed with heavy black sands and clay, typical to prospecting in the Bradshaw Mountains. The vendors gave me a full refund which was great. They will be coming out with a model with a deeper bowl soon. Will keep you posted.
Finish Panning the Regular Way
ProLine 14 " green wide bottom gold pan and blue Falcon finish pan and a small white dish tub from Walmart. (and jet dry)
Less than $25. This works everywhere, doesn't need a pump or batteries, just good eyes and patience. With a safety pan, losses are near zero.
I didn't include the Gold Cube because I'm messing around with ways to clean up the concentrates after the Gold Cube gets done. Although the 4 deck gold cube is so outstanding that there's not much to do after except pan it out depending on the material run thru it.
I'm glad I didn't waste too much money on these gadgets. They are fun to mess with but in the long run tried and true methods work best as long as one takes the time to get skilled at it. Pan and more panning. That's about it.
Interested in what others are doing to streamline the process. Any tips?
Thanks, AlohaJim
Replies
Well my experience with the miller table was the same. I Watched the gold fly off untill I found out the pump is adjustable and turned the water down. Now it works like it's suppose too. I almost gave up on it untill I did some research most of them have a small dial on them to adjust the water flow mine was full open. Just throwing that out there just in case anyone has experienced the same thing.
blue bowl comment the bowl works great on flour gold the TRICK is classification for flour and fine gold use a 50 or 100 mess screen to work your material down then from the top of the bowl mark 1 inch down inside the bowl with a black marker keep the water flow rate at that level no higher and walla you have your gold. i learned this trick from rob gorham he owns 49er mining supplies in cali. and is a miner as well hope this trick helps
member gpaa, new49ers, world museum of mines, plp, wma, last chance gold miners, also fabricator of small scale mining equipment , DAV
I actually like the Tom & Perry mini cleanup sluice. It is simple, cheap and does an excellant job. It comes with a strainer to prescreen cons. It really gets some very fine flower gold and I have not found any lost gold when I rerun my cons from safety pan. I really only need to pan what does not pass through the sifter. While it is not fast it is sure and is faster and easier than panning for the really small stuff. Then I just snuffer it up. While it is not more than plastic gutter and ribbed rubber matting it is priced cheap enough that buying parts and spending time to make one may be not worth it in the bigger scheme of things.
Great post thank you...I pretty much do most of mine with a finish pan
I like this thread for cleanup suggestions. Hopefully it keeps going
I am a hugh supporter/reseller of the gold cube. I have only 1 time run enough super concentrated beach sand from Nome to have more than a cup of super concentrates from the cube. My Buddy and I found a hot spot at Cripple River GPAA gold camp back in 2011 or 2012. We ran about 70 or so five gallon buckets through the new beach banker units that were provided. We ran cleanouts every 10 or so buckets because the concentrates were full of gold. When we were done we took our tote up to the cleanup shack and ran through the gold cube. We even had gold in the top tray which was cool. After running our concentrates I took the trays outside and several people were there watching me as they had not seen a Gold Cube work before. When I hit the trays with the hose there was so much gold that the gold looked like water running. We ran the concentrates again and not much was caught. But there was some. We both walked away with almost an ounce of gold from that day. Wish we had stayed with it a couple more days but we went and played after all it is called a vacation, right? So long story short. I have sold a LOT of Gold Cubes. Nothing I have come across cleans up the cons as well. When I use it here at home I only have maybe 6 to 10 five gallon buckets of material classified down to 1/8th for the Gold Cube. So my Super concentrates are only maybe a cup at best out of the gold cube. And I just pan them out. I do still have about 2 + gallons of black sands from Nome that I need to go through just to be sure but just been too lazy.
Not so much a cleanup tool but produces smaller amounts for easier cleanups:
My new tool that impresses the heck out of me is the GoldFoxUSA 5” mini trammel appropriately called Lil Monster. Man that thing works like a champ. I have only used it recirculating in a 50 gallon livestock watering tank but it sure works well. I have feed it with a scoop out of 5 gallon buckets and even when in a area with not a lot of large rock shoveled straight into the hopper. I have recovered -100 mesh gold in the Gold Hogg matting that it comes with. No big pickers yet but where I have been working is not a known nugget/picker area. I have only run maybe 8 or so buckets before a cleanout and my concentrates are about 1/3 of a cup of material. Again I just pan it all out. Here is a link to a video I made. I didn’t do any talking in this video as I wanted folks to be able to just see the workings of the trommel. How easy it is to run and do cleanups from. http://www.goldprospectorsspace.com/video/goldfoxusa-lil-monster-5i...
I have great great sucess in getting real fine gold with a Catch It II Water Table I got from Carolina Prospectors in Statesville, NC. Bill is a great guy to deal with. I use mine outside in the sunlight or inside with two shop lights shining on it. It holds all gold.. micro, flour, even pickers. I get tiny gold I've never even see before.
The GoldFox looks awesome. I like the Gold Hogg Matting setup. You're right, so far nothing brings material down to con' level like a 4 deck Gold Cube. thanks. AlohaJim