# Building a shaker table?



## Jaxom

Unlike the lucky ones in a thread below, I cannot afford to lay out the cost of buying a shaker table. I've been doing some research, this is a very doable project of you have even a modest amount of mechanial/carpentry skills. Having spent a few hours googling, I came across this site... 

http://gpex.ca/smf/index.php?topic=91.0

This gives an example of a small portable hand powered shaker table one could build using some old bicycle parts and a few misc pieces of hardware. I can't find where I put the link, but I've also seen additonal home brewed shakers that are motorized as well. 

Either way the mechanics are simple. Using either a motor or by hand, you shove the table sideways, then "snap" it back. The thin sheet of water flowing over the table washes away any lighter material that "jumps" during the snaping action. Or at least that's the way some have described the action as being. So while I understand in principal how it works, there is one thing I have yet to figure out. 

And that's the angle of the riffles. You'll notice in the hand opperated table, the riffles run straight across. Where as the "professional" modles angle them. I figure, keene and other companies have done the research, there must be a reason why they angle the riffles like that above and beyond being a convient way of sorting the fines as they flow across/down the table. It looks to me like a very shallow angle, say of 15-20 degrees from being square to the edge. Anyone have a table that you may care to share what angle the riffle would work best at?

My other question is the size of the riffles. Sadly, I don't live in one of the major gold belts in America, I'm just outside of Chicago. Any gold found around here or neighboring states will all be placier/alluvial gold that was dragged down out of canada during the last ice age. What folks on the coats call flour gold we concider nearler pickers! LOL Gold around here is more like talc then it is like flour. What little is mentioned about riffles in some of what I've read about building a shaker table, one person said he used 1/8" wood strips placed 1" apart. 

Concidering what I said about the gold in these parts, would I be better off using smaller riffles or perhaps placing them closer together? Or even a combination there of? Any other suggestions or comments about building my own shaker table? I've a few ideas for a "shock absorber" but I'm open to any other ideas...


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## shyknee

i have no experience with shaker tables
but i am envisioning a battery powered sawzall (hacksaw) for the mechanizum :| :?:


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## butcher

there is a guy who made one a shacker sluice with sawzaw. thought I saw it on the forum?


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## Anonymous

Wasting your time with a sawzall, the reciprocating motion is way to fast for a shaker table.

To have a successful table you need to have total control over the table's motions and water supply, for each type of feedstock fed into the table you will have to adjust the angle of the table and the motion and water supply to suit the material. 

Adjusting the table and water supply should take no more than 10 minutes.

From the PDF file below you can figure out the gear ratios and rpm's to adapt to an electric version.

Best Regards
Gill


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## Oz

I had thought for some time that if I were to build a shaker table I would want more vibration than shake. What I had in mind was resting the “table” on a DC motor. The motor is not connected as in using the shaft on an eccentric but just using the vibration of the motor. To give control of the vibration an iron wheel is mounted on the shaft with a threaded hole drilled on the outside diameter. You can then screw a bolt fully in for limited vibration, the farther you back the bolt out the greater the vibration. You also have the option of changing the oscillation rate with a speed control for the motor. With these 2 controls you can dance the gravimetric effects to suit the ore you are running for optimal separation.

It goes without saying that as gustavus pointed out water flow and angle is very important. More important still is that all material is well classified to fall between 2 screen sizes as to grain size.


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## AlanInMo

Jaxom

I own a ST1 shaker table from Keene, if you need close-up/detailed pictures uploaded just let me know which part you're curious about..



And the idea of a sawsall seems possible on a small homemade table as long as the sawsall has a variable speed trigger (electric model would be best).. You'll need a heavy base to mount the table on (even a small shaker) so creek side use wouldn't be a good idea... mounting small bubble levels on the end and side of the table (after you find it's sweet spot) and a low pressure gauge on the water supply right before it spills onto the table will give you a quicker starting point on future runs if you do in fact build it to be portable.. 8)


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## Anonymous

Oz said:


> I had thought for some time that if I were to build a shaker table I would want more vibration than shake. What I had in mind was resting the “table” on a DC motor. The motor is not connected as in using the shaft on an eccentric but just using the vibration of the motor. To give control of the vibration an iron wheel is mounted on the shaft with a threaded hole drilled on the outside diameter. You can then screw a bolt fully in for limited vibration, the farther you back the bolt out the greater the vibration. You also have the option of changing the oscillation rate with a speed control for the motor. With these 2 controls you can dance the gravimetric effects to suit the ore you are running for optimal separation.
> 
> It goes without saying that as gustavus pointed out water flow and angle is very important. More important still is that all material is well classified to fall between 2 screen sizes as to grain size.



The idea of using vibration a good one, your eccentric on the motor not so good .

Your motor with a counterweight gives a circular motion such as that used on a lapidary lap for polishing slabs. Using this type of system you'll loose control of the table's longitude direction of your feedstock.

All the reciprocating motion from the table does is keep the feedstock loose while washing it towards the end of the table, the heavies work their way over the riffles.

Once you have your angle and water flow to where your satisfied the next trick is adjusting the flow of the feedstock, too fast and your material will not separate on the table.

It's a good idea to recirculate your waste water, this way you will collect any possible float material the second time around, a bit of dish soap won't hurt either.

For some reason the shaker table pdf file did not upload, here it is again.


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## Oz

Perhaps I did not describe it well. The only way the table is connected to the motor is by it resting on the motor housing. The adjustment of the eccentric only changes how much the motor is out of balance and thus the amount of vibration given.


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## butcher

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://nevada-outback-gems.com/design_plans/DIY_shaker_table/shaker_table01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://nevada-outback-gems.com/design_plans/DIY_shaker_table/shaker_table.htm&usg=___WH2KXLTlm4v5rl2iVKgTxytP-c=&h=314&w=550&sz=40&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=pvy4UvCl71MAWM:&tbnh=76&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dshaker%2Bgold%2Bsluice%2Bbox%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

how about bouncing over riffles with ultra sonic capacitors? maybe bounce heavies and gold uphill and let trash flow trash dounhill?


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## drifter_046

Heres a couple of more links to diy shaker tables

lots of good info on building here, I disagree with his views on the flex supports though. 
http://64.172.168.34/neatstuff/shaker-tables-1.pdf

heres a link to the one i built, does well.
http://gpex.ca/smf/index.php?topic=2391.0


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## Richard36

Use an electric vibrating sander with the cons platform mounted firmly to the sandpaper mounting pad, and the sander housing firmly mounted stationary. The table will vibrate,the heavies will settle out in the grooves, and the tailings will wash away.

I have built a few with back and forth motion, and they did not do well, they lose as much as they collect, at least the ones I built did. The back and forth motion was way to violent, and the sawsall would be just as bad, if not worse, though a great idea at first thought. I tried that method. It didn't work.

The factory tables that I have looked at photos of use a "Harmonic Balancer" system similar to the system described by "OZ".

Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".


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## Platdigger

So, do you slant the table slightly so the heavies run out the groves and run the water flow diagonal
to wash the lights off the end?
Or do you run the water perpendicular to the grooves?


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## Richard36

Platdigger said:


> So, do you slant the table slightly so the heavies run out the groves and run the water flow diagonal
> to wash the lights off the end?
> Or do you run the water perpendicular to the grooves?



The tables that I built had 1 inch of drop for every 2 feet of length.
The table surface was lined with black ribbed rubber matting.
I tried it with the ribbs crossing the flow of water at 90 degrees.
(Ribbs running at a 75 to 80 degree angle would probably be better.)

I would run my material, move my tailings container, 
Then rinse the heavies out with a stream of water into another catch container.

I have not built one with the table at a slant to drain the heavies off to the side into a catch trough.

My plans for my next table will be an experimental model built with riffles and matting like a SluiceBox, 
with the Ribbed material under the matting to increase recovery.
I migh even put a sheet of magnetic sign material on the underside of the table so that I could recover the magnetic portion of the sand that crosses it, considering that most PGM'S associated with Black Sands are contained within the Magnetic portion.

I hope that this has been helpfull.

Sincerely, Rick. "The Rock Man".


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## Platdigger

Actually Richard, I was asking about your vibrating table were the heavies shake down into the grooves.

You had said: "Use an electric vibrating sander with the cons platform mounted firmly to the sandpaper mounting pad, and the sander housing firmly mounted stationary. The table will vibrate,the heavies will settle out in the grooves, and the tailings will wash away."


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## Richard36

I did not design my table to seperate the cons off into a seperate trough on the side of it.
It was designed to settle the heavies into the groves until the grooves got full, then stop the feed, and rinse the heavies off the table into a seperate catch container for the cons, so that I could process, or assay them.

The table was (I no longer have it.) at a slight slant for water to flow over it so that the light valueless sand washed away, 
and the heavies settled out in the grooves.

If the angle of the slant, and tilt of the table were adjusted correctly, with the grooves on the table surface at around an 85 degree angle to the flow of water, then it probably would be possible to adjust the table to discharge the lights as tailings, and the heavies to drain off into a catch trough that drains into a catch pan, or other container system.

I hope that this has been helpful.

Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".


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## Platdigger

Yea, that was my point. Sounds like it should be tried.... 8) 

How deep were the grooves?


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## Richard36

The grooves were 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch deep.
It worked well for Black sands, 
but not so well for sulfides, which is what I had built it for.

The surface material that I used was that black ribbed indoor/outdoor mat material.
I bought mine at Home Depot.

It is the same material that is now being sold to put in a sluice, or dredge under the miners moss to increase recovery of fine gold.

I'll probably have to build a froth floatation tank out of a 55 gallon drum to achieve a simple method of extracting sulfide concentrates.

Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".


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