Has anyone built a dry sluice box using a bass speaker at low frequencies?

Sure...it's possible. But, calculate the weight of material, plus the weight of the empty sluice, and then figure out how much power (volume) it would require to cause the material to fluidize. If it doesn't fluidize, the heavies don't settle.
Jim
 

Sure...it's possible. But, calculate the weight of material, plus the weight of the empty sluice, and then figure out how much power (volume) it would require to cause the material to fluidize. If it doesn't fluidize, the heavies don't settle.
Jim

I'm sure it's been tried. My dad mentioned gold rises at a certain frequency in a speaker cone.
Sounds like a fun project to experiment with. Less moving parts & those thump/plastic cone speakers are tough.
You could sluice to a rap beat!!!

Actually the speaker would be more of a transducer.
 

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I'm sure it's been tried. My dad mentioned gold rises at a certain frequency in a speaker cone..
That would depend on the angle of the cone, the shape of the gold, and the type of surrounding material....lots and lots of variables.
Jim
 

Good way to burn out a perfectly good speaker!

I have seena light wind load a 15" driver to the point that it will burn the voice coil. Any time a motor stalls it draws incredible current.

<--FOH audio engineer and pro audio rental company.

Good in theory, but bad in practice. Try a rotory motor vibrator and speed control.
 

Entirely plausible recovery method, I plan to mess around with it a bit when I get time. You dont need to have material IN the cone to benefit from acoustic separation... remember sound waves travel through mediums, like your sluice box and the material in it. The real question is will you require low frequency tones or not, if you do it could be tough to keep up with power requirements.
 

Just thought of something...

Might try a thumper. It's a driver that mounts to a drum stool and vibrates the stool so the drummer can feel the thump of the kick drum. Hooks up to a standard audio power amp. You wouldn't be able to load it down like a cone, and also wouldn't have high audio levels to deal with.

This is clamp-on version. Other ones may bolt or screw on.
Pearl Throne Thumper | Musician's Friend
 

Entirely plausible recovery method, I plan to mess around with it a bit when I get time. You dont need to have material IN the cone to benefit from acoustic separation... remember sound waves travel through mediums, like your sluice box and the material in it. The real question is will you require low frequency tones or not, if you do it could be tough to keep up with power requirements.

Thats what I had in mind, bolting it underneath. My dad mentioned the cone only to show gold goes uphill at a certain freq.
 

Just thought of something...

Might try a thumper. It's a driver that mounts to a drum stool and vibrates the stool so the drummer can feel the thump of the kick drum. Hooks up to a standard audio power amp. You wouldn't be able to load it down like a cone, and also wouldn't have high audio levels to deal with.

This is clamp-on version. Other ones may bolt or screw on.
Pearl Throne Thumper | Musician's Friend

Never heard of a thumper, I have 2 Roland drum sets.
 

Just thought of something...

Might try a thumper. It's a driver that mounts to a drum stool and vibrates the stool so the drummer can feel the thump of the kick drum. Hooks up to a standard audio power amp. You wouldn't be able to load it down like a cone, and also wouldn't have high audio levels to deal with.

This is clamp-on version. Other ones may bolt or screw on.
Pearl Throne Thumper | Musician's Friend

Sticking a home audio 50 watt transducer on your sluice box would be a lot more effective / cheaper.
 

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