Possible Home Depot sluice box materials

elgatodelnoche · Mar 5, 2014

I was recently browsing the Home Depot website for possible sluice box linings and came upon these possibilities. I thought I would share these and see what the opinions of others are about them.

Rubber linings:
Ribbed Rubber close spaced.

Wider spaced and more expensive ribbed rubber.

Outdoor Carpet:
Economical black outdoor carpet.

Correction: What I called rubber above is actually vinyl.

Jason in Enid · Mar 5, 2014

Depends on the sluice type, size, waterflow, etc for the ribbed rubber. I don't think I would ever use that carpet though.

wingmaster · Mar 5, 2014

I'm not sure the vinyl will hold the gold like rubber would, I would try and find some ribbed made from rubber instead of the vinyl stuff.

425jesse · Mar 9, 2014

I have seen those materials in person, and used to think the same thing, until I bought some and tested them. The vinyl does not grab the gold, it does slow down black sand, but the riffles in the matt are low, with slow sloped edges, and flat tops, they do not great the kind of exchange you will want. I purchased 4 or 5 different types of materials before I decided to save a little and get the right stuff. I took a 24" wide by 48" long metal surface, and glued each of these materials down to the surface. The shape of the Home Depot mats is kind of like _/ \___/ \___. The other materials I used were rubberized hall carpet runner, and vortex matting from a conveyer belt. The rubberized carpet liner had riffles had a shape like _/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\_. Much better, but still not deep enough for decent exchange. Vortex matting is great, and captures lots of 1/8 and smaller materials. Look on ebay or craigslist seattle for vortex matting if you are trying to find it cheap. If you feel like doing it right, however, save up and go for the gold hog mats. They really are all that everyone says they are!