Which sand is best to fill speaker stands?

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The Atabites are great and if anyone wants some (and lives near Northwood) I've got a spare tub and a half (enough to fill a set of Auroras) that I'm happy to re house for a beer or two
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gpi

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welshboy:gpi:welshboy:

I'd be careful of the sand sold to set block paving. (It's designed to be a brush in product that locks the paving together.) Due to it's intended use it can tend to clump and be hard to remove.

It did the job perfectly for me. I can't see a time I'm ever going to empty the stands and they are sealed (so no air or moisture will make the sand 'clump or adversely affect it') so job done. I think some people are reading into this too much.

If it works for you then that's great. I won't bore you with the chemistry and physics which relates to what I said earlier. If starting from scratch I'd still use silver sand if sand is the chosen filler and I'd oven dry it myself as well. I am sure that those products made specifically for this task are also a good choice.

Thankfully I use floorstanders so I don't have this problem.

Ah go on go on go on, I could do with a good bore on a Sunday afternoon.
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What did I do wrong with the block paving sand, bearing in mind I get less damp weather than you in Wales and my Target HR60 stands are now air-sealed?
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gpi:welshboy:gpi:welshboy:

I'd be careful of the sand sold to set block paving. (It's designed to be a brush in product that locks the paving together.) Due to it's intended use it can tend to clump and be hard to remove.

It did the job perfectly for me. I can't see a time I'm ever going to empty the stands and they are sealed (so no air or moisture will make the sand 'clump or adversely affect it') so job done. I think some people are reading into this too much.

If it works for you then that's great. I won't bore you with the chemistry and physics which relates to what I said earlier. If starting from scratch I'd still use silver sand if sand is the chosen filler and I'd oven dry it myself as well. I am sure that those products made specifically for this task are also a good choice.

Thankfully I use floorstanders so I don't have this problem.

Ah go on go on go on, I could do with a good bore on a Sunday afternoon.
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What did I do wrong with the block paving sand, bearing in mind I get less damp weather than you in Wales and my Target HR60 stands are now air-sealed?
AddEmoticons04269.gif


You seem to have taken some offence to the original comment I posted. If that is so I readily appologise to you.

As to why I said what I said - well you asked so here goes:

Sand - most sand available in the Uk is dredged or dug out of pits and sold to builders more or less as is. (It's true sea sand has a bit of a wash first). This meant that the sand is contaninated with mineral salts. That's part of the reason you see that white staining on new brickwork sometimes. As I am sure most folks know the combination of mineral salts and water is not a good one for mast metals as it gives rise to corrosion. Nearly all metals are prone to this including most steels and aluminium and magnesum alloys.

Sand for block pavers usually and specifically also has extra binders added to enable it to do it's intended job, that is hold pavers in place.

Corrosion - even a little moisture will allow the binders to work and the corrosion processes to proceed.

Sealing up the stands - firstly I should point out that my comment was not about what you had done with your stands but about the use of sand in general. Secondly even if you put plastic plugs into the stands after filling with sand and you seal them in with silicone sealant they will still allow the passage of water in it's gaseous phase with time. An experiment I did some years ago indicated this could be as high as around 100 micro litres per month. There is little that can de done to stop this as the process appears to be osmotic. In a lot of cases the water molecules are apparently small enough to pass through the intermolecluar spaces in the plastic molecules. (No - the experiment was not directly connected with Hi Fi or speaker stands but it did involve plastic bungs in sealed containers which were leakproof when tested by conventional means but from which the liquid apparently evaporated over time.)

So in conclusion my recommendation to the OP if he chose to use sand was (a) dry it thouroughly and (b) use silver sand which is washed to ensure it's free of minerals.

Sorry again if anything I said upset you personally. It was not my intention.
 

gpi

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welshboy:gpi:welshboy:gpi:welshboy:

I'd be careful of the sand sold to set block paving. (It's designed to be a brush in product that locks the paving together.) Due to it's intended use it can tend to clump and be hard to remove.

It did the job perfectly for me. I can't see a time I'm ever going to empty the stands and they are sealed (so no air or moisture will make the sand 'clump or adversely affect it') so job done. I think some people are reading into this too much.

If it works for you then that's great. I won't bore you with the chemistry and physics which relates to what I said earlier. If starting from scratch I'd still use silver sand if sand is the chosen filler and I'd oven dry it myself as well. I am sure that those products made specifically for this task are also a good choice.

Thankfully I use floorstanders so I don't have this problem.

Ah go on go on go on, I could do with a good bore on a Sunday afternoon.
AddEmoticons04242.gif
What did I do wrong with the block paving sand, bearing in mind I get less damp weather than you in Wales and my Target HR60 stands are now air-sealed?
AddEmoticons04269.gif


You seem to have taken some offence to the original comment I posted. If that is so I readily appologise to you.

As to why I said what I said - well you asked so here goes:

Sand - most sand available in the Uk is dredged or dug out of pits and sold to builders more or less as is. (It's true sea sand has a bit of a wash first). This meant that the sand is contaninated with mineral salts. That's part of the reason you see that white staining on new brickwork sometimes. As I am sure most folks know the combination of mineral salts and water is not a good one for mast metals as it gives rise to corrosion. Nearly all metals are prone to this including most steels and aluminium and magnesum alloys.

Sand for block pavers usually and specifically also has extra binders added to enable it to do it's intended job, that is hold pavers in place.

Corrosion - even a little moisture will allow the binders to work and the corrosion processes to proceed.

Sealing up the stands - firstly I should point out that my comment was not about what you had done with your stands but about the use of sand in general. Secondly even if you put plastic plugs into the stands after filling with sand and you seal them in with silicone sealant they will still allow the passage of water in it's gaseous phase with time. An experiment I did some years ago indicated this could be as high as around 100 micro litres per month. There is little that can de done to stop this as the process appears to be osmotic. In a lot of cases the water molecules are apparently small enough to pass through the intermolecluar spaces in the plastic molecules. (No - the experiment was not directly connected with Hi Fi or speaker stands but it did involve plastic bungs in sealed containers which were leakproof when tested by conventional means but from which the liquid apparently evaporated over time.)

So in conclusion my recommendation to the OP if he chose to use sand was (a) dry it thouroughly and (b) use silver sand which is washed to ensure it's free of minerals.

Sorry again if anything I said upset you personally. It was not my intention.

S'ok, I wasn't offended, just surprised by your apparent air of superiority as your post implied I wouldn't understand the science.
So, bearing in mind the thickness of the metal in my welded stands, how long do I have before they collapse through rusting from the inside (serious question)?
 

gpi

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I've been reading up on the sand for block paving I bought. It is kiln-dried and not designed to bind paving slabs together when water is applied but works by friction. I'm pretty sure it will remain in its dry state within my stands and even if moisture does get to it, it will dry out again and return to its original state. It does not have special 'binders' in it and what better sand to use indoors than kiln-dried?

From a builder's website:

"A kiln-dried silica sand, designed for this purpose, is available from most builders' and civils merchants. This is a selected sand, very clean, and of certain grain sizes that work to increase the 'friction' between each brick or block."
 
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I would just like to celebrate the 30th post anniversary of a thread entitled "Which sand is best to fill speaker stands".
 

gpi

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Octopo:I would just like to celebrate the 30th post anniversary of a thread entitled "Which sand is best to fill speaker stands".

Thanguverymuch.
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Anonymous

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I must be the only one here who's used pebbles to fill my stands instead of sand. (Missions top model, forget the name) River stones, dried in the oven, averaging 2-3cm in length, inside long plastic bags with the heavier ones down the bottom. Of course they aren't perfectly compacted against the inside. The only way to do that would be to use sand without the bags, and I didn't want to risk corrosion.

Perhaps this wasn't a good idea, but I thought it was all about weight, I mean if you could safely fill them full of concrete, then wouldn't you wan't to?
 

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