Oozing Goo - The Lava Lamp Syndicate

Hi all,

I am about to try and make my first lamp and I have had some ideas in mind for the project. I want to use some retro mid-century Pyrex coffee carafe’s and use an amber to brown wax with clear liquid. This would make it look a bit like coffee in these I think.  If anyone has suggestions or has worked with smaller sized lamps anything you can add will really help.

The two carafes are pictured here along with their dimensions:

On the gold coffee carafe the extra wide bottom had me thinking about the light and heat. I am not sure if it would be best to try the wire in the kit with this one or a spring coil with cross supports of the same springs to conduct heat. My other option that I am thinking about might be to use an actual coffee hot plate turned down very low to get the heat right and build into the base some LED lights to shine up through the carafe. This would really give me the whole coffee pot effect I am looking for.

I am also not sure how much wax to use in these as they are odd sized. I need enough to flow and look good but, there is not a lot of height to go far. The cork stoppers will be covered with foil or a flexible clear silicone sealer spray to get a good clean fit.

Option 1: Coffee Carafe: Measuring 9 3/4" tall x 7" wide (including the handle) x 6" round (at the base), the carafe has the iconic shape of mid-century modern design and is trimmed in 22K gold.  The stopper has a cork base; the top is gold.  I think it is 6 - 7 cups in volume so between 48-56 oz

  • Option 1:  Build a base light from an old carafe stand and wire my own socket in and help with what lights to use would be great. I have looked at oil warmers with a 20 watt bulb to building my own. However, it might not give me enough heat with a centered light on that big base. (I have found a base for this type of carafe which I could buy and wire with a bulb.).
  • Option 2: Use a hot plate set at the correct temperature using the built in rheostat and/or a dimmer but, I might not be able to lower heat enough. I would install some small LED lights into the base to shine up through the lamp. (I plan on testing one first with water and my cooking thermometer to try to get it down to the 120-130 degree range.)

Option 2: My second idea is to use this silver set carafe which has a better bottom for the coil and the stand can be drilled for a lamp in the base. I can cover the bulb with a stainless steel flange cup which would help focus the heat up to the carafe bottom. (Coffee pot 2 & Hot Plate

SILVER TEA / COFFEE POT: Set Warmer 7 Cup (Coffee 3)

Dimensions: Overall; 15 ¼” Tall, 6 ⅛" Wide, 7 ¼” Deep, Carafe; 12” Tall, 5 ½” Wide at Base, 7” Deep Handle to Spout Base; 5 ⅝” Tall, 6 ⅛” Across

Thanks for any help in advance!

Rick 

Views: 480

Attachments:

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

I have a custom coffeepot lamp, but it uses a standard Lava Lite globe. Here it is: 

http://oozinggoo.ning.com/photo/coffeepot-lava-lamp-custom-by-crash...

I would opt to try and use wax/liquid from a working lamp - it's hard to make good DIY wax/liquid yourself. 

The larger Lava Lite bottles are 52 oz. so that might give you a good idea of how much wax to use. 


I love the idea! Keep us posted. 

Ok I finally received all my stuff needed for this attempt and spent this morning putting things together. My Retro coffee pot worked great with a hotplate set to below low, but there is no light yet. I am working on a base with a halogen lamp to give it heat and light so once my socket arrives I will put that in place. 

I may need to color it some more to darken it up to a richer amber.

My old lamp which I kitted seems to fair less well. It domes but just really sits there doing nothing. I followed the instructions very carefully from here and the kit instructions. Any ideas on getting it to flow?

Here it is on the base I plan to use with a tea light candle. Works ok but not great.

Rick Shelton said:

Ok I finally received all my stuff needed for this attempt and spent this morning putting things together. My Retro coffee pot worked great with a hotplate set to below low, but there is no light yet. I am working on a base with a halogen lamp to give it heat and light so once my socket arrives I will put that in place. 

I may need to color it some more to darken it up to a richer amber.

My old lamp which I kitted seems to fair less well. It domes but just really sits there doing nothing. I followed the instructions very carefully from here and the kit instructions. Any ideas on getting it to flow?

Awesome work Rick! That is a cool use of some classic carafes!

What wattage bulb are you using in the globe?  Kits don't flow on 40 watter's.  You need to put a 60 A15 in there and run it on a dimmer.  I kitted a 52 oz last night that just wouldn't flow.  Just domed.  My heat source was fine.  Globe was boiling hot.  I checked my coil.  Wax was only adhered to 1/2 of the coil.  I took it back down today and did a redo on my goo.  I cut the coil and made it a bit smaller so now it sits more in the middle of the globe then running around the sides of the globe.  It's cooling down now.  I won't know if I can get flow until a few hours.  If this coil doesn't work that I modded, I might attempt to try the screen that comes with the goo kit.  I've never tried a kit with that screen so we will see.

 

That carafe came out awesome!!!!!  I think the rich amber will look sweet!!!  I'm still debating on whether or not to change the color of my green by adding more yellow to make it more of a neon /lime green!!!!!

I may have a 40 in it now. There is no number on it so I can find a 60 tomorrow. I have a dimmer just for that. My initial plan for the carafe is to use a 50 watt halogen, but I need a socket for it.

Did you ever get the 60?  Is it flowin yet??

I have to get it today. Yesterday was a busy day that kept me from going anyplace to get it. I will post tonight after I get home. I am still waiting on the socket for the coffee carafe to arrive so I can wire that up. I hope a 50 watt halogen is hot enough. I know I can use a hot pad now on it, but It is not a fully retro look and has no illumination for the wax. I have some other ideas to try like a plate warmer with a light attached somehow to shine through it as a backup. 

I'm pretty sure your 60 watter should be okay to run that lamp.....if you still don't get flow could be the coil also.  I just did a kit and no matter what I did to the coil the wax wouldn't adhere to 1/2 of it causing it not to flow.  I had to drop another coil and and now it's running on 2.  No biggie, but those coils also are a big factor in whether the lamp is going to flow or flow right.  Heat and the coil play a major part.  Weird how when they are factory made, all those minute things have to be just right.  Heat, the coil, wax chemistry, fluid chemistry.......definitely an exact science somewhat, lol!!!!!

OK I added an A15 60 watt bulb and I am running it without a dimmer right now and this is what I get after almost 3 hours of heating. Nice dome , but no flow. 

Is there a better bulb I need to look for? It seems quite hot to me compared to my other factory lamp.

The coil seems to be working fine with good adhesion.

If it's running plenty hot, then it sounds like it's low on surfactant.  If you have some propylene glycol, then I would add 1ml at a time every 15 min until it gets flow you like. 

Reveal bulbs are not good....they do not get hot enough.  I use the A15 60 watt frosted garage door opener bulbs.  I used to use appliance bulbs in my stock 52's A15 appliance bulbs, but they only come in 40 waters so now I have to use a 60 watt garage door opener bulb.  I was told these are equivalent to an appliance bulb.  For some reason I was told the Reveal's don't get hot enough.  If you have your receipt I would exchange them for the others.

Reply to Discussion

RSS

About

Autumn created this Ning Network.

GooHeads

Groups

© 2024   Created by Autumn.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service