Lava sticking to globe and evaporated water

[John AINSWORTH]

I see discussion about this in the past.
The comment that seems to sum it up is that some invisible component (solvent?) in the lava becomes adherent to the glass at one spot then spreads, and even when all visible wax has been removed the wax adheres again : this seems to occur most when the lamp is next switched off and the wax solidifies.

I have recently bought a second hand Astrobaby Red and purple : indeterminate age.
It has come with a couple of problems not mentioned by the seller :

1. the problem above : an area of wax is adherent to the glass : I tilted the globe so the wax solidifed away from the affected area then freed up the affected area of all visible wax remnants with a metal skewer with a rubber bound wound around to act as a squeegee : this worked great but the adherence returned at about 505 of previous area when the lamp next cooled. I have repeated and am now leaving for a week ro two to see if the area might recoat with surfactant with time (a slim hope).

2 the top 2cm of the bottle below the neck is empty of water and the simple screw bottle top was not tight when it arrived in the post. I think most of the loss is form evaporation, but I might be worng. I wondered how to top up? Maybe more surfactant may help the sticking? The lava tends towards smaller globules so maybe the surfactant has evaporated more than the water? We don't have the Suave shampoo in the UK that you mention in the forum and I wnder what alternatives there might be? Washing up liquid?? ????

Thank you!

[John AINSWORTH]

Thanks for this.

Do you mean buyiong an empty vase or prefilled one? I can only wee filled ones for sale.

I can see I may end up having to buy a new vase, but fancy having a go on this old one as I seem to be able to reduce the area sticking by sequential cleaning : I wonder if then altering the solutions may stop it coming back? Any suggestions of something around the house or easily obtainable to use a s surfactant in the UK that is worth a last attempt to solve this problem?
Thanks!

[John AINSWORTH]

I have now also bought a secondhand Telstar base and cone, without the vase/bottle/globe. I have then bought a filled vase from Mathmos, which arrived within 18 hours of order. This is stunning and I don't I would buy a secondhand bottle/vase/globe again.
Having said that, it is fun to fiddle about with the secondhand one, which does some pretty weird things and is much less predictable than the more sedate Mathmos one. Clearly the goo in the older bottle has undergone some kind of change/degeneration (quite porridgy in appearance) compared to the goo in the new bottle, that is shiny, smooth and consistent in appearance. I had always thought I preferred the proper "lava-coloured" goo, but the new globe is green / blue combination which is much more attractive than I thought.