27" Grande Project?

[PinkFloyd Effect]

I'm new to this site, not a collector just a retro do-it-yourselfer. I acquired this Grande lamp for free from a neighbor I think it is really cool being so big but it came with a burnt bulb and a boxed burnt bulb so...2 burnt bulbs. I got discouraged when I realized it used a 100W bulb which is too much to run consistently just for effects which is when I started doing research on how to "green" the lamp up. 

Not sure if anyone can decode these numbers to tell how old the unit is I believe it is all original.

In my research I realized you can re-goo them and the kits have lighter wax which requires less wattage then the factory goo does so I plan on doing this I saw kits on eBay for about $30 not sure if that is enough for one of these sized lamps. I want white lava since my walls and furniture are white which goes good against the stainless it will make for a very contemporary lamp, then I'm not sure if the re-goo kits keep the water clear for much longer periods of time but I'm unsure I may want the water to be Caribbean-teal color like the liner on a pool. 

Then I was thinking about trying to insulate the base to make more efficient use of the heat loss through aluminum which is a conductor of heat. I will install a twist knob "pot" style dimmer on the base of the lamp itself, as far as the bulb goes not sure if they more a better light bulb then the basic 100w they sell for use in these? I thought about retrofit combining LEDs and a heating coil but probably would not make any difference in electricity consumption. They don't make a better designed coil ring I should install with the goo kit do they??

Long term goal with the lamp is to turn it into a usable bedside end table like the colossal/colossus lamp probably the same width glass ring with a smaller hole in the center for more usable table area. The thing I can't figure out is how the glass rings stay on the floor sized lamps does anyone have any close up pictures of how it is mounted? 

I can't even find one on eBay for sale, I assume they don't make them anymore? Here are two I found on Google which I Photoshopped feel free to use them elsewhere on this website in a gallery or something...I corrected the color of the images and then added depth of field to them:

 

[Alfred]

There's no specific required amount of dye. You can use just about as much or as little as you want. (I expect at some point you would change the wax density enough to cause problems, but I've used well over twice the recommended amount with no ill effect and there are plenty of people who've used no dye at all.)

[PinkFloyd Effect]

Thank you very much, actually I plan to use no dye at all on MY globe. 

[Rodrigo]

Hey, my advice on the aqua is dont mix it!!!! its a VERY nice baby/aqua blue, not dark but you can darken it by adding more aqua blue as its flowing. This is my aqua blue gookit, the first one to the left:

http://oozinggoo.ning.com/photo/clear-52oz-lineup?context=user

Also what I like to do is pour in the wax white (no dye at all) and then add the dye while the lamp is flowing and fully warmed up. That way you can add pinch by pinch until you get the color just right. You just have to be patient between color tweaks so you dont accidentally overdo it.

Follow this tutorial step by step instead of Magma towers instructions because they skip a critical step which is pre-coating the inside of the previously cleaned globe with surfactant or else all the wax will stick to the sides everywhere. Best thing to use to clean the globe after you melt all the wax out is something like paint thinner or brake cleaner, a really potent solvent to dissolve all the wax and then after that youll want to clean it with hot water and soap. bottle brush etc.

http://oozinggoo.ning.com/page/goo-kits

[Rodrigo]

Nah I agree with you lala, all my gookits have little bit of wax cooked to the bottom of the bottle, far worse than same age China LL lamps.

[PinkFloyd Effect]

WTF....well how many hours do you have on it after a year? This is a bummer :(

[Rodrigo]

Honestly i think you should go for it and see how you like it yourself. If you store the original Lava Lite liquid and wax you can always refill it back with the original stuff. The gookit should last a while provided you dont let it overheat often and stuff like that, and it does flow really good too. I have a couple 52oz and i like the flow and the fact that the wax stays somewhat translucent. Just go for it and see what you think.

As for hours im really not sure but I say i run my 52oz lamps about 7 hours at a time give or take and like every other day recently but they were dormant for a couple of years, so did my 32s and all other lamps

[Brad]

i've had pretty good results with MT wax, though it seems that the newer wax won't turn opaque after a few runs like the old wax did.  i don't know if they changed the formula or what.  still, the flow is excellent when controlled with a dimmer.

here's a blue/white goo kit that i recently converted to a clear/yellow.

 

[Brad]

do you have the screen in your grande globe?  it helps with bubbles in the wax but it won't trap all of them.  i added the screen like this:  /\

and heck yeah they are fun to do!

lalalava said:

yeah, mine are very sticky and bubbly and some just plain wont flow at all anymore. I was always careful about not overheating then and used dimmers and they still fried.
 
lalalava said:

okay heres my 2 cents,

my gookit grande lasted about a year...and all the 52s I did only lasted a few months each. IMO gookits are just not worth it to me. I followed all the direction correctly and got advise from some top gooheads to no avail. maybe its just me IDK...they sure are fun to do though ;)...I plan to redo my grande (when I can afford it) by refilling it with neons like Jim did.

[Rodrigo]

Yeah, the new stuff won't turn opaque, the lighter goo they accidentally sent me the first time did turn opaque though.

[Brad]

i spoke with them a few months ago and they were working on a white dye.  it was in the testing phase and they said they would contact me when it was ready.  i haven't heard back though, so maybe they are still testing it...

[PinkFloyd Effect]

Again....WTF, your telling me the MT wax in the mail on it's way to me right now is not going to turn white without dye?!? That blue liquid with white/clear wax looks pretty good...even if the wax was slightly white with clear fluid. 

I still have the original circular coil, I thought it was said to reuse it rather then the MT kit piece you have to bend yourself?? Are you saying bend the original circular coil into a figure 8??

This "88" or whatever regular wax they are sending me has better not turn white a few dozen hours before the wax burns up...

[Rodrigo]

Don't worry, it will still be white without dye. Not completely opaque but it also doesn't stay completely translucent like it will look on its first run. I would use both circular coils the lamp came with. If your lamp only has one big coil then you can either just use that or use that in figure 8 shape but I don't like the weird screen MT includes in the kit for you to use.