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:

 

[Rodrigo]

I'm not sure of what you're explaining but it seems to me like normal... These lamps make all kinds of weird shaped sticks and balls so I wouldn't worry to much, that's what it's supposed to do

[Brad]

sounds like a lava lamp to me!

PinkFloyd Effect said:

I have been running a 20oz that Jeff sent me and watching for overheating symptoms what does it mean when a small wax bubble is formed when the large ones rise and break apart? When it stretches and gets thin in the middle it will make a tiny glob when it finally separates and rises that is normal right??

[PinkFloyd Effect]

With the now proper 100w type-R bulb I get excellent flow with the original magma but it takes 8 hours to get it to this state... 

[Jus]

Nice!

[Brad]

looks good!  8 hours is believable depending on the ambient temperature.

[Rodrigo]

Yep, not too hard to believe. When I turn mine on at night so they're on for 8 hours at about 3am and it's 68 deg in the room they flow lazy until about 7 hours

[PinkFloyd Effect]

The room was 72F and it's against an outside wall (New England) so it's cold. Since warm up takes 8 hours I assume you can run it for another 8 hours from the time it is warmed up? Otherwise that would be pointless if you had to shut it off as soon as it's warmed up, I run this one from 4pm-4am sometimes a bit longer. 

I was watching some Goo-Kitting videos online (very few) and one guy mixed his dye into the wax before he poured it in the lamp....I can still adjust the color after its in the lamp and flowing right? The dye will not affect the water? This needs to be verified for Jeffs lamp I am working on. 

I saw a video of a lamp with clear water and clear magma....I like the clear! You can see all the bubbles move within the wax which IMO adds another dimension to the flow/lamp because now there is more movement to watch even before it is fully warmed up and just stretching. When it turns white o well I like that too!

I am after two 8oz lamps the smallest ones they made, I want them both to have clear fluid side by side. One with red magma and the other with aqua magma, I saw a lamp flowing with aqua magma and it really looked like water drops moving instead of lava (like bubbles of pool water inside air/clear water). I would run them simultaneously side by side to represent hot and cold, eventually I would make a custom base for them with one single stand and dual bulb openings. I do have two 20oz lamps with plastic bases and caps but they are LavaLites for some reasons they cheaped out in the mid 90s the plastic gets very hot but does not melt Jeff sent them to me. Possibly since they are plastic I can use those and fiberglass the base tops together in a twisting pattern so the hot and cold appear to be wrapping around each other as part of the same lamp. I believe fiberglass and bondo can withstand the same high temperature this plastic does I would need an IR heat thermometer to test these plastic bases first. 

[Rodrigo]

It's hard to have a "set" run time since every lamp is different and room temps affect it. Just run it as you see fit, dimm it when hot and keep an eye on it.

I wouldn't do any 8oz, it's a waste of your time and goo formula, smallest id gookit is 20oz. Also you can mix the due with wax before pouring it, or just drop chunks of dye into the lamp as it's flowing, the dye won't affect the water and if you add while it flows it's easier to see what it looks like without over coloring it. I would pour the wax in with NO dye and just color it as it flows, it's really cool and u can see the goo morphing from clear/white to whatever color..

[PinkFloyd Effect]

Gotcha. I thought the shape of the 8oz is the same as the 20oz just scaled down equally? Does the 8oz use anything less then a 25W bulb?

[Rodrigo]

Yes, 8oz have the same shape but scaled down enormously lol. They use a 15w weak little bulb, and the globe is to tiny nobodys really gookitted them and figured out how much surfactant to use, but since its so small it would only be a tiny bit, i wouldnt waste my time and more importantly goo, cuz its rather expensive.

[Jeff]

The 8oz are tiny...and use only a 15 watt bulb.  I only bought one because it was the only size I could find one with teal lava in at the time.  I finally found a 32oz one on ebay this past week.  The flow in the 8oz ones isn't that great either, at least not in the one I have.  Makes a single blob that rises and falls, then repeats.  

[Rodrigo]

Yep, I came across 2 8oz as a part of a bigger lot of lamps I purchased and I ended up sacrificing both lamps for sockets, cords and other parts lol they sucked.