Back at lava, Telstar coming my way

[Daniël Oosterhuis]

Well, after a lot of bad stuff in my personal situation (which sadly isn't going to go away), and having pursued other interests (PowerPC Macs and MiniDiscs), I'm finally back at lava. My interests kind of sway left and right, one moment I invest a lot of time and money to that, the other moment the other interest gets the better of me. Oh well, it does keep me varied! 

Anyway, I recently went on Marktplaats, our classifieds site, and decided to look for Mathmos lamps. And I found a Telstar for just €25.

While the pictures look crappy and I can't tell whether the bottle is cloudy or not, I still went ahead and bought it for €31,50 including shipping, because at that price it's worth it, even if the bottle does turn out cloudy. A new Telstar from Mathmos directly is €100 with free shipping. A new bottle is €39 with free shipping. So if I need a new bottle, I end up paying €71,50, which is still €29,50 cheaper than buying brand new. As far as I can tell, the base itself is in good condition, that is if it gets through shipping. But all my recent shipping affairs have been very positive, even stupidly packed packages managed to turn up without damaged goods, so I have high hopes  

Anyway, I've always wanted a rocket-style lava lamp, and a Telstar is ofcourse the best among them! So I'm hoping it's here by Tuesday, I'll let you all now when it's here. It's good to get back to my lava lamps. Reminds me that I need new bulbs for the Astros 

[Keith]

And a brilliantly stellar return it is!  

[Jeff Neely]

Good pull, friend.

Jeff

[Daniël Oosterhuis]

It got here today, I'll post some pictures later, when I've ran it for a few hours.

There are some thing that need some attention about it. The finish of the legs has gone a bit dull, I could try polishing that. 2 of the 3 rubber feet have gone wonky, and as a result the Telstar doesn't stand perfectly straight, and there's light coming from where the legs meet with the base, as they don't sit 100% flush with the base. I could try fixing those myself, but I could also get some new ones from Mathmos. The entire lamp is a bit scuffed up, with a few deep scratches. That doesn't bother me too much, as it's, at least for me, more about the goo. Still, giving it a shine with some polish shouldn't hurt.

The lamp's been on for an hour, and the lava does flow, but there are chunks of oxide from the spring, as well as some hard wax chunks, floating around in the lava, spoiling the look. The colour of the wax is green, and the liquid is a very faded blue, it's basically clear with a blue hue in the right light. But I can always get a new bottle if the chunks annoy me enough. I'll let it run for a few more hours and then take some pictures.

[Daniël Oosterhuis]

Well, instead of taking a few pictures, I made a video. As you can see, it flows nicely but there are noticeable oxide chunks floating around, and two rubber feet are just bent out of shape and need repair/replacement, and everything shiny could use a polish.