Bad lava globe?

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

I have tried several times to fix a lava lamp that i have. No gookit, I can't afford it. Basically just distilled water, non iodized salt and surf; and no luck. I know it should work because I redid another lamp and it works fine. It doesn't flow as well as I want it too but I still have movement.

This other one, I let it heat up and add salt and surf and it never moves. The water level rises until the wax completely detaches from the coil.

what am I doing wrong?

[Tim Gill]

How long have you had the lamp - has it been flowing then stopped?

Have you let the wax compleatly melt before adding the salt?

What lamp is it?

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

The lamp was passed down and is maybe like 12 to 15 years old. It was knocked over while off and the metal cap literally burst off. I dont know why I decided to hold on to it but I did and I would like to fix it. I could try to fix it and make sure the wax is completely melted before adding any salt. It was the purple Camel promotional lamp and Im pretty sure it is 52 oz

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

another thing im not sure about is recapping it. I don't have a bottle capper plus it is one of the wide mouthed bottles

[Tim Gill]

There are diffrent ways to recap it by not using a capper and keep the oringal cap, I prefer to replace the cap compleatly using a hand held capper.

Check out this section of the lava libary on capping info http://oozinggoo.ning.com/page/replace-bottle-cap

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

okay that helps, but over time the cap was misplaced, any ideas on how to replace it?

[Tim Gill]

do you mean the bottle cap or the covering of the top.

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

bottle cap, but he black cap broke when it fell also. I was never too worried about it though

[Jennifer]

I used a black plastic shot glass for a replacement cap on one of my lamps. I got it at the party store in the "over the hill" section, but they also have them at Halloween time (almost here!!! I LOVE Halloween) They have brushed steel ones at bed bath and beyond that work pretty well for the silver based lamps.

As far as replacing the cap, I have only done it once, and I used one of the methods on this site. I don't know what the metal do-hickey is really called, but it goes on plastic hose to cinch it to a pump on a pond or above ground pool. It's a circle/loop that tightens with a screw driver...

Btw, I'm kinda a newbie and a chicken, and this was not hard at all. Bigger beer bottles have similar sized bottle caps as the 52 oz I think.

[Cheylynn Marie Owen]

okay cool I never thought to use a regular small cup like those, awesome thinking!! The opening on this globe is if my memory serves me right now the size of a 50 cent piece, but I will take a closer look at the beer bottles next time I go to the grocery store : )

[Jus]

hehe the metal do-hickeys work great and I think they're called hose clamps...*grin*