calling all customizers

[Peter Piper]

I'm new here, Hi Folks I'm Peter.

I'm always looking to make something good, better

sometimes the lamps aren't perfect, but perfect for perfecting

I hope to see some good custom jobs also I'm thinking of making a lava lamp like the old squiggle design.

has anyone been able to make it look good? tell me your experiences with squiggles or any customizing you've done/tried

I'm going to do it on a midnight I found this weekend for six bucks. the globe it came with was white lava and basically the liquid is clear now, it looks better on the silver base

[Peter Piper]

When I was grabbing some black paint for the lamp above, I noticed the glitter gold spray paint.  Last week I was looking at my gold aristocrat and noticed slight fading of gold paint on the edges.  So I'm thinking of grabbing some of that glitter paint. I'm sure someone here has experience painting these plastic caps, should I sand it with high grit sandpaper first. or is wash and dry good enough prep?

[Peter Piper]

The glitter gold looks just as good as I hoped. with a couple coats of clear coat on it too. use a bead reamer for the holes if you paint your aristocrat

Peter Piper said:

When I was grabbing some black paint for the lamp above, I noticed the glitter gold spray paint.  Last week I was looking at my gold aristocrat and noticed slight fading of gold paint on the edges.  So I'm thinking of grabbing some of that glitter paint. I'm sure someone here has experience painting these plastic caps, should I sand it with high grit sandpaper first. or is wash and dry good enough prep?

[Mark]

Great job, that looks really nice.

[Claude J]

Cool Gold Glitter

[Peter Piper]

thanks folks.

I had some holiday pay, so I went to goodwill and found some items. I'm thinking of trying my hand at making some lava lamps. I'll grab a rivet  gun and some diamond bits for the glass and ceramic. does anyone have any tips on putting holes in glass or ceramic? this haul should keep me busy during winter, also I found the perfect display shelf, it has a blurry mirror and everything!

oh yeah I put the black lamp from the start of this thread in here. the black paint is done. I decided to use a large syringe to put the squiqqles of florescent paints. but I'm still checking pics and trying to tell myself not to overdo it with the squiqqles, but still get 3-4 colors on it.

[Claude J]

I drill in ceramics and glass when I make cookie jar conversion lava lamps (see my pics)

the trick is: BE PATIENT!

Starting is the hard part, (breaking the ceramic coating)

USe a center punch to lightly tap a chip into the ceramic (DO NOT do this on glass)

BE PATIENT

DO NOT use the hole saw style of a drill bit, use the one diamond that is a tapered triangle style.
Drill at very slow speed-only fast enough to see your making progress.

Have a water bottle handy and constantly add water for cooling and to wash away debris so it doesn't overheat or choke the drill bit

When you see your about to go all the way through, slow down the speed to a crawl