Creating a tiny custom lamp from scratch: A Quarantine Adventure. - Oozing Goo - The Lava Lamp Syndicate2024-03-29T11:10:28Zhttps://oozinggoo.ning.com/forum/topics/creating-a-tiny-custom-lamp-from-scratch-a-quarantine-adventure?commentId=1566398%3AComment%3A710807&x=1&feed=yes&xn_auth=noI ordered 9 pounds of it onli…tag:oozinggoo.ning.com,2020-05-07:1566398:Comment:7108072020-05-07T20:25:09.290ZAnt Beehttps://oozinggoo.ning.com/profile/AntBee
<p>I ordered 9 pounds of it online, from Michaels.</p>
<p>I ordered 9 pounds of it online, from Michaels.</p> Cool experimenting.
If you do…tag:oozinggoo.ning.com,2020-05-07:1566398:Comment:7107102020-05-07T16:52:51.482ZDave Cookhttps://oozinggoo.ning.com/profile/DaveCook
<p>Cool experimenting.</p>
<p>If you don't like Gulf wax, what did you use for your paraffin?</p>
<p>Cool experimenting.</p>
<p>If you don't like Gulf wax, what did you use for your paraffin?</p> Hello again! I made a lot of…tag:oozinggoo.ning.com,2020-04-27:1566398:Comment:7099562020-04-27T21:58:14.304ZAnt Beehttps://oozinggoo.ning.com/profile/AntBee
<p>Hello again! I made a lot of progress over the weekend that I'd like to share. This is going to be a CHONKY post, so the TLDR is *I did it but still need to balance the final creation*</p>
<p>Here we go!</p>
<p>Crayons, it turns out, <a href="https://imgur.com/aNIKTLV" rel="noopener" target="_blank">have some sort of hardening agent</a> in them (you can see it on the top of the cooled jars) that make them "crust up" when heating in the lava lamp, which means that while it will eventually…</p>
<p>Hello again! I made a lot of progress over the weekend that I'd like to share. This is going to be a CHONKY post, so the TLDR is *I did it but still need to balance the final creation*</p>
<p>Here we go!</p>
<p>Crayons, it turns out, <a href="https://imgur.com/aNIKTLV" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have some sort of hardening agent</a> in them (you can see it on the top of the cooled jars) that make them "crust up" when heating in the lava lamp, which means that while it will eventually heat up and flow, you'll have flaky chunks of wax that never quite melt.<br/><br/><a href="https://imgur.com/63vTFva" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I tried scraping this top layer off</a>, re-melting, and repeating this process until there was no more "stuff" on top.</p>
<p>Now this did make a little bit of difference, but when mixed with paraffin, lamp oil, and perc, <a href="https://imgur.com/Y1Tv3oL" target="_blank" rel="noopener">it still makes a very weirdly inconsistent mix.</a> I ended up making one bottle I call [the Booger Lamp](<a rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://imgur.com/u8eQz1h" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/u8eQz1h</a>) that actually looks very cool (it has specs of dark green floating in the lava which gives it an opacity that standard mix lacks.)</p>
<p>I made a few other lamps with crayon mixtures with varying results. The jist of it is:</p>
<p>* The crayon-based lava is usually flaky due to the hard "skin" it forms during heating<br/>* It sticks to the glass FAR more easily than standard mixes do<br/>* It has a very strange density- it actually sinks in 100% water, but floats *very* rapidly when heated. This makes it incredibly hard to balance on its own</p>
<p>I am putting Crayon wax to the side for the moment, and I pretty much ran the hot water pot all weekend, cooking wax, cleaning bottles, experimenting with liquid densities etc. <a href="https://imgur.com/pGA2qSl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I made a VERY cool lamp with a Bacardi bottle.</a> The water is cloudy, due to the fact that I can't find clear, additive free "aquarium" soap for the life of me. But the flow and color is *awesome.* <a href="https://imgur.com/uZu5lLR" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Blue when cool, electric purple when hot.</a> I love it. This is the recipe (and I've verified this over two separate batches)</p>
<p>> 2 parts Liquid Paraffin (lamp oil) **(26 grams)**</p>
<p>> 7 Parts Paraffin Wax **(160 Grams)** BTW, don't use Gulf Wax it has horrible texture and consistency</p>
<p>> 10 Parts Perc (NON-FLAMMABLE Brake Cleaner) **(130 grams)**</p>
<p>> Oil-soluble coloring (few drops of candle wax coloring, find it at crafting stores)</p>
<p>This will make enough for, I'd say three "standard" lamps. And dozens of tiny ones :)</p>
<p>Once the wax is melted, I take the wax jar out of the pot. I put a few drops of dish soap and a tablespoon or so of water in the host bottle, swirl it around, put it in the hot water pot, let it sit long enough to get hot enough that you can barely stand touching it, then **quickly** swirl and dump the excess soapy water. Then (and I cant stress this enough) **quickly** grab a funnel and pipe, and pour the hot wax in the empty bottle.</p>
<p>Oh, and make sure the pipe is SMALLER than the opening of the bottle. SMALLER. <a href="https://imgur.com/SzRlsXV" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Otherwise, this happens.</a></p>
<p>It's important to get the end of the straw like a half inch above the bottom of the bottle. You want it to *pool* in the bottom, not *pour*. Pouring causes splashing, which causes spots of wax to stick to the side of the bottle. No good, that's a do-over.</p>
<p>That's the wax. The liquid is a simple mix of 70% distilled water (DO NOT USE TAP) and 30% Propelyne Glycol. I started with Distilled water and salt, but the salt is harder to work with and clouds the water.</p>
<p>The coil is a simple extension spring, stretched a bit and "connected" by pushing the two UNstretched ends together. This is another area where I could improve, I think the springs I'm getting are zinc coating and don't actually conduct heat very well. They currently just provide something other than glass for the wax to stick to.</p>
<p>Alright, so that's how you do it. Now here's a couple stabs at tiny lamps- the whole point of this!!</p>
<p><a href="https://imgur.com/9sQg6Ln" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A little olive jar that's no bigger than a dollar bill.</a> This is by far the smallest working lava lamp I have ever seen, but it does need some adjusting. One thing I have learned is that "Voss" shaped cylindrical bottles work well if they are very tall, but smaller lamps tend to push all their lava to the top, where surface tension is happy to keep it all there for a long period of time. I plan on messing with soap/liquid ratios to see if I can fix that.</p>
<p>And finally, the one I'm really keen on getting optimal flow on: <a href="https://imgur.com/yyYvDv6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A little bitty wine bottle.</a></p>
<p>I'm THIS close to making a functional, tiny lamp. I just need to get the liquid density, wattage, and soap content jusssst right.</p>
<p>Til next time!</p> Wow I did not know that!! It…tag:oozinggoo.ning.com,2020-04-23:1566398:Comment:7098432020-04-23T23:06:39.660ZAnt Beehttps://oozinggoo.ning.com/profile/AntBee
<p>Wow I did not know that!! It really does make sense, the stuff looks JUST like 90's red lava in liquid form.</p>
<p></p>
<p>They stated on their site that they begin melting at 105f, and it seemed like as I was melting all the other waxes in the same pan it was happening at the same rate. <br/><br/>I think adding the liquid paraffin will definitely affect things. But the results are already promising!</p>
<p>Wow I did not know that!! It really does make sense, the stuff looks JUST like 90's red lava in liquid form.</p>
<p></p>
<p>They stated on their site that they begin melting at 105f, and it seemed like as I was melting all the other waxes in the same pan it was happening at the same rate. <br/><br/>I think adding the liquid paraffin will definitely affect things. But the results are already promising!</p> Fun fact; Lavaworld usedto so…tag:oozinggoo.ning.com,2020-04-23:1566398:Comment:7099942020-04-23T22:33:12.523ZKeithhttps://oozinggoo.ning.com/profile/Keith
<p>Fun fact; Lavaworld usedto source wax from Crayola.</p>
<p>Something to consider, crayons have hardeners added to keep them from melting with normal use so that may effect their suitability. Not that I'm trying to be a downer though, lol. </p>
<p>I'm looking forward to seeing further results!</p>
<p></p>
<p>Fun fact; Lavaworld usedto source wax from Crayola.</p>
<p>Something to consider, crayons have hardeners added to keep them from melting with normal use so that may effect their suitability. Not that I'm trying to be a downer though, lol. </p>
<p>I'm looking forward to seeing further results!</p>
<p></p> Chapter 4, An Epiphany - Succ…tag:oozinggoo.ning.com,2020-04-23:1566398:Comment:7097712020-04-23T21:17:04.630ZAnt Beehttps://oozinggoo.ning.com/profile/AntBee
<p><a class="title may-blank loggedin" href="https://old.reddit.com/r/Lavalamps/comments/g6v4cm/creating_a_tiny_custom_lamp_from_scratch_chapter/"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Chapter 4, An Epiphany - Success with CRAYONS.</strong></span></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>Last night, as I was going to sleep, I thought "Crayons are wax, I wonder what kind?" Turns out, <a href="https://www.crayola.com/faq/science/can-you-provide-information-about-crayons-for-a-science-fair-project/">they're eerily…</a></p>
<p><a class="title may-blank loggedin" href="https://old.reddit.com/r/Lavalamps/comments/g6v4cm/creating_a_tiny_custom_lamp_from_scratch_chapter/"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Chapter 4, An Epiphany - Success with CRAYONS.</strong></span></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>Last night, as I was going to sleep, I thought "Crayons are wax, I wonder what kind?" Turns out, <a href="https://www.crayola.com/faq/science/can-you-provide-information-about-crayons-for-a-science-fair-project/">they're eerily similar to lava lamp wax</a> formulas I've seen, <a href="https://imgur.com/BvCs1iE">so that is what I played with today!</a></p>
<p></p>
<p>I tossed the tip of a crayon in some water, and it sank pretty rapidly. So, I made a batch with 14 crayons, some liquid paraffin, and a little less PERC (I actually think the PERC isn't needed for this, but we will see tomorrow!)</p>
<p><a href="https://imgur.com/tlVhX78">The left jar is the crayon mixture.</a></p>
<p>The middle is household melty smelly wax (glade). The right is the clear surf wax mixture I made yesterday, with the addition of two lime green crayons. You'll notice that the Crayon mix is <em>wonderfully</em> opaque, and I'm super excited to play with it tomorrow.</p>
<p>The green jar, after some cooling off, <a href="https://imgur.com/7wcEoDs">had a bit of stratification.</a></p>
<p>The crayon wax settled to the bottom. But, screw it. Lets pour it into a Voss bottle and see what happens!</p>
<p><a href="https://imgur.com/I8vOjyt">SUCCESS!!!</a></p>
<p>This is freshly poured, I filled the bottle halfway and warmed it on the stove before I put the wax inside. It worked flawlessly, no sticking whatsoever, and immediately it looked like a real lava lamp, opacity and all!</p>
<p>After my happy dance, I let it cool off to give it a real rest. <a href="https://imgur.com/Ga16xaE">I put it on a 20w base</a></p>
<p>and waited for a few hours. Now, as it was warming up, the same stratification occurred. <a href="https://imgur.com/9TFWai0">Crayon wax was on the bottom</a></p>
<p>but still in a liquid state... but it wasn't leaking brake cleaner so that's nice!</p>
<p>It took a VERY long time to warm up, but warm up it did, and <a href="https://imgur.com/3OvuEPS">started behaving like an actual lamp!</a></p>
<p>It's got a bit of bubbliness going on, so I turned it off after running it a few hours. I'll check it out again tomorrow.</p>
<p>As a larf, I tossed a black crayon in the melty smelly wax, <a href="https://imgur.com/EO8xH4I">and the same stratification happened.</a></p>
<p></p>
<p>Clearly Crayola wax is very dense, so my hypothesis is this:</p>
<p>I can create a lava lamp wax with <em>just</em> crayons (no perc at all) and possibly liquid paraffin. It definitely needs more heat than a 20w base, so I am going to have to find a bottle or jar or something to sit on one of my 40w bases to test.</p>
<p>But that's all for today!</p>