Goo Kit Question for This Amateur Lava Guy

[Vince]

Hi Folks,

I went to buy goo kit items and noticed the ebay shipping rates are rediculous!  Is this really what they are charging for shipping?  $20 for 1 qt. of goo and $20 to ship it to me?   $5 for surfactant and $16 to ship it?

Is the goo kit really easy to get good results the first time around?   And if I wanted white lava, do i just leave it go or should I add some white colorant?

Thanks ahead,
Vince

[Vince]

Brad I did notice the bubbles in your pics of the before-color goo.  I hope they go away, I think it's better without them, IMHO.

[Jus]

All I know is, I don't like big round blobs.  My lamps still have big round blob tendencies, but definitely also have their moments of awsome stretchy-ness.  And for that, I owe it all to Dawn.  And I mean an outlandish quantity of it.  I still can't believe how that goo kit wax was able to take all the Dawn I threw at it.  The LavaLite lamps I toyed with were totally destroyed if I added more than 3-4 drops of dishsoap.  Not the goo kit lamps...

And really, I started my goo kits by the book-10ml of surf per quart of water.  I didn't resort to Dawn until it became clear I was gonna deplete my 4oz supply of MT surf jus trying to get rid of the round blobbiness...heh...

 

I had bubbles in the wax at first, which really seemed to be greatly diminished by allowing the lamp to cool completely and then heat up again.  Now that the bubbles are gone, I never turn the lamps off.  I have to have my lamps on, period.  If a bulb burns out, I'm totally bummed.  If my store is out of bulbs, I border on psychotic...

[Brad]

i tried dawn earlier and basically had to squeeze a 5-second pour into the lamp.  there is no telling how much dawn was in there (i dumped it, didn't like the color - it was an experiment).  the flow was stretchy, but my gosh it took a lot of dawn.

[Jus]

What's really weird-did you notice how as soon as the dawn hits the goo, it gets all stretchy and kinda wild-but then, after it flows up and down a couple of times it goes right back to the big round blob monsters again?  That is really what initially enticed me to keep adding more dawn, since it kept going back to blobs plus it wasn't exhibiting the really bad signs like sticking to the glass, or weird little tails left on blobs when they separate, or blobs jus going past each other that meld into one when they touch.  I did  suffer through what I think of as the tornado stage, where there's jus a thick column of goo top to bottom, writhing and pulsing but never separating.  I thought it was a gonner, but it finally broke one off and that's when it started flowing normally again.  Coincidentally, that is also when I decided to stop squirting more Dawn in. LOL

[Brad]

Yes, that is exactly what I observed!

[Vince]

Do you add the surf in before the first warm up, or do you light the lamp for the first time, see the flow, and then start adding the surf??  I see the directions want you to put the surf right in before the first lighting.   Just wondering if even the 10mL per quart is too much?  Sounds like it's still work in progress, not "dump and go"!  lol

[Jus]

Yes-follow the directions.  Hopefully then, everything will roll like clockwork with your kit.  You must add the surf first-in fact a final rinse of the bottle and coil with a little of your surf water (10ml/qt) before pouring the goo-that's what keeps your wax from sticking to the glass.  Sticking is a weird thing-you don't want it to stick to the glass, but it HAS to stick to the coil or it won't work right.  The rinse first will keep it off the glass, but won't interfere with sticking to the coil.  Anyone who has a problem with wax not sticking to the coil really may benefit from trying the trick that worked for me-super heating the coil.  I won't go further here on that, but it's an option worth trying.  Think positive, follow the directions-you'll be fine!  Good luck!

[Brad]

to be honest, i don't like the goo kit flow.  it's too bubbly for me as i prefer more stretchy flow.  there aren't any other reasonable options though.  i'm about to make a blue/white grande, so we will see what happens.  i'm somewhat apprehensive of adding dawn to the wax.  i would hate to ruin such an expensive kit.

[Jus]

My apologies to Vince, cuz I think at this point his thread has been hijacked!  But here's my response to Brad...

Here's what I think Brad-do your kit by the book.  Once you get it flowing, try adding more MT surf to change the flow.  If you aren't seeing the changes you want, try adding one drop of regular Dawn.  I am 99 44/100% sure a drop of dawn will not ruin your wax.  I predict you'll see a change you like, quickly followed by a complete return of the wax to the previous big fat blob behavior.  All of this is exactly what I did, with the exception of the fact I also had to add a bit of super-saturated epsom salt solution initially, because my goo kit wax wouldn't even get past the dome stage without it.  Anyway-a drop will be fine.  I feel very confident saying that.  Now, how adventurous you feel after that, I can't say.  I can say I currently have 3 lamps which are perfectly clear (even after several run/cool cycles) and they are all flowing great according to most standards.  According to my standards they still produce too many big round fat blobs, but they also produce a good amount of long, stretchy formations...which is more than what I had before adding the Dawn.  Patient people would probably add it drop by drop.  I did that at first, but then began adding by glass droppersful and then even by pouring from a measuring cup (the type on top of cough syrup bottles).  The reason I kept adding more was due to the strange way the wax kept reverting to the fat blob flow, plus the fact it wasn't showing the bad signs I mentioned previously.  And I'll say this again, I spent anxious time with all three lamps in what I call that tornado stage, but they pulled out of it.  Not sure why, and don't remember doing anything to help them, I think they just finally got over it.  As for an estimate of how much Dawn I used-in my 52oz lamps I added over 10ml of Dawn for sure, and half that amount in the 16oz lamp.  I'm not recommending these amounts!  I jus know that's what it took for my situation.   Prudence is not my strong suit.  At any rate, I think it's prudent to add at a drop-by-drop rate-and that goes for any sort of addition to a lamp-due to the delicate balance of all the factors involved.  It's taking all my strength to avoid popping the top on my lamps, and giving jus one more drop of Dawn.  Cuz I swear, it seems like they could use it...

PS-all three lamps had tons of bubbles in the wax at first, but after allowing them to cool completely and re-starting, the bubbles are about gone.

[Brad]

thank you very much for th e detailed post with photos, jus.  i will definitely try the MT surf first, followed by dawn if i'm not happy with the flow.

i particularly like the flow of the blue lamp above.  that is what i'm aiming for.  see how the blob in the foreground is beginning to stretch at the bottom?  i want that blob to get real long and stretchy, release a blob toward the bottom, then leave one blob hanging toward the middle.  the lamp on the left is what i had last night - large blobs at the top.  as i added more dawn, the blobs would join together much easier when they touched than before.  that created a stretchy flow as i liked, but it also created a ton of small blobs.  this is due to the surface tension being significantly reduced, so when the wax would flow up from the spring, it would pinch off early and form a ball.  i have a feeling you know what i'm talking about. :)

[Jus]

You're welcome!  I do know what you mean.  I want to add that the amount of heat too affects the amount and size of blobs, at least in my lamps.  High heat causes lots of smaller blobs.  Lower the heat and the blobs get larger and fewer. 

Here's low heat:

And here's what I get with dimmer on full blast:

[Brad]

nice comparison.  very scientific, which i like.  i am going to install a dimmer on the grande i'm making - thinking a full-range rotary dial mounted on the base near the cord.