Oozing Goo - The Lava Lamp Syndicate

Hi everybody!

I'm an artist, I just started collecting lava lamps, and just joined! I actually wouldn't really say I'm a serious collector, but I do love lava lamps, and have a few of them...or I will.

I've always loved them, but it wasn't until fairly recently that I actually owned one, a $10 job from Wal-Mart with blue water and yellow wax. It worked great...until the yellw wax became discolored, and the flow stopped completely. :( Then I looked into homemade mods. :)

This is what that lamp looks like now:

All ready to go! I also bought a quart of goo from magma tower, and I have various ways of coloring it. I can't wait to get started!

Here's another lamp of mine, an orange lava glitter lamp (I didn't have any idea how scarce these were at the time, I just love transparent or shiny orange so I wanted this one):

Apparently they had one left, and I got it. :) Trying to find another one like it has proven impossible.

Also, I just recently won these auctions:

- A lot of three lava lites from 1996:

I got those for $15 apiece. :) I mainly wanted the orange one, but I like both of the other colors a lot. I feel like I got an excellent deal on that!

I also won this oozy glo tower for $10 :)

There is some damage, but I mainly plan to mod it anyway.

Those are some good deals, but...I paid way too much for this:

It's an orange elec-trick from 91, I think? It's not even the original run, but I wound up paying $67 anyway. I just had to have it. All the others sold from that line by this seller went for 30 bucks apiece...but the one that I wanted. LOL!

None of those are actually here yet though. I won them and paid for them, but I'm waiting on shipping. I'm so excited!!

Well that's all for me for a little while!

Good to meet all of you!

[EDIT] I also just bought one of these.

I can't believe I found one new finally! And now I am DONE for a while. LOL! Tax check is gone. :p

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Sometimes first runs can take a little longer. Gookits wax is lighter, so it'll heatup sooner, but also overheat sooner, too. Dimmers are recommended. As with all lamps, I'd run them several times before making any judgements. I've been very impatient with new-to-me lamps and first runs. ;) Serenity now!

Ha ha...yeah. It's hard to be patient. I always end up poking at it with a stick. :p

This is the third batch of goo. It's doing the same thing that the last 2 did. :(

The underside is completely molten, and there's a thin crust on top that is now leaning way over to one side, while the other side crawls up the side of the glass. It won't erupt. This picture was taken after 30 minutes, but after 45 minutes it's just gotten more extreme, and slid further up the side of the glass.

And then the top layer just rose up all the way to the top of the bottle and froze there. It took two entire hours, but the big lump eventually melted (almost) all the way, and I had some real flow in my lamp finally! Wooot!

I think I figured out what the problem was. Parts of the wax had air bubbles in it and then solidified. I couldn't get it to melt all the way because it floated to the top, and wouldn't come down where the heat was. Again, this is a 20oz globe, so it has a 25w bulb in it...but I should probably get a dimmer switch, as I was advised. I think maybe the high heat is causing the bubbles in the wax, but I'm not sure. In any case my first custom lamp has now gone through one complete cycle, and only a small plug is left at the top. I'm going to just fish that out. I think there's maybe a tad too much wax in there anyway.

Oops.

The red 32oz from 96 just bit the dust. :(

All I was trying to do was replace 1-2 tbsp of water in it, as that much had leaked out during shipping. The cap was already loose, and I barely had to pry the cap to pop it off. I tried to just get used to the missing water, but even when the lamp was in full flow, there was a quarter inch gap there.

Well now the damn thing won't flow at all. :( I only added 2 tablespoons of water! The molten wax just sits there on the bottom. It doesn't even bead up. I've let the wax harden again, and it's just sitting there...but I'm afraid I ruined it. :(

Oh well. I look at it like this: I only paid $15 for that lamp. I would have paid that just for the base, cap, coil, and empty bottle. I really haven't seen many red/clears from 96 pop up recently, but maybe one day I'll find another one. In the mean time, this one didn't die in vain. I will customize it up a treat!

I don't think you can just add water to these lamps. It can completely mess up the flow. Would have been best to add fluid from a spare lamp from around the same time. 

>Sigh<. :(

But honestly, I think the wax was cooked in that one anyway. It never moved quickly, even at full flow, and hovered like a hot air balloon for hours on end. Plus after 7-8 cycles, it showed absolutely no signs of clarifiying, and it was REALLY cloudy. I learned my lesson on that one, but now this it what it looks like:

I used a crayola washable marker for the water, and flourescent blue dye for the wax. Even though I used over twice as much dye as I did for the orange globe, it still turned completely transparent when it melted. I didn't expect that at all, but I really like it in this! It fits the water theme nicely. :) Plus it is, hands down, the biggest ambient light emitter I have ever seen in a non-glitter lamp. The goo tentacles are prismatic like glass!

Is that a GooKit? The wax will go solid colored eventually. 

Yes, it's a goo kit. I should really dedicate a new thread to custom projects. I'm sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

The orange globe I made had a nice, translucent matte look to it, so I expected to see something similar from the f. blue, especially since I used so much dye. That's the only difference between the two globes, as I'm using the same goo kit for both. If the wax or dye do become more opaque then that's fine. That's more what I was expecting anyway. :)

Well, as a final cap to this noob thread, an update about this item...the last one mentioned in the first post.

First, a little backstory. When I first started getting into motion lamps, I naturally started looking for some in orange, as I love the color. Well it was hard to find anything in that color for sale, at least for me right then, so I tried to purchase things when they popped up. First I found this exact model on Amazon, ordered it, the charge just sat there for several days, and then the sale was just gone. The seller just deleted the sale without so much as a word. I contacted Amazon, they contacted him (when he deleted the sale, there went my way to find him), and he told them that the item was no longer available. Sure would have been nice for him to tell ME that, but whatever.

Then I find one on ebay, and bid on it. It had like THREE WEEKS left on the auction, but I watched it and hoped for the best. I already lost so many similar auctions... But eventually I won, and paid for the item via paypal. This time only a couple of days went by before the seller contacted me to let me know that he was very sorry, but that item was not available after all.

Then I said to hell with Amazon and ebay, and started scouring the internet for any and all online distributors of any and all orange/yellow or orange/white globes. I finally found a place that said that they had the item for sale, and it was in stock. I ordered it, the payment went through, and I waited for a tracking number. About a week later, instead of a tracking number, I get an email saying that they were very sorry, but the item that I ordered was not available.

Then I said to hell with the whole thing.

Then a long time later I'm doing a google image search for something completely different, and there's that orange/white lava lite again. Should I try it? Might as well, right? I order it, I pay via paypal, and I wait for a tracking number. Almost two weeks later, after a few emails, I finally get the message. I don't have to tell you the message, because you know it by now. (@_@) One thing was different about it this time, however. The seller said that the lamp in question had been recalled by lavalite, due to cloudiness issues.

You know what?

I don't care, I still want one.

Anyway, it really makes me appreciate the orange/yellow that I already have. It's one of my absolute favorites.

And that wraps up that initial set of lava loot!

Oh, and the clear/green from the lot of 3 (96) is still just as cloudy as the day I got it, in spite of cycling it at least once a day for a week. :( I won't give up on it ever, but it's really hard to enjoy it like it is. The orange one cleared right up!

I think you would have been disappointed should you have gotten that orange/white lamp above. There's a reason you never see a real, running photo of it and always a digital image. Opt for a US-made 32oz. orange white and you'll be much happier. They pop up on eBay every and again and they are far superior to the smaler, China-made ones. 

How badly do you want it? :p

If I remember right it is a perfect condition, flows great, a real 05 orange/white usa made lava globe. If you are interested I will run it to make sure.

Wait a minute...

*looks at picture Autumn posted...*

*looks at own orange globe...*

Ok, I'm a dingleberry. I thought what I had was a 32oz orange/yellow...but it's not. It's orange/white. I don't think they made an orange/yellow. It's the one from the lot of three lamps from 96. Now, I might still be interested in purchasing that orange/white that you have, if you still want to part with it, but I now know that it's what I have already. It really looks yellow when it's in the orange water! I now know how cool it can be to have 2 of your favorite globe, though, so...

And Erin, I think you are right about that stock image. I have NEVER seen one for sale using anything but that digital image, whether on ebay, amazon, or anywhere. Of course I would get one in a smaller size if I could find one, but I want to try and avoid Chinese-made if I can.

Try UK ebay for clear / orange lamps such as a astro baby - they do come up from time to time.

I have to say that the one you are after (a china 16oz orange) I had got and it flowed for the first 2 times then just didn't all the other times, I gookited it to orange and clear and is good as its going to be.

From my experience and others on hear I would not recommend trying to find a clear / orange china lamp as they are rubbish. Save your time and money and try getting a Mathmos one or USA one such as the orange electric.

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