Mathmos Glitterball Not Blobbing

[Mark]

As in the picture, the fluid is nice and clear, and the lava rises but won't blob....any ideas?

[Mark]

That sounds fun!

Give Ron my best regards, and ask him to send me a pic of his Planetarium!

andy ross said:

Nice work - really bright, clean "goo"...as you know, they develop small globules when they get old and tired

I discovered - by chance - they look ace in a black hole (eg a matt-black-painted shelf surround) - you get your own private Planetarium...and even the small glob breakaways can be moons and asteroids; enjoy!

I'll tell Ron  H to save his pocket money

[Mark]

Meant to ask....were these designed to run on a 30 or 40w bulb?

[andy ross]

Should be 30w small reflector, but with your twin coil set-up you might get interesting results with a 25w golfball, though it might take a while to get going...

I'll ask Ron to dig out his Box Brownie next time he runs the G-Ball

[Peter Panussi]

Johnny said:

That looks lush :-) that version was the best, the green, blue with glitter in tended to stick to the glass, when originaly released there were more colours shown but never saw them for sale via mathmos.

I think you are talking about these ones? I also never ever saw even a picture of the yellow glittergoo, or the blue liquid-white glittergoo.

Has anybody else ever seen these in original??

[Johnny]

The clear and red did make it in national paper when the Austin powers film came out, but for the other colours never seen em, shame as i think they were great :-(

[Mr MaGoo]

How bout sharing the rejuvenation tips you were privy too.  Sure those with glitter balls would appreciate the info... Thank you!

[Mark]

As described above, I simply changed the fluid for new glycerine, and then added a second coil.

Unfortunately it hasn't worked consistently though.

As pictured above, it worked beautifuly the first time after adding the second coil, but hasn't worked since unless I give it a gentle tip to the side when hot so that the column breaks apart.

Mr MaGoo said:

How bout sharing the rejuvenation tips you were privy too.  Sure those with glitter balls would appreciate the info... Thank you!

[andy ross]

Could it be running too hot with the two coils?

I find it goes - big blobs (OK), then after a while it goes to the column (too hot so I dim it down)

When it goes to sheep-droppings it's way too hot

This is a big custom, of course, but same goo, so same principles - perhaps!

[Mark]

Thanks Andy, this one bursts into life within the first couple of minutes, with very metallic looking blobs (not sure if that's typical?).

Then settles down quite quickly, before forming the column as per the original picture, where it just languishes for hours.... unless you give it a little nudge!

I removed the 2nd coil after discovering it wasn't working consistently.

Day off today though, so will experiment with some different bulbs.

[Mark]

The initial burst!

[andy ross]

Not sure about the white speckling - have you seen it before?
The only time I've seen this was (much worse) when the goo was on its way out, hope yours is something else...

[Mark]

It's like glitter, and you only see it that with the initial burst of bubbles. 

Does yours bubble up that quickly when you first switch it on, before going into a column?