My birthday grande STILL won't erupt! :(

[Loren]

What the hell?

This is the second quart of goo I've put in there...it's doing exactly what the last one did. It's swelling up after several hours, and rolling over, but after 48 hours on, it STILL will not flow, or even erupt. :(

I just can't have a grande that works, apparently. :(

Should I try to get YET ANOTHER quart of goo?

Is this caused by some other problem? This is my first grande, goo-kitted or not.

[Jus]

Loren, I'm sorry you are having such frustration with your lamp.  You have been so good to help others get some lamps that bring them joy...you deserve some too! 

I've definitely seen a thread SOMEWHERE on this site where a guy was talking about how simply changing his coil took his lamp from no go to great flow.  Grande's are so big, maybe they need the extra coil! 

It's all such a delicate balance, one that I'm farrrr from understanding.  Did you keep all the goo from previous attempts?  The reason I ask is, I did keep the goo I received which has the black and shiny specks all in it.  I was disappointed, but since I had the bad goo, I decided WHAT THE HECK?  I jus decided I'm gonna try all kinds of things, to see what happens.  I grudgingly experimented at first, but am actually still jackin' around with this speckled goo, jus to see the different results.  I hope you'll find some happy ground soon, and get your birthday Grande going.  But in the meantime, I can say it's actually been kinda fun, and certainly interesting and very perplexing to jus throw caution to the wind, and see what I can make happen. I don't know if you have the slightest mindset such as this, but I thought I'd share it anyway...

Good luck Loren!   I know you'll get your Grande.  It will happen!

 

[Bridget T]

I think any salt will work as long as it doesn't have anti-caking ingredients in it.  Try looking for cheaper sea salts.  The cheaper ones are usually all white but no anti-caking.  The expensive ones are usually colored.  Check the bottom shelf of your grocery stores.

[Tim Gill]

Canning / picking salts will work fine - thats really your best bet to get it flowing

Grandes don't need 2 coils espshally goo kit ones as gookits run at a lower temp so there is no need for more heat

[Jus]

But, Sir Tim, thy goo, 'tis misbehavin'...

Heh!

I vote epsom salt, which lends the buoyancy without the metal corrosive factor of true salt; any of which it is not, actually.  

Here's all ya dew-stir epsom salt into distilled water until no more will dissolve.  Then heat that solution in microwave til at or near boiling.  Again, add and stir in more ES, until no more will dissolve.  You'll know cuz the salt jus settles out on the bottom of the glass, and heat nor stirring will dissolve it.  Add your resulting super-saturated epsom salt solution, a drop at a time until you see a reaction.  I've never been able to do those drops as intermittantly as recommended.  The slower you go the closer you can tune that balance.

[Loren]

The wax won't melt, though...that's the problem. The wax is acting like it WANTS to rise, but the outside is still rough looking, like hard wax.

That's why I was hoping more surf would fix it, but it didn't.

I just melted the wax, and poured it out again.

I'm going to try and run some of this in one of my column lamps. If it flows, then it was probably the fact that I didn't have the plug in while I was running it...but if it doesn't, then I'll know it's yet another quart of bad goo.

I'll have to contact MT AGAIN to try and get another replacement quart. :-/

[Tim Gill]

Well I take back what I said about not needing another coil, if the wax is not melting then another coil may help.