Restoring the original wax?

Honest, I've looked online, many times, many places. And I haven't seen any discussion on this.

I have an "original" Century and of course, it wasn't in great shape when I got it. So I read and read, and after running it didn't help, I dumped the original stinky fluid and replaced that with distilled water, Epsom salt, and later a pinch (which is too much!) of Dawn.

Okay, I got the specific gravity of the saltwater trimmed to about 1.3 using a $25 refractometer from Amazon. And the goo moved pretty well, but not as good as a new lamp. So I got around to thinking.

My lamp was about 1.5" down from full when I got it. That doesn't just mean "water" evaporated out past the o-ring. Since the original wax had carbon tet in it, and that's more volatile than water, I'm sure the old wax is now a different viscosity (thicker) than it originally was. Among other changes.

So while I'm planning to try some different changes sooner or later, like using a water-glycol mix and going "salt free" in the fluid, I'm curious to know if anyone has tried to restore the original wax. Adding carbon tet or perc to it, or finding some way to measure and adjust the waxes viscosity and specific gravity objectively, not just by "add a pinch of" and crossing fingers?

Anyone?

(And yes, I know there are new gookits, also that they are designed to work with water as the fluid, and a different wax. I'd like to try restoring the original wax first.)

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Permalink Reply by Kempton on March 28, 2014 at 9:37pm

Maybe this is what you are looking for?

http://www.oozinggoo.com/howto.html

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Permalink Reply by Red Letour on March 29, 2014 at 11:52am

Thanks, Kempton. I'm going to reread that stuff again but there are so many options, so many "it might be" choices, and of course the kludges with flammable liquids are something I'll be happy to just avoid. I'm not 100% happy about using carbon tet either, actually, but assuming I seal the damned thing properly...<G>

I suppose there are many ways to skin a cat and some of the fun will be figuring out just which way makes the goo go the way I want it to, huh?