Trying to fix a 60s Century

[Erin]

So this lamp:

clouded up again. I removed the fluid and am trying some experiments.

• Tap water only. No flow.
• Distilled water only. No flow. 
• Distilled water with GooKit surf. No flow. 
• Distilled water with salt...getting there, but won't detach and rise.
• Distilled water with salt and dish soap - decent flow, but lava is now stuck to sides of glass and is very bubbly. 

Tell me about what dishsoap does and what salt (I'm using canning salt - pure salt) does. I'm trying to learn. This shouldn't be this hard!!!

[DooDad]

Purdy!!

[Da9L]

Hmm the bubble issue seems to be a unreasolveable problem as far as i can read around here.. Was there any situation were your wax was not bubbly ? And did you get rid of the sticking issue ?

[Erin]

Yes, the wax was NOT bubbly when I was just using salt and distilled water. When I added the dish soap (surfactant), that's when the bubbles in the wax appeared. 

Yes, oddly, the wax does seem to unstick itself even after I've messed with it so much. Odd! 

[Kempton]

Sweet

[Da9L]

Erin it must have something to do with the surfactant used.. Maybe there something within that specific brand of dish soap that causes bubbles ? You should try SLES or SLS..

[Erin]

That's what I'm guessing. I just used some cheap dish soap I have. I have some SLES coming this week in the mail. I'll dump and try again!