Weird problem with my lamp.

[Mr. Monster]

Hey all! It's my first time posting here and I'm excited to see if you all can help. I've picked up a lamp from ebay and when I heated it up the water got real cloudy and the wax pooled at the bottom. So I did some research and opted to try draining the water and refilling with distilled and slowly adding a solution if water and epsom salt. Eventually (after adding WAY more salt solution than I expected) the wax lifted and hovered about halfway up the lamp.

Then things got weird.

The water under the wax got cloudy, the water above stayed clear and the wax stayed dead center... And cooled there. So now I have a very wax free coil at the bottom, a solid puck of wax hallway up and what I can only assume is the water separated into two separate densities. Anyone have an idea on what I do next?

[Keith]

Hmm, sound to me like your assumption may be correct.  But I would expect the water to mix so that there wouldn't be separate densities.  I suppose if excessive salt was added you could have a supersaturated solution?  

Personally I don't use salt.  I use propylene glycol found in "fog juice" solution.  I used a very minimal amount in a Grande that was cloudy.  A far as flow goes it was successful but I used a solution of "bubble" liquid (used for blowing bubbles), for a surfactant, that I think caused the globe to recloud.

[Brad]

agree with keith that the cloudiness is due to supersaturation, and you're seeing precipitation as a result.  i'd dump it and start over.  heat up a few cups of distilled on the stove, then add epsom salt until the solution is saturated (until you start to see grains of salt), then slowly add the mixture to a globe of pure distilled.  make sure the wax is liquid before doing this.  add a few fl oz. until the wax starts to rise and fall from the top.  then you have the correct densities.  welcome to OG!