Unforeseen Consequences

After stabilizing for a few days, my first ooze batch separated into a light ooze and a heavy ooze and it seemed no matter what I tried the lamp stopped working. I bought a dimmer switch to tweak the heat, but it didn't seem to do much. The light ooze was floating on top of the water and had a slightly pink color to it (the original lamp had red lava in it and I think I didn't clean the spring completely) and the heavy ooze was static at the bottom.

I started over with fresh paraffin and Brakleen. I strayed from the 1/3 perc 2/3 wax (by volume) formula in an attempt to get closer to 1.03 density. The antifreeze I used listed ethylene glycol, some other glycol and water as ingredients. I mixed up my 1.02 and 1.04 test mixes by using a gram scale. I adding 20 grams of antifreeze to 80 grams of water to make the 1.02 and 40 grams of antifreeze to 60 grams of water to make the 1.04 mixture (is that right?). I can't be sure of the exact specific gravity of the antifreeze and I now suspect it is not 1.1.

I ended up adding more paraffin to the ooze to get it to sink in the 1.02 and float in the 1.04. However, I think the new ooze is way too light now because it starts floating in pure water before it is even fully melted. It did not "dome" out as it did in the first batch.

I tried the straw method of obtaining a small sample of solidified ooze, but I seemed to get some inconsistent results. I think there may some air that develops in the cooling ooze. I resorted to a method of inserting a cold metal rod into molten ooze and by using the candle making technique of repeatedly inserting and removing the rod. I built up a nice layer of solidified ooze that seemed to be very consistent density-wise.

I am going to try again using the 1/3 to 2/3 volume ratio as accurately as I can and hope it does not separate as it did the first time.

Also, how important is the soap additive? The formula I used was not specific enough for me. What is a small drop? I'll go back and reread it to see if is more specific.