Lamp hardening and heat up time

[Bruce Halliday]

OK you pro's out there I need some help!

 

I have made two homemade lamps from bee's wax and alcohol, when I shut the lamp down and it cools the alcohol as well as the wax hardens as if the whole thing were made of wax.

 

Also does anyone know how I can speed up the heat up time on the lamps, it is taking close to two hours with a 40 watt bulb on a tin can base.

 

Here is a pic

Thanks

Bruce

[Keith]

My thoughts on decreasing start up time would be to make sure that the bulb is close to the glass (but not touching). I would think that 1/4 inch would be about right. You might also try running it with a 60w bulb with a dimmer, once it reaches operating temperature you can adjust the dimmer to get the right flow.

[Kempton]

mine does this too. I think it is not going to be normal. during heatup does stuff stick to the sides and melt upwards?

[Bruce Halliday]

No it melts out normal and flows fine after it heats up, it just takes about 2 hours to heat up, all the wax has to melt back into alcohol. I never saw alcohol freeze before so it must be the wax mixiong with the alcohol to a certain extent?

 

Hope somebody can shed some light on it!

 

Bruce

[Phauss]

I've been working with a lamp of my own that has a mix of paraffin wax and beeswax, at a ratio of about 16oz. of paraffin wax to 4oz. of beeswax. I've experienced the same thing and have been looking for a way to keep this from happening. In my jar, though, I get more of a alcohol/beeswax slushie, although it looks solid from the outside. I suspect that might be becuase unlike the parrafin wax, the beeswax will dissolve into the alcohol and remain clear while it's hot.

 

I'm using the beeswax to make the goo cloudy, so when I color the wax it won't be clear or see through. I'm thinking the best solution would be to start over and find something petroleum-based to mix with the paraffin wax, otherwise I think we're stuck with this problem unless we want clear lava.