Oozing Goo - The Lava Lamp Syndicate

Hi everybody!

I'm an artist, I just started collecting lava lamps, and just joined! I actually wouldn't really say I'm a serious collector, but I do love lava lamps, and have a few of them...or I will.

I've always loved them, but it wasn't until fairly recently that I actually owned one, a $10 job from Wal-Mart with blue water and yellow wax. It worked great...until the yellw wax became discolored, and the flow stopped completely. :( Then I looked into homemade mods. :)

This is what that lamp looks like now:

All ready to go! I also bought a quart of goo from magma tower, and I have various ways of coloring it. I can't wait to get started!

Here's another lamp of mine, an orange lava glitter lamp (I didn't have any idea how scarce these were at the time, I just love transparent or shiny orange so I wanted this one):

Apparently they had one left, and I got it. :) Trying to find another one like it has proven impossible.

Also, I just recently won these auctions:

- A lot of three lava lites from 1996:

I got those for $15 apiece. :) I mainly wanted the orange one, but I like both of the other colors a lot. I feel like I got an excellent deal on that!

I also won this oozy glo tower for $10 :)

There is some damage, but I mainly plan to mod it anyway.

Those are some good deals, but...I paid way too much for this:

It's an orange elec-trick from 91, I think? It's not even the original run, but I wound up paying $67 anyway. I just had to have it. All the others sold from that line by this seller went for 30 bucks apiece...but the one that I wanted. LOL!

None of those are actually here yet though. I won them and paid for them, but I'm waiting on shipping. I'm so excited!!

Well that's all for me for a little while!

Good to meet all of you!

[EDIT] I also just bought one of these.

I can't believe I found one new finally! And now I am DONE for a while. LOL! Tax check is gone. :p

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Ah, I see what you mean. Well I don't know why, but it's been easier for me to find those older ones from the 90's for some reason. Maybe just a trend that will cycle around? I hope so.

I'm still learning a lot, and still have a lot to learn. Sorry to be so noobish!

Just out of curiosity, how much should I expect to pay for a Mathmos jet? They don't offer them on the website any more, which means I'd probably have to get one on ebay. I don't think Mathmos US is ready to ship yet, so that's not an option.

For some reason, Lava Lite has been weird when it comes to their current selection. There was the Designer series, some special lamps for Spencer's only...they show up briefly, Lava Lite never mentions them on their website or Facebook and then they're gone. 


No worries on being a noob! We were all there once. :)

Mathmos does not make the Jet anymore, so the only place to get one will be eBay UK or someone here who's already purchased one. They will run you $75 and up plus shipping, usually. 

Thanks!

Well I don't intend to keep bumping this introductory thread too much, but I wanted to update. I now have all of these lamps but the last orange/white, and the glitter lamp I raved about in another thread. The seller still hasn't even shipped that. I want it too much to not be nervous about it...that's always when something bad happens. :p Wish me luck on that one.

Of the 3 from 1996, ALL THREE are cloudy. The orange/yellow one is probably the least cloudy, and had the best flow. The red and green ones started out great, but after about 2 hours they just sit there with a huge blob hovering up and down, still attached to the bottom. The red one's cap either became loose during shipping, or already was loose when the seller packed it. A good 2 Tbsp leaked out, at least.

Finally, the orange elec-trick. NO BULB. He hit me in a bad mood already. I'm making him mail me a bulb. LOL! Well? He should have stated in the sale that it had no bulb. One good thing though, this IS in fact the original run after all. I placed it under my blacklight, and sure enough, it glowed orange. :) Works well, too. Water is crystal clear.

But what would you guys do with the red and green lamps, if you were me? I could either try and filter the water, or replace it entirely, or I could use my goo kit and start all over again from scratch. The metallic goo idea I had failed miserably, but I still have lots of goo base, and a couple of colors of dye. I got orange (of course), and flourescent blue. The flourescent blue only looks blue under a blacklight, otherwise it looks white...so I was thinking of putting that in some blue water. I'd hate to ruin those 2 globes if I could salvage them, but I'm kinda torn...

Oh and here is the metallic orange goo:

Looks pretty good, huh? Well it didn't work at all. :( I used mica powder, and I thought the current would keep the mica in suspension...but it all sank to the bottom, and blocked the flow completely. I wound up having to pour the whole thing out. :( Oh well, live and learn.

Hello the older lamps usually clear up after a few runs. it sounds like they overheated after 2 hours U should use 40 watt bulbs. get a inline dimmer for the hardware store so you can reduce heat. start looking in craigslist or a Goodwill, thrift store, or the feamarket for lamps instead of having them mailed to you.

I agree. Run them a few times and they will clear up. They are always a little hazy after shipping. Run them for 4-6 hours at a time each day for a week or so.

Kudos for trying the metallic wax attempt with Mica powder. A couple of us here have beat our heads against the desk for years trying to figure out how to make metallic wax. Mica I dont think we ever tried but we've tried a lot. The only way to successfully get metallic wax is to use silver sharpie marker ink. There are a lot of discussions and photos of custom metallic here ;)

http://oozinggoo.ning.com/photo/metallic-grande-close-up?context=user

http://oozinggoo.ning.com/profiles/blogs/creating-a-metallic-lava-lamp

Oh yeah...I meant to include "see if I can clear them with use" as an option. :p Thanks for the advice, you guys. I'm going to do that.

I'm just itching for an excuse to make some custom globes, but I want to maintain those red and green guys in their original state too much to kill them, if they can be saved...especially if I can save them just by turning them on. These are the first 32's I've ever owned, and there really is a big difference in the way the mix behaves, at least it seems that way to me. I can only assume that there is also a difference when going from the 32 to a 52, or a 52 to a grande.

Oh, and there really is no other option for me right now than having my lamps mailed to me, unfortunately. The glitter lamp I bought on ebay still hasn't shipped, and now he's not returning my message. :-/

I'm also going to check out the bulbs in these three lamps from 96. Maybe there's a difference? I'm just running what they came with (if they came with :p).

It is a good idea to check bulbs when you get lamps. Some people have no clue and cook their lamps with a 60W bulb. I do think that 32s flow different than 52s, but that makes sense. 

Most of my lamps are shipping to me, too. I can't seem to find much of anything local. It stinks. 


Keep us posted and don't worry about bumping you're n00b thread - we're here to help!

I missed this! Thanks a lot for that! Wow...that looks great.

Oh and Erin, I'm going to go ahead and respond to you here, because I'm having a bit of trouble with multi-quoting. I can't seem to turn off italics or quotes once they are turned on! This board is just a bit different from what I'm used to, but I'll adjust eventually. Responding before the quote seems...kinda weird to me. (^ ; ^)

I had a look at the bulbs, and one says "40w", while the other (which looks basically identical) just says "CHINA" on it. What's funny is that both the red and green lamps behave the same way, even when I switch the globes. I think maybe the wax might be...kinda cooked? I still need to check out the bulb in the orange one from that lot, but that one runs GREAT. I <3 it. :)

Dr. WHAT?! said:

Kudos for trying the metallic wax attempt with Mica powder. A couple of us here have beat our heads against the desk for years trying to figure out how to make metallic wax. Mica I dont think we ever tried but we've tried a lot. The only way to successfully get metallic wax is to use silver sharpie marker ink. There are a lot of discussions and photos of custom metallic here ;)

http://oozinggoo.ning.com/photo/metallic-grande-close-up?context=user

http://oozinggoo.ning.com/profiles/blogs/creating-a-metallic-lava-lamp

Well apparently it wasn't the mica. :-/

I just tried another batch of orange, without the mica...it did the same thing, What am I doing wrong? I'm using the right amount of surfactant, I'm pretty sure, but the wax just sits there on the bottom. It's crumpled itself up into a ball, it's crawled up the side of the bottle, it's almost totally molten, but it won't flow even if I poke at it with a dowel. :( SIGH...

I keep putting more clear dish soap in, a few drops at a time, but nothing makes the wax liquefy. I got it the PERFECT shade of orange, too.

How long have you been heating it up? What bulb? What's in the globe?

Sorry! I should have specified that I was talking about my custom goo kit, in a 20oz globe.

It was a over an hour...almost an hour and a half, but I can't be sure. I should have been paying closer attention to the time!

In any case, I finally got some spikes going on! Then they began to sink, and I was in business.

Then the bulb burned out. LOL!!!

I found a spare, but by the time I did the wax had solidified. No matter, I'll Just start the test again, and pay closer attention to the time this time around.

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