How to get Snake/Column flow

[Da9L]

Is there anything you can add to get a flow that is more column/snakelike based ? When i have redone a few of my lamps, including the mathmos i've had problems with, im never able to get any column based flow.. Its allways just blobs, and its boring to look at.. One blob up and another down, and thats just it.. I want the columns!

What i've read here is to add surfactant, and that would give the column flow.. I usally first put around 3/4 destilled water in the lamp and let it heat up untill the wax is liquidified.. Then i start to add glycerin to change the density of the water.. When the wax starts flowing i add a few drops of SLES to get some more column based flow.. This DOES change the flow to be more column like, but not NEARLY as much as what you see on a stuck mathmos lamp or lava lite.. I tried experimenting with it, and added a very large amount of SLES to the mathmos lamp i had to repair to see what it did, and yes, it was allmost as column like flow as i would like, but when adding to much SLES the wax will begin to break up into tiny blobs, and sooner or later the globe would be filled with hundreds of those..

Isnt there anything else you can add to get this column flow other than SLES?

[Da9L]

I have no idea if this would change anything at all, but maybe i should try using epsom salts instead of glycerin when changing the density of the wax?

[Astralav]

In the goo kit Tutorial it is written:

** The more surfactant you use, the more round blobs will be produced.

** The less surfactant you use, the long stretchy type of blob you'll get.

and somewhere else on the forum it is written the contrary.

but I think the tutorial is right...

So maybe you added too much surfactant at the start.

PS: salt and glycerin change the density of water, not the wax's.

[Da9L]

That was exactly what i was confused about too .. But in my experience, at least with the mathmos lamp i have, its about adding the right amount of surfactant.. Adding nothing will, in the mathmos case, produce round blobs only.. Adding too much and you will get stretchy blobs, but the wax will break into very tiny blobs, which doesnt look good.. So i thought it was about finding the right amount of surfactant, but it just doesnt produce enough stretchy flow, and if add more it will begin to break the wax..

[Tim Gill]

Unfortunately getting the perfect snake like flow is really Mathmos's signature and its very hard to recreate without having a knodladge of the Mathmos / lava lite formula and / or ingredients first.

However adding just the right amount of surf will help probably the best you could get would be to add a small amount more surf then needed to get it flowing in a bloby flow.

Really the snake like flow is a combination of both the wax formula and the master fluid formula and there is probably a lot more to it then just adding more or less surf.

[Da9L]

You are probably right Tim, and that would be rather hard to find out ..

I just read here in a topic Erin created about getting rid of the column flow.. A lamp she showed had this flow 90%, which ofcourse is too much, and someone wrote that glycerin would help to remove all the columning.. So maybe the fact that i allways use glycerin DOES have something to do with me not being able to get column flow.. I will try redoing my Jet once more, and this time i will try with epsom salts instead of Glycerin..

[Erin]

The lamp I re-did (1960s green/red) has kinda in-between. I did the epsom salts/dish soap method. The dish soap did give some column-like flow, but also produced bubbles in the lamp. 

[Da9L]

Erin thats the flow i want i guess.. The best flow i have seen in any of my lamps is this (my favorite lamp)

http://oozinggoo.ning.com/video/my-blue-mathmos-jet-lamp

And as you can see it has both columns and bubbles..

Unfortunately this is also the lamp which is broken and the one im trying to restore :(

[Da9L]

I just tried replacing the liquid in my jet.. Untill now i've been using Glycerin to change density, but now im using Epsom salt instead.. I will just heat it up and tell how it goes.. Its the exact same density as before. I used my Hydrometer to measure the liquid density both with the glycerin solution and now with the epsom salt solution, so lets see if the flow changes..

[Erin]

I wish I could find something that doesn't cause bubbles in the wax. But I'm wondering if the Jet is a different formula altogether. 

[Da9L]

Yeah bubbly wax is an issue i have yet to hear a fix for.. Why not experiment with it ? I have no lamps with bubbly wax so i cant try anything out.. The lamp that has the issue did you make it yourself ? And how did you make it ?

[Erin]

No, all the lamps I've had with bubbly wax were not GooKits. Some are all original and one has replaced liquid. 

[John Sylte]

In my experience, if you get too many blobs, the lamp is running a little on the hot side. Nothing to do with surf or liquid contents or anything. Easy solution, try a dimmer switch and see of that helps.