Hello! Newbie here!

[Liz B]

Greetings! New UK lava mad lady here! I've been silently reading all that goes on here for a few weeks! Finally plucked up the courage to introduce myself! I've only been collecting lamps for 3 weeks - mostly Mathmos as that is all that tends to turn up here - but a couple of Sata Hunters too. My kitchen is now a fully fledged chemistry lab! I have a huge pile of lamp bases and caps, and I have Perc solution, Polyethylene glycol, De-ionised water, glycerine, glitter, wax, wax dye, food colourings - you name it I have it! I have taken apart other lamps and transferred the contents successfully; changed masterfluid on a copper Crestworth Astro successfully; taken lava and redyed it then given it new masterfluid. Tomorrow I'm going to make a fast flow glitterlite using the tinsel glitter out of a broken Sata and put it into an old Mathmos Jet bottle. Then the next stage will be to try and make my own wax from scratch, so I can completely rebuild old spent lava lamps and breathe new life into them! I've really enjoyed reading up about all the tips on here for lava and glitter restorations. Fascinating stuff!

 

At the moment I have 17 assorted glitter/lava/wave etc lamps. I'm having 14 more assorted lamps sent to me next week so that I can restore or rebuild them and have a play! I will post pics at some point if you like. And thank you for letting me join!

 

Liz

[Liz B]

Oh, OK I thought Perc and Trichlo were the same thing. Oh, just checked. I was confusing it with Tetra!

 

My other 2 Satas the glitter floats. The one that broke, the glitter sank! I was a little confused!

 

I broke the top section of the globe off when I tried to remove the copper cap! I took it outside for a while so I could open it in the open, but temperatures were so low that morning that it caused the glass to become brittle. When I tried to force the cap, the glass just came off with the cap! I used some bad language........

[Astralav]

Too bad you couldn't save the liquid.

Are the glitter from the 2 other Satas (floating) were the same speed as the one who sinks?

Or did the one who sinks was slower? (In this case it may be propylene Glycol).

Could you check if the bottle from Sata contains the exact same quatity of liquid as the Jet one?

Thanks

[Liz B]

One of my Satas works at the same speed as the broken one, and also the same speed as my Crestworth Living Jewel. (The second Sata doesn't work unless shaken as it is old, cloudy, and knackered!) The broken one was definitely solvent based - it stank! I don't know if propylene glycol smells like solvents, but polyethylene glycol (slow glitter) certainly doesn't smell. And as the broken Sata was already low on fluid, I could not tell you how the volume of fluid in a Sata compares to the volume of fluid in a Jet. But I would say no, you need more. When I transferred a Bliss Motion metallic lava lamp over into a Jet bottle it needed a top up of de-ionised water, so I'm guessing a Sata would need a top up.

 

Thanks for your input Astralav!

[Arne]

strange that the perc doesnt work. its definitely good to top uo solvent glitters though. propylene glycol diesnt smell and its slippery like glycerine. never heard of trichloroethylene...whats that?
astralav, a sata is enough for a jet. just make sure you dont cloud it. one drop of water kills it. (btw I bet thats why some arent working and are cloudy...the solvent evaporated an they wanted ti top it up with water..bam, fucked!
glitters dont get as cloudy as some apear on ebay.

[Astralav]

trichloroethylene was vastly used as a cleaner or paint remover (or braincell killer recreative drug).

I don't know if it was used in glitter lamps. Sorry I mistaken it from Perc in a precedent message in this subject (these scientific names are confusing :-) ).

I should have said:

if the glitter is fast and sinks when cold, the liquid should be perc (and not trichloroethylene, sorry).

and

if the glitter is fast and float it should be Trichlorotrifluoroethane.

So I'm surprised you top up your glitter lamps with perc, except if they are the "fast/sink" type glitter.

[Liz B]

The one success I did have today was in creating a slow glitter just now. I mixed one part flaked desicated polyethylene glycol with 3 parts distilled water and kept agitating (it tooked AGES to disolve!). The solution wasn't strong enough to work with tiny plastic flowers and I thought it had failed, but when I added 4 foil flakes from out of another glitter lamp IT WORKED! So all I need to find is tiny foil flakes.........

 

So I'm foxed as to why the Perc solution didn't work with the fast glitter. All that pretty tinsel glitter and it doesn't twinkle. Bollocks.

[Astralav]

Sorry I can't help you with that.

Maybe Hunter lamps used another chemical.

For the flakes, I would love to find the same that Mathmos use, but it's nearly impossible to search them with this stupid fingernail trend. Google is not your friend in this case :-(

[Arne]

How do you know the jewels are trichlorofluo@€?€&:?
for the top up part I guess its just like you can too up a lava lamp with water as long as its not too much. never seen a fast glitter where the glitter isnt floating though...

[Liz B]

I read it on here Arne!!!! August 27 2010 someone called 'stevemo' posted on here! He gave the detail and the difference between fast and slow glitters! And if you google Perchloroethylene it comes up with a variety of names: Perc, Tetrachloroethylene or PCE as all the same chemical. 'Stevemo' postulated that Jewels were made of Trichlorotrifluorethane OR Perc. But he must have been wrong, as the Perc don't work!

[Arne]

well, if perc doesnt work did you try trichloroflourethane...or is that also the same as tetrachloroethylene?

[Arne]

Also i know a guy who made a working perc glitter but also with big glitter pieces like the jewel uses. no contact to him anymore but I saw it running.

[Astralav]

Because it is written on some of them (there is a pic here somewhere with the sticker on it saying : Trichlorotrifluoroethane )

Arne said:

How do you know the jewels are trichlorofluo@€?€&:?
f