It just WONT STOP STICKING

[Da9L]

I've lost all hope in my mathmos jet bottle .. Allmost.. This is its last chance..

It all began with my perfect blue jet had gotten some small hair into it .. And i wanted to remove it by filtering the liquid.. So i did and it went well, but the hair was still there, and stupid as i were i just thought "hey i can just rinse it by adding tap water to it without the liquid in it so it gets washed out"

Well i got the hair out but then bagan the sticking offcourse since i had washed out some of the surfactants on the side of the globe..So decided to empty the bottle and then clean it, and readd the wax and contents.. I did this the usual way (i guess?) by placing the globe wihout liquid, in a pot on a stove with a plate under it.. Filled it with water and heated it up intill the wax melted so i could pour it out .. All went fine. I took the allmost boiling water and added it to the globe and added some soap to it and began the shaking .. Very small amounts of the wax just didnt seem to get off so i added a bottle brush and wiped them away.. Again i added some of the allmost boiling water and shaked it .. I did that three times to be sure it would be clean.

After that i emptied the bottle and added a very small amount of destilled water and added some SLES and a small amount of dish soap to it. and gently swoshed it around to make it coat the inside of the globe..After this i heated up the wax and poured it back into the globe without any splashing to the globes sides, waited for it to cool down and then readded the liquid and turned it on.. It soon after began sticking again! So i did all the above a second time and it still sticks a whole lot ..

You know at the bottom of the globe were the wax is when the lamp is off? All the place it takes there to the sides is where i have sticking.. It also goes a little up in one of the sides ..

Does anyone of you have any idea what i can do to prevent this ? Is it because the wax is somehow damaged that it continues to stick to the globe ? I can add some pictues of it later if you want to..

[Jus]

Somewhere in here they say wrapping in aluminum foil...

sbyl...good luck-

[Da9L]

Jus

Yeah i've tried that too for a few hours, forgot to mention.. Didnt help :(

[Lukeonia1]

If there's nothing wrong with your wax and you're using enough surfactant, then I suspect you still have a microscopically-thin film of wax coating the inside of the globe, and all that boiling water you added probably only made it worse.

My advice is to empty out the globe again, and once you've washed/scrubbed it out inside as best you can, go after it with a sponge-on-a-stick and some abrasive cleaner; I used Bon Ami, and it seemed to work. Scrub the inside of the glass with a paste of that until your arms threaten to fall off, then wash and rinse it again like you've never rinsed before. Don't use a green scrubby pad or a plastic-bristled brush or you risk scratching the glass.

For good measure, once you have the bottle clean and rinsed and ready to refill, bake it in an oven at 450F for a couple hours. Don't preheat the oven, and don't remove the globe until you've turned it off and the oven has cooled. This *should* be enough to drive off any remaining wax molecules from the surface of the glass. Be sure to clean your fingerprints off the outside of the bottle!

And if ALL else fails, you can clean the inside of the bottle with sodium hydroxide (drain cleaner). Rinse it with distilled water about 10 times, then rinse with acetone, then bake it, then add your liquid+surf, then add your wax. Consider this a last resort though, because sodium hydroxide WILL etch glass if it's hot or too concentrated. It's also corrosive in an excruciating turn-your-skin-into-soap kind of way.

[Kobra Karl]

Warning. I tried foil wrapping to solve the sticking wax problem on 2 old lamps I had. Worked okay on one but the other... the top blew off and caused a mess on walls and ceiling.( red wax white ceiling and walls). Luckily no one was close by when it occurred. Crazy clean up and now I need to paint. Grrrr. I recommend using this method with extreme caution!! The globes had never been tampered with prior to applying the foil in case someone suspects improper seal.

[Da9L]

Neil said:

You bottle tamperers make me laff. All that trouble n nonsense and for what? Bin it n buy a new one off ebay. 

Dont write to my threads anymore.. I dont care that this make you "laff" its a hobby i have and i do it because i find it fascinating to tamper with the lamps.. I have no idea why you felt the need to write to a topic with something as irrelevant as this .. 

[Erin]

I agree. The old addage "if you don't have anything nice to say"...

I full support the tamperers and tinkerers - it's how we all learn. 

The only thing I've ever seen tried to un-stick stuck was is a complete rinse of the globe with gasoline or de-greaser.

Check here, too: http://oozinggoo.ning.com/forum/topics/how-to-fix-wax-sticking-to?p...

Da9L said:

Neil said:

You bottle tamperers make me laff. All that trouble n nonsense and for what? Bin it n buy a new one off ebay. 

Dont write to my threads anymore.. I dont care that this make you "laff" its a hobby i have and i do it because i find it fascinating to tamper with the lamps.. I have no idea why you felt the need to write to a topic with something as irrelevant as this .. 

[Erin]

We don't tolerate personal attacks of any kind Neil.

You certainly have free speech, but per our moderation rules, any sort of personal attack won't be tolerated. For a reminder on what is/is not OK, check our our moderation policy: http://oozinggoo.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-og-moderation-policy

Let's keep this thread on topic. 

Neil said:

Touched a nerve? Never heard of free speech? This is a public space and ill respond how I like. Nothing in my post was offensive. Get a grip pal. 

[Jim]

I hate to burst your bubble, but this is not a "public space".  You are only free to post on this site due to the good graces of Mr. Mark Goo. 

Neil said:

Touched a nerve? Never heard of free speech? This is a public space and ill respond how I like. Nothing in my post was offensive. Get a grip pal. 

[Da9L]

Anyhow might as well give a proper response on the topic.. The lamp has been fixed, as i just continued to rinse it and after a few more tries i stopped sticking completely, so there is no problems anymore!

Once again thanks for the help to everyone !  :-) 

[Erin]

Yay! Excellent news Daniel. :)

[Marley's Ghost]

Yippee!!   So happy you got it working now, Daniel, great job!