27" Grande Project?

[PinkFloyd Effect]

I'm new to this site, not a collector just a retro do-it-yourselfer. I acquired this Grande lamp for free from a neighbor I think it is really cool being so big but it came with a burnt bulb and a boxed burnt bulb so...2 burnt bulbs. I got discouraged when I realized it used a 100W bulb which is too much to run consistently just for effects which is when I started doing research on how to "green" the lamp up. 

Not sure if anyone can decode these numbers to tell how old the unit is I believe it is all original.

In my research I realized you can re-goo them and the kits have lighter wax which requires less wattage then the factory goo does so I plan on doing this I saw kits on eBay for about $30 not sure if that is enough for one of these sized lamps. I want white lava since my walls and furniture are white which goes good against the stainless it will make for a very contemporary lamp, then I'm not sure if the re-goo kits keep the water clear for much longer periods of time but I'm unsure I may want the water to be Caribbean-teal color like the liner on a pool. 

Then I was thinking about trying to insulate the base to make more efficient use of the heat loss through aluminum which is a conductor of heat. I will install a twist knob "pot" style dimmer on the base of the lamp itself, as far as the bulb goes not sure if they more a better light bulb then the basic 100w they sell for use in these? I thought about retrofit combining LEDs and a heating coil but probably would not make any difference in electricity consumption. They don't make a better designed coil ring I should install with the goo kit do they??

Long term goal with the lamp is to turn it into a usable bedside end table like the colossal/colossus lamp probably the same width glass ring with a smaller hole in the center for more usable table area. The thing I can't figure out is how the glass rings stay on the floor sized lamps does anyone have any close up pictures of how it is mounted? 

I can't even find one on eBay for sale, I assume they don't make them anymore? Here are two I found on Google which I Photoshopped feel free to use them elsewhere on this website in a gallery or something...I corrected the color of the images and then added depth of field to them:

 

[Alfred]

The UV dye I'm talking about is for the wax, not the water, but I'm sure you could also find a water-based UV blue dye easily enough. The full Goo Kit includes three dye colors, and you could probably get them to exchange UV blue for one of the ones it normally comes with.

One thing to be aware of with "UV" LEDs is that they actually emit a lot of blue / violet light as well, unlike fluorescent backlights. You will need an additional filter if you want to prevent them from shining a blue light on everything (though UV blue coloring will still show up as a brighter pure blue rather than blue / violet under UV LEDs).

[Jeff Meyers]

Well first of all magma doesn't have a "white" color goo is already white. Will start out on the transparent side but the more it cycles it will become opaque. Magma doesn't color the water on any of their display's and I've found out the hard that by doing so will effect flow of goo. I recommend you call magma too place an order , and if you do decide you want to gookit your grande to ask them for the "77" formula, as it's lighter and will work better in the Grande. You need 1 quart of goo to do a grande. Magma doesn't offer a round coil they include a square cut piece of stainless steel wire mesh. If you want to gookit smaller globes 52 oz. 32 oz. then you want the "88" formula goo from magma. Last time I talked with Kim on the phone he told me that they were working on an led system that they may offer down the road as a conversion kit. 1 note on coloring the water. My first gookit I did I added 1 drop of neon purple and it absorbed into the goo. It still works. My second one i did was a 52 ounce globe. I did the goo yellow- but looked more orange and I add 4 drops of neon blue and 2 drops of neon green and the goo just domed. For 10 hours. So not a good idea to add food coloring. Magma has Florescent blue and green. I recently did a 52 with flouro blue and it really didn't look any whiter then it did in the bottle it comes in. So hope this helps you. Welcome to oozing goo.

[PinkFloyd Effect]

Hmm...maybe I will keep it simple then, plain old white goo with clear fluid. I hope the goo kit stays clear for longer then the factory water. 

For the time being I stuck a clear 100w regular incandescent light bulb in it...may be touching the bottom of the globe hope it does not damage anything???

So wait there is "regular" "88" and a "77" formula from goo-kit? I only see 6 products on their entire website! So between the quart of goo and the goo kit I'm looking at $50 already ($30 + $20).

What works better the square stainless or reusing the old round coil?? Ya I'm going to have to keep this simple and stay white magma and clear water. 

Since typing this I shut the lamp off with that clear bulb in it...the base is getting way too hot even at the very bottom afraid it would catch the table on fire (no dimmer yet). 

 

[Keith]

If the bulb is touching the globe it can crack.  It has happened before.

PinkFloyd Effect said

For the time being I stuck a clear 100w regular incandescent light bulb in it...may be touching the bottom of the globe hope it does not damage anything???

 

[Alfred]

The goo kit includes everything you need to refill a grand plus three dye packets (preset colors). If you want specific colors, they might allow you to switch them out.

Also, definitely don't use a bulb that touches the globe. The globe is designed to withstand the stress of being heated by the correct bulb, but too much of a temperature gradient will still crack the glass.

[PinkFloyd Effect]

I let it run for 90min shutting it off every quarter hour for 2min. I was able to get the Magma flowing quickly and it has great flow with a cool "rolling" effect at the bottom as it stretches higher and higher really looks like lava! 

I think the bulb was actually a 200w incandescent though it's hard to read what it says. I need to replace the felt I ripped it off because it was kind of dirty and it heats the table now so that need to be replaced. The globe has a bunch of white air bubbles in the glass when illuminated though is that normal?? They appear to be lit white just like a scratch would and there are a lot of them all over the globe like dots. 

So the $30 Goo Kit from their website gas enough for a Grande? I don't need an extra quart? Is there a perfect ratio of how much magma is put in a globe for maximum flow performance? 

I deff will not use this bulb again Thanks!

[Rodrigo]

Get a 100w original bulb, this lamp can SAFELY run up to 8 hours with the provided 100w bulb, dont worry about it catching fire or burning your table, it wont happen. You can run it for up to 8 hours and youll get the best flow out of it at about 4-5 hours and on.

The 30$ gookit comes with EVERYTHING you need, the amount of wax for a grande is the WHOLE jar since its the biggest lamp, the dyes come green, yellow, blue but you can order extra ones if you dont like those 3 colors. You can ONLY dye the wax not the water, Magma tower never dyes the water and advises against it.

The Light dots on the glass are air bubbles from the hand blowing process, it is normal and it is fine, some people like them some people hate them, some people dont mind them. I rather have a globe with as little as possible but grandes usually dont have many air bubbles like 52oz do now, those tend to be pretty bad.

[Jeff Meyers]

you get instructions with kit and they say too change your distilled water every 6-9 months based on  avg./8 hr a day. and to replace goo every 2000-2500 hours (9-12 months of 8 hrs/day usage). For the record 58 milliliters of surfactant worked for me. If you get a kit it comes with surfactant.. Yes. They don't list it the 88 will work but take longer to get going especially in a grande. Both Rodrigo and I recently got kits from magma and they sent us the "77" weight formula when they should have sent the 88 formula. The "77" weight is what magma uses in their custom made towers and special display's. It has to be able to flow 7 feet +. That's why for the grande I reccommended that you call them and place your order so you can get the lighter weight for your grande. They don't list the weights on gookits.com because normally they would send the 88. Now don't quote me but I'm using deductive reasoning. But Kim did say that we were sent the wrong weight. Well I'd stick with the coil until  magma  or someone else makes an led conversion. the square stainless mesh they send with kit you have to bend into an oblong shape so it stands up so to say in the middle of the glass, which isn't hard to put into a grande globe as opposed a 52 ounce globe. Much smaller opening on a 52 oz. or 32 oz. globe.

[Jeff Meyers]

On the surfactant amount in last comment, is for the grande 58 ml's

[PinkFloyd Effect]

I like that idea of using a 150W on a dimmer for quicker startup times. 

Is the "77" more expensive?? I bet that is what they use in the colossal lamps. Since I have to call the order in possibly the kit can be sent without any dyes to save a little $ since I won't be needing them anyway. 

I will get pictures with the globe lit, there are a lot of these bubbles (and some scratches). 

[Rodrigo]

The bubbles are normal, scratches could be from the previous owner.

[Jeff Meyers]

no they have one set price for a pint or a quart of goo.