Fixing "pea shooter" globes

i just wanted to pass on something that works very well for fixing globes that shoot small globes, or "pea shooters" as they are referred to on this site.

heat the globe up until it flows, then cut the power down with a dimmer until the wax stays in a liquid state at the bottom. it may start to release a few small globes from time to time, but that is ok. let it simmer for 24h.

after 24h, let the globe cool, then turn it back on and check the flow.

this method has worked for me 2 times now - once on a heritage grande, and once on a century with wax mixed from 1997 and 2003 globes. both globes shot peas for hours on end until i simmered them. now they flow like they should - very stretchy with some globes. i think it helps the wax adhere to the coil, which fixes the problem.

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Permalink Reply by Carol on June 30, 2014 at 7:48am

Thnx Brad!! I just posted something about that yesterday, but I think I put it in the wrong place. I'm pretty new to this site, so maybe I can try to move it or, I don't know, if the mods have to do that. I try to keep the topics under each other. I lowered my dimmer just until I saw the lamp starting to do the climbing, stretching, one piece oozing thing, and that worked for my 1990's wizard base lamp which gets really HOT. It did start to revert to shooting bigger globes with some stretchy stuff. Thanks for the heads up, although my flow improved 95 percent, you know we're not happy until it's 100!! I'm gonna try the simmer thing. Gonna do that right now, lol, while I'll be home for awhile.

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Permalink Reply by Carol on June 30, 2014 at 7:51am

Brad, here is my post from yesterday!!

Just got home and hooked up a dimmer to my 1990's 32 oz with a Wizard Base. For some reason I find this base heats up really quick. Was getting those annoying little balls, adjusted the dimmer, now i'm getting the flow I used to get back when I first got it!!! I'm soooo happy I found this site with all the groups years of experience and useful knowledge or i'd be seriously lost. A big KUDOS to all that made this site stay alive for all these years!!! It's because of all of you lava enthusiasits that lava is still alive and well!!!

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Permalink Reply by Carol on July 26, 2014 at 9:45am

Brad, I tried this with my older lamp, but I couldn't get my dimmer down far enough for the lava to just "simmer'. The best I could do was have it form a small mountain, and just sit there. Would this work do you think?