A Gallery Of Goo Kits!! Post Your Pics!!

[Wile E. Coyote]

Let's post some pics of our goo kits!!

 

My Blue Grande

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Orange Grande

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Purple / White Grande

[Dr. WHAT?!]

How have the gookits been lately anyway? last I heard their formula sucked and had issues. Are they better now?

[Carol]

My Blue Kit

[Carol]

A better shot of my violet

[Carol]

My Red kit  which is now my red/yellow kit:

[Carol]

UPDATE:  This is the water based dye I used to color "The Blue".  It is originally made for a cake decorating airbrush gun.  The color saturation is beautiful!!!  DOWNSIDE:  ONE drop did this to a 52 oz, so if you want to go lighter, it would be a tough call.  Also, this runs 4.99 at Michael's Arts and Crafts but you can get it online for literally ONE drop.  Now in a Grande you would probably use about 3.  I couldn't get McCormick as everyone is switching to those gels, so I bought this.

UPSIDE:  Since you are using literally one drop compared to like 6 or so of the McCormick, I would think it would be better for the overall chemistry of the lamp since I do believe Magma Towers frowns on coloring the fluid.  Also, it seems it does give off a better color saturation faster.  There also are a lot of different colors.  They even make a Pearl Shimmer which I commented on trying in another thread.  There also is a black which I was thinking about....yes, black fluid/white lava, ooooohhhhh!!!

[Carol]

OMG, the good Doctor!!!  I don't think I've ever had the opportunity to chat with you!!!  I followed your tutorial and wanted to say Thank You!!!  I absolutely luv my kits!!  Also I can't leave out Lamphead's advice which also helped tremendously!!  I just joined OG in June, but have done 3 kits.  2 52 oz and even a 20oz and I had no problems.  I do notice that they require a bit more heat then the LL's to get them going, so a higher wattage bulb and a dimmer and you're good to go.  I can't say if they have improved though because as I said I was a goo-kit virgin until now, but I've had not a single problem with my 3 kits!!!

I want to add a HUGE EDIT to this and just say that aside from the OG members that I mentioned about, ALL of the members on OG have added a huge piece of the puzzle when it came to my first goo kitting experience.  I've had everything answered from members on bulb questions, dimmers, how long to run the lamps, how long do they last.......so I just have to thank the OG board as a whole on the help and confidence to do this.  I was really bummed to think that I had to throw my china lamps in the trash until I found this site.  THANKS TO ALL THE OG MEMBERS!!!

[Dr. WHAT?!]

Hi Carol! Welcome to OG! I'm glad my tutorial has helped you as well as the OG community! This is a great place. Good to see the gookit quality went up some. They were having bubbles in the wax issues and foreign crap floating around in the water. As well as just no flow.  Maybe Ill order some now.

[Carol]

My purple is pretty much bubble free after quite a few runs.  My red has only a few and my white goo is getting less and less with each run.  They do start out with some bubbles, but they do lessen with each run.  No foreign crap except for the one stupid black dog hair that plumped itself right on top of my mound of white wax which caused my OCD to spiral into yet a complete dump and change, lol!!!  Trying to gookit with 5 dogs in the house is insane!!! 

[Carol]

[ChuckM]

Hey Carol,

Nice tip on the dye. I may have to go pick some up since the McCormciks doesn't have a lot of color options. I would love to see how some of the different color options look.

What were some of the tips that you have used for your lamps? They do look great! I followed the tutorial from the good Dr. and even had to go way beyond the recommended amount of surf to get some good flow. I don't know if that translated into a "bad kit" or not, but the lamp does flow. I also had crud floating in the liquid (sort of looked like whisps of cotton). I ended up filtering it with a coffee filter for one lamp... for another I simply filtered the liquid before I even added it to the lamp the first time. I think the surf was contaminated or had some "metabolites". I think there may have been a formula difference from my first batch that I did back in the late winter compared to the lamps from the Spring. I reordered a larger quantity of wax and surf and may have gotten the iffy batch. I would say that if that is the case, they can be made to work... they are just suboptimal to work with!

With all of that said... how much surf did you use for your 52oz bottle? How much wax? It has been a while since I made my last lamp, but from what I recall, I ended up using less wax than I would have thought for a 52oz bottle... I used hardly more than I had been using for the 32oz bottle.. I think I used about 7-8 ounces or so...the bottle I made with more wax was terrible and I ended up tossing it out.... so I then used less wax based on the observed amount of wax in a new Mathmos Astro... I also used a lot more surf (it could have been that I needed more surf and just didn't try it. I think I used upwards of 20-25mL of surf (filtered once added to some water) for a 52oz bottle... if I used the suggested amount it wouldn't flow at all. Definitely not a science!

Carol Morrow said:

OMG, the good Doctor!!!  ..

[Carol]

Chuck, I weigh my wax out cold and use 225 grams for my 52 oz'ers.  I've done 4 so far and haven't had problems with any.  The white stuff in your liquid is pieces of wax.  That goes away after a few runs.  I think when the wax breaks up in the beginning runs the air bubbles cause tiny pieces to get into the liquid.  I've found with several runs, this dissipates.  Also, you REALLY need to start with clean globes.  What I thought were clean, ended up having to be regoo'd due to streaky glass and haze in the liquid.  I did get some horrible globes to start with though.  I've since use a long and vigorous straight up acetone rinse and then more hot water and dawn to ensure that there is no trace chemical left.  A few of my kits when I first turned them on after the first run seemed hazy, but after running them, that has also cleared up.  I guess they have to "settle" down.  You have to realize that there is a lot of air that also is involved in the goo as well as the liquid, so that has to kind of work it's way out.  I've panicked and changed liquid, but have found if you wait it out for a few runs, it works it's way out on it's own.  I've even had some stuck wax on the globe from swapping out the fluid and the stupid goo puck dislodged and slid down the globe side!!  That too melts off after a few runs.

 

Surf:  I add 15 ml's to ALL my 52's and no more.  I DO NOT get flow on a 40 watt bulb.  Not clear, not frosted.  It will just mound on the bottom.  The surf has nothing to do with that.  It's a heat issue.  The newer goo does require more heat, especially the darker colors, but I've noticed in my pastels, they too need a 60 watt with a dimmer.  I use the A15 garage door opener frosted bulbs.  I start them up at full, then depending on the room temp, turn them down when I see my lamps breaking off small globules or goo'ing fast.  Just a tad though.  In the winter in a cooler room I may not have to turn them down as much if at all.  Other then that, is pretty much all I do.  I have found out through experimentation that the flow is more dependent on the heat source then the surf.  I've added a butt ton to a 20 oz just to see, and then redid with little to hardly any and I still got the same flow.  When I upped the wattage of my bulb.....that's when I noticed a difference in flow.

[Carol]

Little Boy Blue & Ms. Pink: