Dirty Wax in a 1986 Century

[rxter]

Just got an old century blue.white.  The wax is loaded with bits of stuff.  Little flecks of what looks like sawdust and dirt (they are brown so I don't think they are unmelted wax) - even looks like an eyelash in there.  

Any ideas on cleaning up the wax?  Has anyone tried to filter hot wax?  Maybe through cheesecloth or a coffee filter?

Thanks 

[Keith]

something like this might get most gunk.  I have not tried this but it's been on my mind

http://www.amazon.com/Penn-Plax-3-Brine-Shrimp-Net/dp/B0002567FK

[Brad]

i've never tried this, but i recall someone saying that panty hose works.  maybe the fish net over a jar would be better since the holes in the netting are larger.

[Carol]

i guess it depends on the size of the gunk you are catchin in the lava.  I might need something like this for the gunk in my son's 52 oz green neon lamp's lava.  LL replaced that lamp with a 52 oz purple/yellow. 

[Jus]

I've had great results with a double layer of panty hose!

[rxter]

Nasty!  And awesome.  Did you simply pour the hot wax through the hose stretched over a bowl?  I've had all sorts of thoughts about using flasks and filters in the oven to keep everything hot.  Probably watching to much Breaking Bad.

[Erin]

I used a fine mesh strainer to get some bits out of an old lamp once. Kinda like what people use to strain orange juice. 

[Keith]

You know, I've thought about using one of those metal coffee filters.

[Jus]

Yep, jus heated it up and poured it through.  I've been really happy with the results.  I once worked at a car body shop, and recall that they had tons of these disposable funnels with a super fine screen in the tip.  They used them to strain the car paint that the were loading into the sprayer.  I bet one of those would work great, and I bet it wouldn't be hard to get one from a body shop.  Just another idea...

Good luck!

rxter said:

Nasty!  And awesome.  Did you simply pour the hot wax through the hose stretched over a bowl?  I've had all sorts of thoughts about using flasks and filters in the oven to keep everything hot.  Probably watching to much Breaking Bad.

[rxter]

I tried the pantyhose stretched over a funnel.  Worked really well.  Thanks for the tip.  Going to try that with the water portion as well.

[Jus]

Happy to help!  Good luck with everything!

rxter said:

I tried the pantyhose stretched over a funnel.  Worked really well.  Thanks for the tip.  Going to try that with the water portion as well.

[rxter]

So here's something weird.  This is a 1990 lamp purple and red.  I emptied/cleaned it because the globe was dirty on one side so the wax was sticking to it.  Now its all cleaned up and the wax looks pretty and shiny.  But it's acting like Chinese wax in that rather than "flowing" it "balls" as soon as its free from the coil.  The ball floats to the top and hangs around up there.  Then the next ball pinches off the mass at the coil - repeat.  

[Carol]

Couple tricks for that rxter.....one is to try a dimmer.  Sometimes if you dim it just a bit, you can find the sweet spot and get some snakey flow.  If not, you can up the wattage of the bulb, start it at full power until you start to see columns, then dim it down until it maintains that flow.  What size lamp is it?  What wattage bulb are you using now?  If it's a 32 oz I wouldn't go higher then a 40 on that with a dimmer.  I run my 52 oz'ers on a 60 but I do have to dim them after a few hours.

 

If you have ever goo kitted and have any surfactant, you can add a few ml's of surf to the formula.  Not too much or it may cause clouding.  Some add dish soap or the stuff that you blow bubbles with, but my lamps always clouded up from all those things.  Although some members have had success with that.  If you wanted you could order a small bottle of surfactant from Magma Towers and try that.  I would probably go with a dimmer first though.  Probably something you can run right out to the hardware store and do a quick fix.  As quick as plugging something in.  The surf would have to be ordered and they aren't the quickest at shipping. 

 

Good luck!!!  That is nothing abnormal, but seems to be the typical china flow that everyone talks about.  My Clearview does that but only after it gets really warmed up.