new oil needed

[Chris]

Hello all

I think i found the correct spot to post to...I had posted on a blog a few days ago while trying to figure things out on this site on my phone (my computer is working for the moment so am able to get on the real site)...Just trying to get a solution to my problem.   I have a lamp from 1975.  It got knocked over a few weeks ago and the cap broke, pouring out most the oil (or water?)and I am trying to find whatever it is to fill it back up. Any help is much appreciated.  The lamp is the starlite base, black plastic bottom with three peg legs.  There is a hole at the very bottom and a screw offset next to it to hold the light socket in place.

[Chris]

so, since the lava wasnt turning to total goo, i emptied out some and added some more fog machine fluid.  the blob of wax is floating in the middle.  Any ideas?

[Keith]

Too much fog juice, start over.  (I'm assuming the wax is still not fully melted)

I would empty the fluid and fill half way with distilled water and some surf, let the wax melt and dome at the bottom, add a little of the fog juice at a time until you get good flow.  You may have to adjust with surf to get the lava consistency you want.  Then start adding distilled to finish topping off, but go slowly.  If the flow changes then add a bit more fog juice.

Patience, and the Force will be strong with you!

(My results from adding too much fog juice too soon, cold wax floating off of the bottom.  The globe is full)

Chris said:

so, since the lava wasnt turning to total goo, i emptied out some and added some more fog machine fluid.  the blob of wax is floating in the middle.  Any ideas?

[Chris]

Yup. that is what happened. Ok. Didnt knownto melt first. Thanks. I shall start over.

[Chris]

here is the lamp thus far...half on the bottom, half on top

[Sentrex]

Just noticed Keith's note above - some of what I said below is pretty much the same...

Hate to chime in here in the middle but based on what your lamp looks like right now I would

(1) Wait for everything to cool down,

(2) dump the fluid, and

(3) leave the wax and coil in the lamp.

(4) fill 25% with some distilled water with a couple drop of the bubble solution,

(5) dump the water bubble solution rinse out

(6) Turn on the lamp and melt the wax back into a single solid (there should just be wax and coil in the lamp)

(7) Let cool and Rinse again - you should have a single piece of wax formed on the bottom

(8) Fill it 50% with distilled water and confirm that the wax is still sitting on the bottom to confirm that the wax has not been compromised and still has an SG > 1.0

(9) Getting the SG balance takes patience which is something most people really don't have.

(10) After step 8, let the lamp cool - you do not want to add the fog fluid when the lamp is hot or it can do al kinds of not so fun stuff

(11) Add a half cup of the fog juice and let it heat up - is the wax forming a dome? If not then let it cool and ad more fog juice; if you get to the top of the bottle with this method and still no dome; let it cool and dump out half the fluid and add fog juice until you dome.

Keep in mind that more fog juice will make your wax "relatively" lighter - i.e. make it float easier; more distilled water will make it "relatively" heavier which will keep it lower.

You may want to add a drop of those bubble to your initial distilled water to ensure that the wax does not stick to the globe but do not add any more until you get a nice dome. Too much surf (bubbles for you) will result in a hundred small blobs and the only way to fix that is to start over in my experience.

Good luck!

Based on your earlier posts it looks like the specific gravity of the fog fluid is too high so it makes your wax too light (relative to each other - wax to fluid). Glycern has an SG of ~1.3 and prop glycol is only 1.04... so if the fog juice is 50/50 water to glycerine it has an SG of about 1.15 (1+1.3)/2 as compare to the PG fog juice which is closer to 1.02 (1.04 +1)/2  (distilled water is SG=1.0).

[Chris]

so I have the bottle half filled with water....most of the wax stayed on the bottom but some rose up.  I need to empty the water and refill, correct?

[Sentrex]

Did you melt all of the wax back together and let it cool before you added the water this time?

[Chris]

Yes i did. I let it all turn to liquid with no water let ut harden, filled the water half way and warmed it up again. And now some chunks are floating in the solid state

[Chris]

Ok.  I have half a cup in of fog fluid and the bottle half filled with water.  Got a dome with one small chunk going to the top.  Do I keep adding a half a cup each to fill it or...?

[Chris]

?

[Tim Gill]

Jumping in hear, what I would do would be to keep adding the fog fluid and DI water to it but making sure it keeps the dome so a bit at a time but you may not need to keep it to a 50 / 50 ratio depends on how it reacts. 

[Chris]

Ok. Cool. Thanks