VINTAGE LAVA LAMP TROUBLE

[BRENT HENDERSON]

HI EVERYBODY.....NEWBE HERE!!!

MY NAME IS BRENT....I LIVE IN SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN

I INHERITED MY GREAT GRANDMOTHERS LAVA LAMP....IT HAS BEEN A PRIZED POSSESSION OF MINE FOR MANY YEARS!!!!  IT HAS TO BE AT LEAST 50 YRS OLD!!!!  I SET IT ON MY GUITAR AMPLIFIER AMD ADMIRE IT AS I PLAY.

IM VERY WORRIED I MIGHT HAVE RUINED IT TODAY.....I PUT A NEW BULB IN IT TODAY......A FROSTED 60 W BULB.    IT DIDNT BUBBLE AFTER 2 HOURS.   I TURNED IT OFF.   I PICKED UP THE GLOBE, AND NOW ALL THE RED STUFF INSIDE LOOKS ALL CHUNKY AND IS FLOATING TO THE TOP!!!!

DID I RUIN THIS LAVA LAMP????

CAN IT BE SAVED????

THANKS!!!

BRENT

[BRENT HENDERSON]

I just emptied the fluid out through a coffee filter and am currently re melting the wax in the glove in a pot of boiling water. Will pour the liquid back in and fire it up with a brand new 40 w clear bulb and see how she does.

[BRENT HENDERSON]

What is in that liquid? It smells horrendous

[BRENT HENDERSON]

[Critter]

Ingredients....water, surfactant (soapy stuff), wax, misc noxious petro products, probably some glycol as well and other misc proprietary additives. It's all good!!!

[Claude J]

make sure you let it cool first, befopre adding fluid

A few drops of clear dawn dish detergent (if you have no suffercent) added to the fluid will stop it from sticking

[Critter]

I have found tha it is best to use a non-detergent surfactant if at all possible. I have found that Dawn is so good at breaking down grease and oil, etc that it shortens the life of the wax some. Claude is correct, wait until cool and firm before adding fluid back.....pour slowly.

[BRENT HENDERSON]

if my wife knew I used her new Pampered Chef bowl to filter the liquid into, she would kill me

[Claude J]

LOL

I keep empty distilled water bottles around for such an event

[Claude J]

Few drops wont hurt, All he needs to do is coat the glass

You can  add a few drops, add clean water, swish it around and dump it out, then add the filtered fluid

All you want to do is coat the glass

Its a better alternative  than sticking lava

Critter said:

I have found tha it is best to use a non-detergent surfactant if at all possible. I have found that Dawn is so good at breaking down grease and oil, etc that it shortens the life of the wax some. Claude is correct, wait until cool and firm before adding fluid back.....pour slowly.

[Critter]

If you want to use a dish soap use an el-cheapo varient that is not as good as Dawn. I use Dawn in the restoration process when I want to get a bottle perfectly clean and free of wax residue before starting over with a complete refill.

Another method that works well is to put your master fluid back into the bottle first and with it cool pour the melted wax into the fluid, it won't stick as it instantly solidifies. Of course in this instance you have left the wax in the bottle so that is not an option, but it is a good tip for other bottle refilling adventures that you may encounter.

[BRENT HENDERSON]

its toast

[Tim Gill]

What happened, did you put it back together and it didn't flow or did something go wrong.

BRENT HENDERSON said:

its toast