Grande Rebuild Problems.

[larry williard]

I bought a Grande lamp from my nephew that was very very cloudy. I found a formula on this site and tried to rebuild it. I emptied the liquid and the wax. Then cleaned the inside of the Globe. The wax was yellow.

I bought paraffin from from WM as well as Perc. I followed the instructions and made the goo. I then checked the Goo with a 20% solution of antifreeze and it sank and 80% and it floated. The coil was clean, no wax on it.

Next I melted and poured in the goo. Let it harden, then distilled water about 1.5 gals. I put in 1 teaspoon of canning salt as per the instructions. I do not think I put in as much goo as was in it originally. After a couple of hours, nothing. The wax looks like heavy water in the bottom and is very fluid not gooey like what was in it. Today I keep adding more canning salt solution I would suspect I have at least 2 tablespoons of salt in it.

I also changed the 100W incandescent to a 75W halagon bulb. The bulb that was in it was a standard 100W incandescent, not a R type.

I also added a small amount of Dawn.

It goes nuts when I pour in more salt but no dome just a liquid pool of wax.

I made 2.5 cups of goo which was 1/3 perc and 2/3 wax.

The goo just looks too liquid to me and is perfectly clear.

Here are 2 pictures of the lamp, heated up. Cold the goo is white.

Any ideas on what to do next.

[Martin Heide]

Good Morning Larry,

you have to add more salt, much more. I use saturated brine instead of pure Salt.

[larry williard]

That is what my research keeps telling me but I didn't want to overdo it.

In the meanwhile I took a small glitter lamp I bought at Walmart years ago and opened it. It did not have any wax in it, so I cleaned the bottle and put some of the yellow wax from the Grande in and filled it with just tap water to play. I had to add a lot of salt but it finally started to work. I have been reading since I posted and Im pretty sure I can make the liquid right but not so sure about the wax yet. 

Can you tell me what the proportion of wax to liquid is? How high from the bottom of the bottle should the wax extend when cold?  Thank you

[larry williard]

Well I've put 1/4 cup of salt in the Grande and changed the bulb to a 75w but the wax still just sits on the bottom like oil under water, very fluid but never doming. There must be a problem with my goo mix which was 1/3 perc and 2/3 water.

In the mean time the little one using the old goo and tap water has a very nice flow all kinds of sizes and shapes.

Tomorrow Im going to pour out the little one and use it to play with the goo mix and water mix for the grande.

[Martin Heide]

i tried 1/3 perc and 2/3 wax too as base, but i have too put much more wax in it. I used Tea candles and 99% pure Tetrachlorethen

About the proportion of Liquid/Wax, If the Bottle is in the base, ca. 2 fingers of Wax over the edge of the Base.

If you have the right mixture of water salt in the little one you cant Take over the mixing ratio to the large one, because of the volume and heating.  Put a little bit of the cold Goo in saturated brine and see if it will float, if not you have to put more Wax in your Goo. Greetings Martin