Coil alternatives - stainless bearings

[kero48]

Guys,

I am short on 52oz coils and was wondering if stainless bearings would work at 3/16" or 1/4" dia. Throw a few in the bottle, why wouldn't this work?

https://www.bcprecision.com/collections/stainless-steel-bearing-balls

What other alternatives are there? AC hardware sells galvanized little spring sections, a few lengths can be thrown in a bottle as well but you can't make a circle out of them.

Thanks

Rod

[Claude J]

Just about anything stainless steel would work

I used a small dish strainer once  

[kero48]

That's good to know, the small stainless balls would all roll to the outer deeper edge inside the bottle and naturally created a circle just about where the spring would reside.

So would small spring sections but they are galvanized not stainless, something that concerns me.

[Claude J]

stainless only

[kero48]

So, my friend ordered some of those bearings, they are en route but I stopped by ace hardware and am going to try these today.

I picked up 100% stainless steel bolts. They are about 1/2" in width. I checked with a magnet and the they don't adhere to the magnet at all. I boiled them to clean them, Will throw them in the bottom and let them create a ring around the part of the glass that creates a small channel at the bottom.

Thoughts?

[Claude J]

Like my lovelife, 

Any port in a storm

[kero48]

Well you reply is kinda vague lol so I assume these could work. We shall see as the green/yellow wax I heated and melted and put into a mason jar this morning has now been reheated and put back in the same bottle but re cleaned with the bolts in the bottom. This was the bottle that has the clouded water you helped me with that was probably over surfed.

Will update later :)

Now, if I could find an alternative to magma towers goo, that would be the last thing I need to make lava lamps with local items.

I tried canning wax in a test lamp with distilled and surf, no luck, it floated even when cold lol.

Common claude, I know you know answer to this, maybe, possible, there's a chance!

[Claude J]

Ive tried various things including the old wax and  brakkleen fluid mix, (Ugh) but nothing i used other than that, worked well

I stopped trying because my inventory of mason jars filled with goo got so large from the  Redo's i didn't need anything else

[kero48]

I had to add a tiny coil from a crayon lamp with the bolts as the bolts, that created a circled around the small channel in the bottle would not produce enough heat to get the lava to rise. The small extra coil did the trick. This makes me believe that if you use anything other than a coil (lots of surface area in a small space) you need to make sure the majority of the bottom of the bottle is covered. IE the bolts probably needed another ring or two going in towards the center.

[Claude J]

even stainless teel screen works well

[kero48]

Yes, but is my point valid in the fact that if not a coil, you need more surface area covered on the bottom to act as a proper heat sink. Example the one ring of stainless bolts, I would have needed more. see photo below.

Does the stainless screen have MEMORY so it opens back up after being put in the bottle?