$6 Marketplace Find

[BSP016]

An Enchantress Planter! Sadly the master fluid has faded and has leaked sometime in the past which wiped the labels on the base and cap. It's a 1974 model 8208 yellow/orange mist. No flower ring either unfortunately

[Jon]

pretty sweet for only 6$ Wax lools good from what u can tell.. but pics always are misleading.

Do you have any of the old 70s fluid to use as spare ? I got bout half a 32 oz bittle i saved in case i find a lamp low like you have

[BSP016]

I plan on topping it off with my own recipe of master fluid. Using epsom salt and distilled water. I did run it last night and it needs work. Most of the wax rises to the top so more distilled water will be needed. I also discovered that the fluid is still a little "misty" which is nice. 

[Modulo '70]

Nice find! Well done.

[Andy]

Great find.

Its pretty rare we find these type of lamps in Australia but ive always got my eyes out at every garage sale.

Ive just redone 2 lamps and changed master fluid in both.

One was an old 70s crestworth and the other was a late 80s carramar.

Both were just distilled water a little propylene glycol ( about 10% ) and some SLES which i bought online as a powder form and mix it myself.

A tiny amount of epson in the carramar but in the 70s i had to use some perc to get the wax to sink at full operating temperature  as you cant get carbon tetrachloride any more like whats in the original wax.

The 70s ond had a real kerosene smell to it before i ditched the fluid.

It takes about 4 cycles to get the perc to fully bond the the wax and start flowing properly.

Its a real patience thing as what you add can change over the hours and sometimes it needs a few cycles to calm down.

Ive also been playing with a chinese cheapie which was quite low and just sat in a blob on the bottom.

After changing the master fluid and tinkering with everything and getting nowhere I left it all floating to the top and staying there.

The next cycle it sort of worked and then by the 4th cycle it actually needed a couple of drops of epson. Now its working fine.

Good luck with changing thd fluid and again good find.

Cheers

Andy

[BSP016]

Well I successfully topped off the fluid with my own mixture, improved the flow with a bit of dish soap as well. However the wax is sticking to the bottle at the top above where the fluid level was before topping it off. Next step is to remove all contents and clean & degrease the bottle. 

[Andy]

Hi Benson

I've had the sticking thing before and fixed it.

Wait until cold and then run the top of the bottle under the hot water tap or use a hairdryer and melt the wax up the top.

It should sink if you swirl it around. Wrap a little bit of cloth around a wooden spoon handle or chopsticks etc and dip it in soapy water. Just scrub the glass where it's sticking. You might waste a little wax but keep cleaning with the master fluid water and keep using the clean cloth.

Also you might waste a tiny bit of master fluid depending on the size of the cloth so small as possible. Sometimes it gets a little stired up but if the main blob of wax is hard its normally not too bad.

This  changes the surface tension of the glass and lets the master fluid cling but not the wax

Goodluck

Andy.