Potentially problematic lamp

In my quest to find a relatively inexpensive vintage Lava Lite, I came across an interesting lamp on eBay. I think it's a 70s Century, but it looks like all the wax is floating in one big ball at the top of the globe. From the pictures, I can't tell if there is any wax still at the bottom of the globe at all. The seller acknowledges that the lava may need replacing "due to chemical properties inside not reacting as it should".

Has anyone seen this problem before? Will I have to replace the wax (which I'm hardly qualified to do), or is there a chance that the wax will sort itself out after running the lamp for a while?

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Permalink Reply by Modulo '70 on July 25, 2018 at 7:23pm

You should go for it. It will be a good starting point. Perhaps the lamp wax can be rescued, perhaps not. It is hard to say with no pictures. It is important that at least the coil is sitting correctly in the base of the lamp. A good few hours of heating and the wax could be gently persuaded to sink to the bottom of the globe and hey presto! If all doesn't go to plan there is always the goo kit option.