Restoring a Century?

[Michael Eskin]

Hi OozingGoo!

I've spent quite a bit of time this summer restoring a Century lamp, clear liquid, red wax, coil at bottom.

Pretty much had every thing dialed in with the distilled water, epsom salts, and soap, but was recently getting some sticking of the wax to the side.  Did my usual double boiler trick to remelt the wax, but got distracted, the bottle overheated, the plastic top exploded and made quite a mess. 

I only lost about a teaspoon of the wax (all over the range hood and kitchen), and not much fluid so I've been trying to get it back in service. While the cap was able to be glued back together, I've ordered the replacement 3D printed cap from Shapeways and have a new gasket on the way.

Unfortunately, the wax doesn't seem very happy about the overheating, and has been sticking a lot to the sides, isn't behaving like before.  Did another very careful double boiler reheat, but it's still not quite right.

So, I'm thinking of starting over with new solution and wax, and am looking for a recommendation for where I can get replacement red wax. I've sent a message into Magmatower about their smaller restoration kit, but haven't heard back.  Is that a good kit to try?  Are there others? 

I really enjoy the lamp and have enjoyed restoring it from an opaque, swampy mess with lots of black flecks to a nearly pristine lamp, until I went and blew it up!

Thank you for any information.

Michael Eskin
San Diego, CA

[Michael Eskin]

Here's how it looked after restoration and before I overheated it:

[Michael Eskin]

Here was the state immediately after the overheating explosion and gluing the cap back together.

[Michael Eskin]

And now after a more controlled re-melt and using a brush on the sides to remove the residue along with an additional single drop of soap. Still getting some creeping up the side but overall not too bad, just not as nice as before.