Lava sticking to the sides of lamp

Hai everyone! Just want to say this place is awesome, I never expected to find such massed enthusiasm for Lava Lamps!

anyway, I really need help with something.
I love my lamp. I rescued it from being thrown away when it's old owner didn't want it anymore. It took me a long time to find just the right lightbulb for it, but once I had that it worked a treat!

It worked just how I expected a lava lamp to for about a month. Then solid bits of the lava started to build against the side of the glass, even when it had been on for ages! I assumed it would melt off and I kept using the lamp. But slowly the mass of static lava has risen up one side of the lamp. Here are some pictures:

I assumed it would be a simple matter of unscrewing the lid and scrubbing the lava off the glass somehow. Two problems though: 1. I don't have any such tool that could do that and 2. The lid won't come off.

I'm probably being a idiot asking for help when I'm trying to fix a lamp that was due for the bin anyway, but I'll never afford a lamp again and I'd really like to keep this one working. Is there any way I can fix this problem wihout having to take the lid off? I'm hoping for an answer like submerge it in hot water or something..

anyway, any advice would be very very apreciated!!
Thanks everyone!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Carol on January 29, 2015 at 9:35am

Well, Liz N Dan, I know when I goo kit and have sticking wax, it is caused by 2 things. One, the wax overheats and gets really soft causing it to stick (this comes from the guy at Magma Tower) and 2, he says a lack of surfactant which would be your dishsoap. Sometimes with the dish liquid there is too many other chemicals in it that react with the wax. Some have tried Bubble soap. Called Magic Bubbles I do believe. This is a little more pure then dish liquid. I never had luck with any of this stuff but again I haven't made my own lava. I always just use the bought stuff from gookits.com. If you lava is reacting with your dish soap then it's some sort of a chemical reaction with whatever you made your lava out of. You can order surfactant from magma tower and try that. There are more professionals on here then I that maybe can give you come other ideas.

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Permalink Reply by dave Franklin on March 12, 2022 at 7:36pm

It can be cause from having a dirty lamp wall inside. I've replaced the fluid in some and if I didn't clean the inside of the lamp it would adhere just like this.

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Permalink Reply by Susan on March 31, 2022 at 4:09pm

We have had two brand new bottles from Mathmos in orange and orange do the same thing, the first one was replaced and the second one did the same thing, but it was the same code on the lid. Third one they sent as ok, quality isn't up to scratch in my opinion, we never had any issues with bottles from before the 2000's

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Permalink Reply by Johnny on May 19, 2022 at 6:05pm

Hi fellow lamp lover people

I found a method that has worked perfectly for me. I'm renewing my lamps with new Ooze from https://lavalabcreations.com/

I heated the lamp up and dumped the old stuff. Autumn suggested filling with gasoline, let it sit for a day. This worked well to really get all of the old stuff out. Obviously be careful and don't

blow yourself up. I dumped the gas back into my old Chevy and ran it when done.

I bought a long bottle brush and some cerium oxide glass paste polish. I hooked the brush up to my drill and added some polish paste with a little water and went to town. Spun the brush all around, then super cleaned with SLES drill and bottle brush, then rinsed with distilled water. Recharged with new Ooze from lava lab creations. The nice thing about this Ooze is that it runs on just pure distilled water for the master fluid. This is working great for me. Thanks Claude!

Johnny

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Permalink Reply by Claude J on May 22, 2022 at 1:21am

that globe can be opened but it takes a lot of patience.
You need to gently pry the bottom crimp section up and away from the globe as you rotate the globe.
A little at a time will do.
Takes @3/4 rotations

The globe needs to be emptied, cleaned, recoated with surf, and the ingredients put back in.
See restoration instructions for free on my website LavaLabCreations.com

To seal the cap, use this glue

(you can also help seal it with heatsink if you so wish