Homemade Mid-Century Concrete Lava Lamp Design

[Mattgyver92]

Just joined Oozinggoo. I posted this on reddit in the lava lamp community, and thought I might as well share it here as my introduction.

So I recently got into lava lamps and decided to design my own after fixing up a Soviet one from Ukraine. My design is similar to it, however I tried to go more mid-century modern with the forms and stand. Definitely going for a space-age 'rocket' form. I think I was successful.

I ended up going with concrete as a material for the base and top, since I can just 3D print the molds from my computer and pour the concrete inside to cast the parts. It also seems to be a good insulator and barely feels warm to touch on the outside after hours of running. Once fully cured, I can demold the top and bottom, drill the holes for the support rods with a masonry bit, and install the socket and cord. I just trim the brass rod with a saw and use a tap/die kit to cut the threads for the nuts.

The stand parts are laser cut from six layers and glued, sanded, edges rounded with my router, stained, waxed, and glued to assembly.

If I ever attempt to sell any of these, I'll probably have to stick with a simple lamp wire/switch/molded plug kit instead of the fancy Rayon wrapped cable and vintage switch/plug due to UL listing.

The 750ml bottles are from amazon (mostly because I hate removing labels) and the recipe is just a no-frills paraffin/liquid paraffin/PERC + water/PG/SLS mixture.

This photo is much redder than reality-this lamp ended up being more of a yellow wax with purple fluid.

I'll publish the links and mold files on Thingiverse very soon for those who want to try making one. :)

I plan to test making a design with a glass architectural block from the 80's to see how well the wax flows. I know the world would love a square lava lamp if it could work.

Glad to meet everyone. I'll be around. :)

-MG

[tim]

very beautiful and unique lamp! great work. also the design sort of reminds me of the imperial the way it has the three legs.

[Galaxy_9]

So innovative, the feel of it in the cast concrete and shape slightly reminds me of a chiminea!

[Claude J]

Very cool and creative

[Arne]

I like the glass block idea. would be interesting to see if it works well.

[Jonas Clark-Elliott]

That's absolutely unique and extremely cool!

[Tevfik Dogruman]

Very beautiful I liked it.

[KirkS]

Nice! Like the concrete and super job on the base with design and finish. My wife and I are starting to find our taste evolving to mid cen mod. Aluminum Christmas tree was a start, snagged my parent's 74 Starlight Century, that started buying four more cheap on FB, then an Enchantres planter on FB cheap, then a Carlisle on Eaby for about the going rate. Seems like I got into Lava Lamps a few months before the got way more expensive. Made a hour road trip to a Mid Cen Mod store Saturday, many unique things. We have a cool housing edition near our house that is about 20 homes that are MCM that has become famous. Designed by a young woman with no formal training. We saw a number during a home tour a few years ago. Avriel Shull: A self-made architect focused on livable midcentury d...