Need to rebuild my lamp

[JAMES BENINI]

IMG_2196.JPG

Greetings all, I'm a newbie at this, tried to do the saltwater/one drop of dish soap trick to clean up my lamp, and this happened. At this point I think I just need to start over with new wax and liquid, but the price to do that is more than a new lamp (granted it's an import) Since this is an import lamp, what would you do? Rebuild, sell for parts, or...? Share your thoughts with me, I'd like to go with blue liquid and orange wax if I can...

[tim]

everyone here will advise against using salt and dish soap these days, the main reasons being salt will corrode and dish soap contains other ingredients that may have unintended consequences. the ingredients people advise using in place of salt and dish soap are propylene glycol and glycerin, and the ingredients people advise using in place of dish soap are sodium laurel sulfate or sodium laureth sulfate.

anyway depending on what your goals for the lamp are there are basically three things you can do:

• if you don't care about the lamp and just want it gone you can empty the bottle and sell the parts to make a small amount of money.
• if you do care about the lamp and just want to see it working as quickly as possible then i am going to have to recommend claude's gookit (lavalabcreations.com), which should be the easiest way to get a working lamp.
• if you enjoy making things and don't mind failing a few times, empty the bottle and try to develop your own formula. there are lots of resources on this site about how to do this.

good luck!

[JAMES BENINI]

Thanks, time to start researching!

[dem tortaz]

I have been working on one, and this Reddit post has been very helpful! https://www.reddit.com/r/Lavalamps/comments/glgqba/creating_your_ow...

[Claude J]

Well Said!
tim said:

everyone here will advise against using salt and dish soap these days, the main reasons being salt will corrode and dish soap contains other ingredients that may have unintended consequences. the ingredients people advise using in place of salt and dish soap are propylene glycol and glycerin, and the ingredients people advise using in place of dish soap are sodium laurel sulfate or sodium laureth sulfate.

anyway depending on what your goals for the lamp are there are basically three things you can do:

• if you don't care about the lamp and just want it gone you can empty the bottle and sell the parts to make a small amount of money.
• if you do care about the lamp and just want to see it working as quickly as possible then i am going to have to recommend claude's gookit (lavalabcreations.com), which should be the easiest way to get a working lamp.
• if you enjoy making things and don't mind failing a few times, empty the bottle and try to develop your own formula. there are lots of resources on this site about how to do this.

good luck!

[Claude J]

Addendum

If it is a 14"/20oz lamp, it's almost not worth your time.
the flow will never be great due to a lack of fluid volume
The best to expect is small balls up and down

Bigger the lamp = better the flow

The PERC/Brake cleaner link is close to the original recipe

Remember that PERC is considered a carcinogenic and should be handled with care and proper ventilation

As an option,, you can get a restoration kit at my website:   https://lavalabcreations.com/

Our kits are fun and safe

[MacRanium]

I've been buying 14.5" Chinese lamps left and right and fixing them. I've just blown through 11 lamps including a grande and this is what I've been doing. First you'll have to get surfactant from lavalabcreations.com mentioned above. Run the lamp until it flows, usually takes about 4 to 6 hours to get fully flowing. Let the lamp cool completely and pop the bottle cap off. Carefully pour out the fluid and lightly rinse the bottle and wax. Fill the globe with filtered or distilled water. Bottled spring water has been working great for me for some reason. Next I take some surfactant from lava lab creations and add roughly a tablespoon and gently mix it in with a plastic straw. So far this has been working great for me. The flow varies between lamps but in every case it's a satisfying result. Hope this helps.

[JAMES BENINI]

It does, now I need to make or buy some orange wax and blue coloring for the water!

[Claude J]

https://lavalabcreations.com/collections/blended-lava-wax-chemicals

JAMES BENINI said:

It does, now I need to make or buy some orange wax and blue coloring for the water!

[MacRanium]

Just FYI I did another lamp last night and should have another to do today and I'd say I've been using approximately a teaspoon of surfactant rather than a tablespoon.

[Claude J]

[MacRanium]

Dang I was close. A teaspoon is about 4 ml if im not mistaken?

[Claude J]

its just a guideline

Each lamp varies per type of wax

Work off the flow your get to make a decision

MacRanium said:

Dang I was close. A teaspoon is about 4 ml if im not mistaken?