Building a 4' Tower Lamp - advice welcome

[Todd]

Greetings!   I've made some progress on my 4' tall tower lava lamp project.  The base is done, glass vase obtained (nice thick walls), and coupling is done - very secure.   I'm getting ready to mount the 200W spot light (on a dimmer - we will be going at this slowly) in the base and am looking for advice on space between the top of the bulb and the bottom of the glass floor.  In my Magma 3' tower the space is less than 1/2", but that's a pro built lamp with the special low expansion glass, and mine is just normal blown glass.    So, I was thinking an inch, or even two, to lessen the thermal gradients, but wonder if I'll end up struggling to get enough heat to warm up the whole column (5 gallons).

Advice and suggestions welcome!

Todd

[Claude J]

I was going full OCD this weekend and organing /deleting bookmarks

I can across this that I thought might be of interest

https://www.greatglas.com/PyrexCylinders.htm

[Todd]

Interesting how the price goes soaring when the diameter goes above 10" - WOW !

I wonder what they would estimate for a cylinder that 48" + long ?    Probably a fortune.

I'm happy with working with my OG partners Marcel and Glaude on this project and looking forward to putting it together in a couple of weeks!

Todd

[Minions]

Does say

"Please Note: we temporarily accept orders for pyrex tubes of up to 12 feet long."

So I guess they have the ability to make them extremely long. Could always ask for a quote but I'm sure its going to be over 2 grand+.

One of their examples: PCY-18x21 18.00"(OD) x 0.196"(Wall) x 21.00(L)" $2294.00

Thats 18" OD with a little less than 2 foot length.

[Mattgyver92]

These are just pyrex cylinders though. How would you enclose the bottom? After reading through this thread, I'm glad I didn't spend too much time designing lava lamps from my craft store glass floor vases!

[Todd]

They offer flat bottom versions too:

"Additionally,we can flat bottom one end or round bottom one end of the cylinder."

One thing for sure, using regular, even tempered, glass for a lava lamp usually ends in very messy disaster!

[Mattgyver92]

I did see that, but thought they were simply describing the sawn or flame polished edge finish as 'flat' or 'rounded'. Nice.

My concept doesn't have to be super tall, but I'd more than likely need to have a custom made globe:

I mostly guessed the dimensions for this since I'll more than likely scale the lamp itself to fit the globe. Lamp is made from cast concrete in 3D printed molds. Stand is wood. Flicker neon bulb on the bottom for effect.

I've been using lava lamps from wine maker's bottles and even some square architectural glass blocks for over a year without any issue with them thus far. Of course, these aren't nearly the height, scale, and temperature intensity that's needed for a tower sized lava lamp.
Todd said:

They offer flat bottom versions too:

"Additionally,we can flat bottom one end or round bottom one end of the cylinder."

One thing for sure, using regular, even tempered, glass for a lava lamp usually ends in very messy disaster!

[Todd]

That looks AWESOME! I love high-powered rockets myself. You definitely have some skills, so it just might turn out great. Start a discussion on the build!
Todd

[Mattgyver92]

Just submitted my order for my globe with Adams & Chittenden Scientific Glass for a 120mm OD x 500mm borosilicate globe with fire polish 'mouth'. Quote pre-shipping was only $215! I was expecting it to be hundreds higher.

If you're building a tall lamp globe/magma tower, I recommend sharing your design with them. Never got an email back grom Greatglas and when I called for a quote, they requested I do it via email so I can't really say if they're similar in cost.

I'll obviously make a build thread on here when I start the Titan project. Very excited.

[Claude J]

Yeah! everybody nowadays wants to avoid direct customer contact|
Even if the price is cheaper, I go to the next person that will take the time to discuss the project, idea, purchase,etc

Let us know how it goes with making the base

I have a company that discovered while trying to make a replacement LUNAR base, that will make your project out of a myriad of materials, just off a CAD file
I want to go induction heating with my next big project (If I can find the time)

[Minions]

Looking forward to how the glass works out. Design looks amazing. 

[Mattgyver92]

Thanks everyone. Here's their website:

https://adamschittenden.com/

As for the design, I'm hoping to make two more that are similar:

Again, they were super nice. Looking through their specialty projects in their gallery, there's a blown glass ant farm, a 'manta cam' enclosure, and even a collection of klein bottles and torus shaped vessels. And I love a good torus...especially with sprinkles.

Minions said:

Looking forward to how the glass works out. Design looks amazing. 

[Mattgyver92]

Base design is likely to be concrete......but I might be interested in your source if they machined one out of aluminum. :)

Regardless, I'll likely begin this late spring/early summer. I've got a crystalhead vodka bottle base to design as well as a uranium glass bottle lamp base to design first.

Claude J said:

Yeah! everybody nowadays wants to avoid direct customer contact|
Even if the price is cheaper, I go to the next person that will take the time to discuss the project, idea, purchase,etc

Let us know how it goes with making the base

I have a company that discovered while trying to make a replacement LUNAR base, that will make your project out of a myriad of materials, just off a CAD file
I want to go induction heating with my next big project (If I can find the time)