A Weekend with Lava Lamps

[Brandon]

I had a fun weekend with my lava lamps.  Typically they hide in the basement.  But this weekend I pulled them out to decorate my front porch.

I also spent time tearing apart 4x lamps.  One needs to go into the trash but I keep trying various things, because, why not?  2x that were clear and fine, but had the boring Chinese blob flow.  And my Grande which had one of it's two coils snap and straighten out (this essentially broke its flow).

Results:

• The trash one is still trash
• in my green/yellow one, I went from better flow to lava stuck all over the globe.
  • All contents emptied, globe cleaned with acetone.
  • Metallic magic marker ink/guts added to wax
    • It now looks like a spotted old man
• My pink one went from perfectly clear, to better flow, to also having wax stuck to the side
  • All contents emptied, globe cleaned with acetone.
  • It's now a non flowing cloudy mess
• The grande only needs me to find/build a new coil

I've emptied the water and refilled other globes several times.  This was the first time I also poured wax out.  I think I did this all wrong.  Would someone please share their wax empty/refill process?  

[Brandon]

Testing some posting options (while sharing my weekend decorations!)

[Brandon]

My new secondary grande coil. Made out of some aluminum mesh I had laying around. Will see how it works. 
 

[Claude J]

That coil might have to much mass to heat properly

I've refurbished 100's of globes

Attached is a tutorial on how to refurbish a globe
REFURBISHING%20A%20GLOBE.pdf

[Brandon]

Great stuff, thank you!  In my toying around over the years (we're talking a few lamps, not 100s!), if soap can be used as surf, that the soap would make the lava more stringy and less soap more ball like.  Huh, that changes things if not.

Ended up not being the coil that made the flow suck in that Grande.  My homemade coil didn't work, so I modified it by putting a base on it (like a small cup).  That didn't work.  So I added a coil from my trash lamp.  That didn't work.  So I put some salt water in it, now that worked!  

Claude J said:

That coil might have to much mass to heat properly

I've refurbished 100's of globes

Attached is a tutorial on how to refurbish a globe
REFURBISHING%20A%20GLOBE.pdf

[Claude J]

that salt won't last and will eventually corrode your coil

Epson salt is reserved for middle school science class experiments
it's best to use propylene glycol to adjust the specific gravity

Brandon said:

Great stuff, thank you!  In my toying around over the years (we're talking a few lamps, not 100s!), if soap can be used as surf, that the soap would make the lava more stringy and less soap more ball like.  Huh, that changes things if not.

Ended up not being the coil that made the flow suck in that Grande.  My homemade coil didn't work, so I modified it by putting a base on it (like a small cup).  That didn't work.  So I added a coil from my trash lamp.  That didn't work.  So I put some salt water in it, now that worked!  

Claude J said:

That coil might have to much mass to heat properly

I've refurbished 100's of globes

Attached is a tutorial on how to refurbish a globe
REFURBISHING%20A%20GLOBE.pdf

[Claude J]

Nice idea with the porch display!

[Susan]

Love your porch display. 

Brandon said:

Testing some posting options (while sharing my weekend decorations!)