Never thought this video would hold my attention, however, I watched it in its entirety. Great work done Sir and I absolutely respect your tenacity. I learnt a lot which will help in my making a long cherished lava lamp. Thank you.
I love your persistence, your ingenuity, your empiricism, and also, your desire to push limits. It was there that you achieved the near-perfect---and there also---the total ruin of what you had set out to accomplish!! But you really broke the entire system down, and I'd say, went well beyond the Reddit standard. I watched every minute of it, and know how many exhausting hours went into the production and post production of this video. You have the makings of a good documentarian and videographer! And alas, you also have the quality perfectionism! Thanks and I look forward to seeing more!
Man, this video is really great! I cannot express how fun it was to see the whole process and ideas, now I just want to change the water of my lava lamp and this video motivates me more!
I was on the edge of my seat the entire video lol. Good job taking the extra step to experiment with the ink! Might not have been successful but hey you gave it a go!
OMG HOW MUCH WORK WENT THROUGH THIS , i just bought a lavalamp and its cloudy as heck my dissapointment is huge , but this video brought a big smile on my face , the efforts and he specifically went for easy to find materials filters and panty hose , sponges are available 😀, i will try destiled water from the air-conditioner and update u guys , now i know its okay to throw the original water with no big . fear .
I loved the video! The amount of work you’ve put into it is incredible, and all the information you’ve shared is so valuable. I recently bought a Schylling 2125 lamp, and so far, I’m really happy with it-it’s my first lava lamp. But if I ever need to repair it, now I know how to do it. Thank you so much!
I made it to the end! Love the quotes you put in the video, as well as overall construction of the whole thing! Not only did you get a like from me, but a new follower as well! Thank you for existing!
I appreciate all the effort you put into this how to video. Honestly, I have no idea what you did with panty hose and coffee filters and all the rest. Today, I emptied out the cloudy water from my lava lamp. I used boiled water (distilled water) and I poured it back in. It is like brand new again and it took under 5 minutes. Not a flex, I swear.
Please fix it! I absolutely loved this video, I'm a lava lamp lover as well and have like 6 of them. I've been looking for a cost-effective way to fix my lamps for a while now and you've really helped!! ❤
I'm afraid I tossed the contents of this lamp while working on my "lava lamps from scratch" project 😬 But when it eventually comes out, it will hopefully be useful for you too.
Thank you!! This is EXACTLY what’s going on with a second hand lamp I just bought! Thank you SOOOOOO MUCH!!! now I know what to do to fix all its issues!! Bless you sir! ❤
I watched all the way. Sorry for your loss in the end. The sacrifices we make in the name of science can be disappointing. However, it's not so bitter because you were ultimately successful while educating us all throughout the process. As well, you have likely saved thousands from ruining their lava lamps.
This was insanely entertaining and informative. I loved how well you documented every step (must have taken ages!), and your insistence on the low-budget DIY approach. Great stuff! I'd love for you to revisit that restoration project, and bring that lamp back together with some properly dyed paraffin wax. Maybe you can figure out a cheap solution for that as well!
Very cool work through! I have a broken coil on one lamp and a bit of hazing as well.... thanks for proving the ineffectiveness of the coffee filters. Good luck!
I loved this video and your experimentation process. Thanks for documenting it and sharing your discoveries. I watched the whole thing and wished there was more!
@@Makstuff That's very cool to hear! I can imagine it will be brilliant.. I would like to learn how to do the same so I will be watching your videos closely :)
Dimmer switches ought to come with lava lamps by default. I never liked how 99% of modern lava lamp have 15-20 tiny wax blobs floating around as if they're quail eggs being boiled. Aesthetically it's far more pleasing to have wax separate into 2-3 large blobs, so you can observe the slow forming of the top blob. 15-20 blobs form instantly not allowing one to see the very reason why these lamps are considered "psychedelic". The manufacturer overheats these by default, hoping they go out of order quicker, prompting you to get a new one. This is why you have so many blobs. I've had dimmer switch on all my lamps, and many of them lasted over a decade before needing an overhaul with soap and Epsom salt. Some of them, however were originally composed of chemicals (added to the wax) which do not respond to Epsom salt/soap method so it's a hit or miss.
Couldn't agree more, especially for premium manufacturers where one lamp can cost +-100$, dimmer switches being standard would be great, and I assume easily within acceptable price range. I think another reason for the intentional overheating phenomenon could be to reduce heat-up time and avoid bad reviews by impatient customers who don't understand that the lava has to melt first.
A dimmer is the way. I have a Mathmos Astro and use a smart dimmer, along with a 75w bulb. So I can start the lamp at 75w to jump start the flow, then use a couple timers to automatically step it down a couple times after a while once the whole lamp is heated. It really gets it going so much faster.
Man, i wish i could get a mathmos one. They dont ship to the US, which is bad for me because theyre much better than my current one (which is still really good)
AGREED! I have a very old Mathmos that was a gift 35 years ago. It was the best unfortunately it was shaken up in a fall and I did rinse the wax and replace the liquid with propylene glycol by name fog juice used for fog machines. It now works perfectly like it did new! Even with that it is still better by far then these China copies!
Just finished, and waiting for lamp to heat up. I followed the steps, thank you so much for salt calculation. The only thing that i make different was i used distilled water, and i didnt want to but i was at supermarket to buy some groceries and at checkout there was sale of distilled water, and i acknowledge as some sort of sign 🤣 I was thinking to put drop of clear dish soap but you didn't so i didn't either. Hope in hour or two lamp will flow again.
@@Makstuff Thanks for pinup ! Worked like charm couple of days to "tune up" salt content but you calculation helped allot and i needed to add couple drops of soap. Again thanks !
I think I done great job dude I learned a lot shit about lava lamps I never new u could fix em or stuff like that till i watched the video so hell yeah !!
Now this is what we call a school teacher showing kids how to play with science making mistakes and starting again.... Thanks home education teacher..... You have a school rather than state school imagine that!
Madre mía 😂, lo he visto todo. Qué curioso eres y qué paciencia. 😅. Deberías haberle puesto el líquido que no quisiste comprar, pero te había quedado muy bien sin teñir también. Felicidades 😊
Trabajo admirable!!! Gracias por este video Dos de mis lampara por mas que les cambio el agua con sal sin sal y regule la temperatura la cera queda arriba y parte se pega a los costados. Espero ansiosa tu video desde cero 🤗
It was definitely interesting to see. Thats sad you went too far but seeing all those steps where u r learning from your mistakes was definitely refreshing to see. And now, , i understand that all those formulas were for something. It wasn't just 'some' formulas !!! Damn ! Just keep doing this. (Also just check the differences between wax and oil, as far as i remember u definitely can't mix them but i don't remember why)
More than likely that brown was just old wax. Considering it looks like a cheap lava lamp, i wouldnt be surprised. I also think its funny that you were comparing it to an expensive one haha. Either way, it was an entertaining video!
I have used fog juice used for smoke machines! At about 80% fog juice to 20% distilled water. So far with very good results! On a note it would seem fog juice is propylene glycol or at least mostly! Would like to see your ideas on this? I did try a few other ways salt and Epsom salt! Both seemed to get cloudy and wax was clumping over time.
Thanks for the idea, I think I'll incorporate this in my upcoming video where I'll try to make lava lamps from scratch. I'll probably make one with fog juice and one or two with water and then compare them. By the way, how did you come up with the 80%/20% ratio? From what I've seen, the average fog juice nowadays seems to be around 30% propylene glycol and 70% water, so I'd be inclined to just use pure fog juice for simplicity, assuming the 20% water don't matter much.
So I got a big lava lamp off my sister that was extremely cloudy for years. and I was going to give this a try. I got the crimped cap off nice and dumped out the water a d refilled it with distilled water and just turned it on. It worked exactly the same as it did, very well only minus the cloudy water. I didnt use dish soap or any type of salt...just water. It works great. I resealed the original cap with a metal hose clamp and it's like new again. Thanks for the video but why did this work for me? By the way, food coloring I hear works well for coloring the water. Some people add glitter too but that's not for me. So if anyone is trying this, before you add salt or dish Soap, try it out 1st with just new distilled water. I am almost positive my lamp in question was a lamp from Spencer's store in the USA. I just bought 2 more 16" lamps from them today as they are on sale for the holidays for $32! Cant beat that for a large lamp and if I'm right, they are easily maintained. Great video btw! Update: it's been a few days now and it is doing great! No cloudiness at all and the flow is perfect! Hopefully it continues to work well for many years. I leave it on for 10 hours at a time.
I'm want to try a complete refill with candle wax eventually, but it seems you need a chemical called Perchlorethen to increase the wax density, and so far I couldn't find it for an acceptable price. In the US they have Brakleen which is widely available there, but in Europe not so much.
@@lurklingX I don't think there are restrictions, I'm just not willing to pay the 30€+ for shipping. But if someone happened to be crazy enough to sponsor it, I'd happily make a follow up 😌
The video was so good, because I've barely see anyone giving so much love to restore something and at 20:30 I tought "Wow, he put so much afford in it and finally did it! He saved so many resources on this planet and refurbished this lava lamp." This is really sustainable, until I saw 20:57 and just thought "Why would you even try this?". The conditions of the experiment even sounded it will fail :( Why didn't you stop after you saved the lava lamp? It's just a little bit sad, after putting so much effort in it.
I loved it. If you get 3 cotton balls and smash the ever living heck out of them into the small part of a metal funnel (and I mean smash them in there, like 10 lb of force with a rod) you can improvise a sub-micron filter. I dont know how small of particles will filter out but it will take several hours for the water to wick through a drop at a time but it WILL get through eventually without assisting it(Forcing it through will just push particles through as well). Thanks for the cool video.
Cotton (I assume you mean the fluffy stuff used for eg makeup, and not the fabric) is a great idea, wish I had thought of that earlier. I wonder how bad forcing it through with pressure really is though, I have seen chemists use vacuum pumps for filtering which seems like the same thing in reverse.
I tried this with vape cotton i had but mine still looks like washed out semen. However it did get rid of the color, but not sure if thats a good thing since i liked the color.
i want to make a lava lamp, but the paraffin wax i'm using floats in the water, how can i make my wax more dense, or my water less dense? i used alcohol that made my wax white, but the alcohol got colored in the process
@@TherealRetrad_ You need to add chlorinated hydrocarbons to the lava. These are denser than water and mix with paraffin. Not easy to find, I got tetrachloroethylene from the S3 chemical shop. If you are in the US maybe you can find non-flammable brakleen somewhere, but its not available in Europe.
16:16 I notice in the Mathmos on the right the lava is not "collecting" at top. I believe ideally this is the way it should behave. Do you think this is down to temperature or salt content?
Sometimes in the Mathmos small amounts of wax get stuck to the surface of the liquid too (I think that's what you mean?) but I agree it's way less than the new lamp. Absolutely no clue what causes that.
After salt to my lamp wax has become poorly divided into balls, it stretches in a long vertical hot stream and cannot break into balls. How to break wax into balls?
@@Makstuff also after two or three hours of work, the wax ball explodes and scatters into many small ones, like fireworks :/ I think there is something different here. lava takes the form of a long hot worm from coil to top that rarely bubbles
5:56 - Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it. - Benjamin Franklin Oh the irony! In an attempt to save €30, you ignored all the repeated advice you found online, went through €60+ of supplies and ruined your lamp in the process. 😂 I just hope the journey was worth it. 👍🏻👍🏻
I tried the same steps as you did but it didnt work out for me. When the wax heated up it stays at the top , so i had to put my old water back in the bottle . What could be the reason .
It flows slowly , i want a flow rate like in the mathmos , random ,big and small bubbles . Mine just performs a big bubble that goes up and down . Wax looks clean,but when it heats up i can see some things like dust or cotton in it . I tried just water at the beginning but all the wax stuck on the top when it heated .
Next time just use a sawyer filter and you'll make the cloudy master fluid pretty much crystal clear. Appreciate the information though and taking us through the ups/downs of the process.
I'd like to try and make a lava lamp entirely from scratch, using colored candle wax and water lightened with alcohol. i.e. instead of using wax weighted down with something and distilled water, I would like to try lightening the water with alcohol, which has a lower specific gravity than water and dissolves completely in it. Do you think it can work?
I'm currently working on a large project where I wanted to try that, amongst other things. Not 100% sure about paraffin wax, but I did a test with rubbing alcohol and liquid paraffin, and these substances mix once they are heated. Maybe ethanol is different, but in any case it's basically like having a molotov cocktail on your sideboard, so I hope you are aware of that 😌
@@Makstuff Yes, you are right, but the amount of ethanol needed to lower the specific gravity of water is not large. I already did a test with a small amount and more or less the mix is 40% ethanol and 60% distilled water and I don't think it is highly flammable. But then it also depends on the specific weight of the paraffin that is used
I somehow remember that I ballparked the required alcohol concentration to be more around 70-80%, which makes decent molotovs. But if you tested it and it worked at 40%, all the better 🤔 Anyway, please let me know if you end up with something that works, would love to hear about it 😇
Hi Makstuff, I just made my first LavaLamp from scratch! I used pure vax of paraffine (not candle because contains impurities) made heavier with tetrachloride, and demineralized water with some pure NaCl for the liquid. It works great (for now) !
IN THE 70S MY MUM BOUGHT ME A HUGE ONE, IT MUST HAVE BEEN T6HREE FEET TALL AND AT LEAST ONE FOOT IN DIAMETER. SADLY IT WAS CLOUDY FROM THE START AND BACK THEN WE HAD NO IDEA ABOUT HOW TO CLEAR THE OIL!!
A very professional and helpful presentation. I note that you unfortunately seemed to have ‘ruined’ some wax with the pen ink. Do you know of any way to replace the wax without using dangerous substances? I would like to do this if possible. Many thanks
a question, I have an old Chinese lava lamp that no longer works, but the liquid inside is clear and blue in color, now I bought a similar shaped but original lava lite, all this as soon as it arrived and cloudy so much that it is not sees almost nothing and is new! do you think if I pour the liquid from the old lamp into the new original one, does the lava flow work the same?
hello I wanted to ask you something, what is the reason why the bubbles remain at the bottom and take so long to join the coil and return to flow? having filtered the opaque lamp, do you think it is due to a little soap?
It was surprisingly emotional watch a man spend hours, even days laboriously fixing a lava lamp before completely ruining it.
Never thought this video would hold my attention, however, I watched it in its entirety. Great work done Sir and I absolutely respect your tenacity.
I learnt a lot which will help in my making a long cherished lava lamp. Thank you.
I love your persistence, your ingenuity, your empiricism, and also, your desire to push limits. It was there that you achieved the near-perfect---and there also---the total ruin of what you had set out to accomplish!! But you really broke the entire system down, and I'd say, went well beyond the Reddit standard. I watched every minute of it, and know how many exhausting hours went into the production and post production of this video. You have the makings of a good documentarian and videographer! And alas, you also have the quality perfectionism! Thanks and I look forward to seeing more!
Thanks, and you're pretty damn good at writing wholesome comments 😊
empiricism - and *i* totally appreciate knowing an actual salinity level - 1% !! :D
Shut up you should look up words before you use them
Reddit is garbage
Blows My mind how great this video was very detailed.
Thanks for the knowledge and effort that telling me to just get the Mathmos.
Did you get one?
Man, this video is really great! I cannot express how fun it was to see the whole process and ideas, now I just want to change the water of my lava lamp and this video motivates me more!
I was on the edge of my seat the entire video lol. Good job taking the extra step to experiment with the ink! Might not have been successful but hey you gave it a go!
OMG HOW MUCH WORK WENT THROUGH THIS , i just bought a lavalamp and its cloudy as heck my dissapointment is huge , but this video brought a big smile on my face , the efforts and he specifically went for easy to find materials filters and panty hose , sponges are available 😀, i will try destiled water from the air-conditioner and update u guys , now i know its okay to throw the original water with no big . fear .
How did it go?
waiting for your update!
Algún avance.. 😮
Very good. Thanks for not just taking the time to nerd the project, but for documenting it here for me and others to see and learn from.
I loved the video!
The amount of work you’ve put into it is incredible, and all the information you’ve shared is so valuable.
I recently bought a Schylling 2125 lamp, and so far, I’m really happy with it-it’s my first lava lamp.
But if I ever need to repair it, now I know how to do it. Thank you so much!
I made it to the end! Love the quotes you put in the video, as well as overall construction of the whole thing! Not only did you get a like from me, but a new follower as well! Thank you for existing!
Thank you. I appreciate how you used what was readily available. I have a project in mind but don't have a lot to invest upfront
I appreciate all the effort you put into this how to video. Honestly, I have no idea what you did with panty hose and coffee filters and all the rest.
Today, I emptied out the cloudy water from my lava lamp. I used boiled water (distilled water) and I poured it back in. It is like brand new again and it took under 5 minutes. Not a flex, I swear.
Good for you but that does NOT work with every lamp 😛
using emoji as subtitles during the summary and recap were honestly a gamechanger. it turns normal facts into almost like a game
My thoughts exactly, glad you like it 😊
@Makstuff you are QUICK to read feedback. I can see you growing massively in the next year or even months, don't give up on ur dreams bro.
Thanks for your time and knowledge . You have nice voice .
Great instructions! Can't wait to redo my lava lamp.
Loved this video so much! I can’t even say how much I enjoyed it!
Wow this was exactly what I needed! Thank you so much- I feel so much more prepared to fix my lava lamp now. Thank you!
Please fix it! I absolutely loved this video, I'm a lava lamp lover as well and have like 6 of them. I've been looking for a cost-effective way to fix my lamps for a while now and you've really helped!! ❤
I'm afraid I tossed the contents of this lamp while working on my "lava lamps from scratch" project 😬 But when it eventually comes out, it will hopefully be useful for you too.
Thank you!! This is EXACTLY what’s going on with a second hand lamp I just bought! Thank you SOOOOOO MUCH!!! now I know what to do to fix all its issues!! Bless you sir! ❤
I love the trials and errors!
I watched all the way. Sorry for your loss in the end. The sacrifices we make in the name of science can be disappointing. However, it's not so bitter because you were ultimately successful while educating us all throughout the process. As well, you have likely saved thousands from ruining their lava lamps.
I really like the way you presented in this video, thank you for your dedication and quality...,
Also have this one, but in green. Wanted to clean it for a longer time, thanks for the guide!
👏great analysis, you are a good scientist! 👍
This was insanely entertaining and informative. I loved how well you documented every step (must have taken ages!), and your insistence on the low-budget DIY approach. Great stuff!
I'd love for you to revisit that restoration project, and bring that lamp back together with some properly dyed paraffin wax. Maybe you can figure out a cheap solution for that as well!
Man that was an awesome watch.
This was truly amazing!! Respect your persistence 🫡
What an absolutely brilliant and entertaining video! Thank you.
wow. best lava lamp diy fix vid on YT. Thanks!
Very cool work through! I have a broken coil on one lamp and a bit of hazing as well.... thanks for proving the ineffectiveness of the coffee filters. Good luck!
I loved this video and your experimentation process. Thanks for documenting it and sharing your discoveries. I watched the whole thing and wished there was more!
Working on building a whole lamp from scratch atm, using tea lights as wax. Might take a few months, but there will be more 😇
@@Makstuff That's very cool to hear! I can imagine it will be brilliant.. I would like to learn how to do the same so I will be watching your videos closely :)
That was pretty awesome video man keep it up!
Very nice and useful video! Thanks
Amazing video, very nice music and editing overall!
Dimmer switches ought to come with lava lamps by default. I never liked how 99% of modern lava lamp have 15-20 tiny wax blobs floating around as if they're quail eggs being boiled. Aesthetically it's far more pleasing to have wax separate into 2-3 large blobs, so you can observe the slow forming of the top blob. 15-20 blobs form instantly not allowing one to see the very reason why these lamps are considered "psychedelic". The manufacturer overheats these by default, hoping they go out of order quicker, prompting you to get a new one. This is why you have so many blobs. I've had dimmer switch on all my lamps, and many of them lasted over a decade before needing an overhaul with soap and Epsom salt. Some of them, however were originally composed of chemicals (added to the wax) which do not respond to Epsom salt/soap method so it's a hit or miss.
Couldn't agree more, especially for premium manufacturers where one lamp can cost +-100$, dimmer switches being standard would be great, and I assume easily within acceptable price range.
I think another reason for the intentional overheating phenomenon could be to reduce heat-up time and avoid bad reviews by impatient customers who don't understand that the lava has to melt first.
A dimmer is the way. I have a Mathmos Astro and use a smart dimmer, along with a 75w bulb. So I can start the lamp at 75w to jump start the flow, then use a couple timers to automatically step it down a couple times after a while once the whole lamp is heated. It really gets it going so much faster.
This video is peeerrfecct!!! For real. I love you so much for that. Thank you 10000 times!!
Greetings from Germany. I´m a Fan of the Mathmos Lava Lamps and i like your Videos. I have an Astro and a little Fireflow.
Wow you did a great job
i have two 2nd hand mathmos lamps and they are very clear and work great.
Nice experimenting and great solutions found. Cool video
This was an awesome vid. You are a Renaissance man.❤
Great video, very helpful! My Lava lamp has some clouding and the blue wax has some pinky white parts
Perfektes Tutorial. DANKE!
Good video, I recycled a lava lamp and only the light was burnt out, now I know how it is filled and what materials it takes. thank you
Fabulous video! Thanks so much for your efforts!
Could have saved the cap, used clamps to squeeze the bottle😂😂😂... BEST VIDEO EVER!!
Excellent, I always suspected that it was a water wax combination with perhaps some other stuff added in, thank you for confirming it.
Man, i wish i could get a mathmos one. They dont ship to the US, which is bad for me because theyre much better than my current one (which is still really good)
AGREED! I have a very old Mathmos that was a gift 35 years ago. It was the best unfortunately it was shaken up in a fall and I did rinse the wax and replace the liquid with propylene glycol by name fog juice used for fog machines. It now works perfectly like it did new! Even with that it is still better by far then these China copies!
Just finished, and waiting for lamp to heat up.
I followed the steps, thank you so much for salt calculation.
The only thing that i make different was i used distilled water, and i didnt want to but i was at supermarket to buy some groceries and at checkout there was sale of distilled water, and i acknowledge as some sort of sign 🤣
I was thinking to put drop of clear dish soap but you didn't so i didn't either.
Hope in hour or two lamp will flow again.
Cool to hear! I hope the salt concentration works for your lamp too, I imagine it could vary wildly between lamps. Let me know how it turns out.
@@Makstuff
Thanks for pinup !
Worked like charm couple of days to "tune up" salt content but you calculation helped allot and i needed to add couple drops of soap.
Again thanks !
Thank you❤
love the Mike Tyson Quote
I think I done great job dude I learned a lot shit about lava lamps I never new u could fix em or stuff like that till i watched the video so hell yeah !!
Now this is what we call a school teacher showing kids how to play with science making mistakes and starting again.... Thanks home education teacher..... You have a school rather than state school imagine that!
Madre mía 😂, lo he visto todo. Qué curioso eres y qué paciencia. 😅. Deberías haberle puesto el líquido que no quisiste comprar, pero te había quedado muy bien sin teñir también. Felicidades 😊
Trabajo admirable!!! Gracias por este video
Dos de mis lampara por mas que les cambio el agua con sal sin sal y regule la temperatura la cera queda arriba y parte se pega a los costados. Espero ansiosa tu video desde cero 🤗
I totally watched this all the way through! Very relaxing. You are smart, geeky, detailed, and curious! I love it :-)
Thanks For they procedure and all your Details
Joya de video, muy explicativo, y resultados reales como a cualquier persona.
Yo tengo la misma lampara.. Solo cambiare el liquido por uno nuevo y vere como queda.. Pero este video esta excelente.. tiene todos los detalles.
That was fun. Thank you.
this video is perfection!!! i love it, thank u very much for this!!! :3
Great study Thank you
Very helpful video
It was definitely interesting to see. Thats sad you went too far but seeing all those steps where u r learning from your mistakes was definitely refreshing to see. And now, , i understand that all those formulas were for something. It wasn't just 'some' formulas !!! Damn ! Just keep doing this.
(Also just check the differences between wax and oil, as far as i remember u definitely can't mix them but i don't remember why)
loved the whole vid!!! .now get wax , and dye it ,and do it again.GREAT VID. THANKS!!!
NEXT TIME , GOOGLE DYING WAX.
More than likely that brown was just old wax. Considering it looks like a cheap lava lamp, i wouldnt be surprised. I also think its funny that you were comparing it to an expensive one haha.
Either way, it was an entertaining video!
I have used fog juice used for smoke machines! At about 80% fog juice to 20% distilled water. So far with very good results! On a note it would seem fog juice is propylene glycol or at least mostly! Would like to see your ideas on this? I did try a few other ways salt and Epsom salt! Both seemed to get cloudy and wax was clumping over time.
Thanks for the idea, I think I'll incorporate this in my upcoming video where I'll try to make lava lamps from scratch. I'll probably make one with fog juice and one or two with water and then compare them. By the way, how did you come up with the 80%/20% ratio? From what I've seen, the average fog juice nowadays seems to be around 30% propylene glycol and 70% water, so I'd be inclined to just use pure fog juice for simplicity, assuming the 20% water don't matter much.
So I got a big lava lamp off my sister that was extremely cloudy for years. and I was going to give this a try. I got the crimped cap off nice and dumped out the water a d refilled it with distilled water and just turned it on. It worked exactly the same as it did, very well only minus the cloudy water. I didnt use dish soap or any type of salt...just water. It works great. I resealed the original cap with a metal hose clamp and it's like new again. Thanks for the video but why did this work for me? By the way, food coloring I hear works well for coloring the water. Some people add glitter too but that's not for me. So if anyone is trying this, before you add salt or dish Soap, try it out 1st with just new distilled water. I am almost positive my lamp in question was a lamp from Spencer's store in the USA. I just bought 2 more 16" lamps from them today as they are on sale for the holidays for $32! Cant beat that for a large lamp and if I'm right, they are easily maintained. Great video btw! Update: it's been a few days now and it is doing great! No cloudiness at all and the flow is perfect! Hopefully it continues to work well for many years. I leave it on for 10 hours at a time.
I have no idea, but hey, if it works, it works 😊 Thanks for the comment btw, such information can be very helpful for future viewers.
Klasse gemacht, vielen Dank!
There is a famous saying... Quit while you're ahead!
we need more videos on how to dye the wax and what are the choices and options for that.
You can use a colourful lamp that can give a fine effect
Please do more videos like this
I'm want to try a complete refill with candle wax eventually, but it seems you need a chemical called Perchlorethen to increase the wax density, and so far I couldn't find it for an acceptable price. In the US they have Brakleen which is widely available there, but in Europe not so much.
@@Makstuff I have been thinking about buying used lamps just to harvest wax/fluid from it because the "goo-Kit" has been discontinued
@@WTP_DAVE Pretty clever, if you don't care about the scientific aspect this is probably the smartest way.
@@Makstuff are there restrictions on shipping brakleen? i think enough of us watching this live in the US and could get some to you
@@lurklingX I don't think there are restrictions, I'm just not willing to pay the 30€+ for shipping. But if someone happened to be crazy enough to sponsor it, I'd happily make a follow up 😌
Thank you
Lovely.
Nice video!
The video was so good, because I've barely see anyone giving so much love to restore something and at 20:30 I tought "Wow, he put so much afford in it and finally did it! He saved so many resources on this planet and refurbished this lava lamp." This is really sustainable, until I saw 20:57 and just thought "Why would you even try this?". The conditions of the experiment even sounded it will fail :( Why didn't you stop after you saved the lava lamp? It's just a little bit sad, after putting so much effort in it.
I loved it. If you get 3 cotton balls and smash the ever living heck out of them into the small part of a metal funnel (and I mean smash them in there, like 10 lb of force with a rod) you can improvise a sub-micron filter. I dont know how small of particles will filter out but it will take several hours for the water to wick through a drop at a time but it WILL get through eventually without assisting it(Forcing it through will just push particles through as well). Thanks for the cool video.
Cotton (I assume you mean the fluffy stuff used for eg makeup, and not the fabric) is a great idea, wish I had thought of that earlier. I wonder how bad forcing it through with pressure really is though, I have seen chemists use vacuum pumps for filtering which seems like the same thing in reverse.
I tried this with vape cotton i had but mine still looks like washed out semen.
However it did get rid of the color, but not sure if thats a good thing since i liked the color.
@@DoodieSmoothie Interesting, thanks for the feedback!
I didnt really smash it tho. But the filter is long like the sponge trick, and took maybe 1.5 hours to complete.
some of us don't know what washed out semen looks like. Or tasted like.
Thanks so much!
Thats the spirit!
My clear/black plum mathmos Astro became hazy after a few days of using it, idk if it’s normal for this bottle color or if cycling will help?
I don't know, but if it was new I'd sure hope this is NOT normal. My new Mathmoses never got hazy at all.
I got it off eBay and was new in bow and arrived crystal clear, so idk what happened
i want to make a lava lamp, but the paraffin wax i'm using floats in the water, how can i make my wax more dense, or my water less dense? i used alcohol that made my wax white, but the alcohol got colored in the process
@@TherealRetrad_ You need to add chlorinated hydrocarbons to the lava. These are denser than water and mix with paraffin. Not easy to find, I got tetrachloroethylene from the S3 chemical shop. If you are in the US maybe you can find non-flammable brakleen somewhere, but its not available in Europe.
@@Makstuff darn, i'm in the UK and on a budget, but thank you very much for the detailed reply, i'll look into it
16:16 I notice in the Mathmos on the right the lava is not "collecting" at top. I believe ideally this is the way it should behave. Do you think this is down to temperature or salt content?
Sometimes in the Mathmos small amounts of wax get stuck to the surface of the liquid too (I think that's what you mean?) but I agree it's way less than the new lamp. Absolutely no clue what causes that.
After salt to my lamp wax has become poorly divided into balls, it stretches in a long vertical hot stream and cannot break into balls. How to break wax into balls?
With my Mathmoses this often happens during the heat-up phase. Maybe give it a bit more time to warm up before doing anything else.
@@Makstuff also after two or three hours of work, the wax ball explodes and scatters into many small ones, like fireworks :/ I think there is something different here. lava takes the form of a long hot worm from coil to top that rarely bubbles
5:56 - Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it. - Benjamin Franklin
Oh the irony! In an attempt to save €30, you ignored all the repeated advice you found online, went through €60+ of supplies and ruined your lamp in the process. 😂
I just hope the journey was worth it. 👍🏻👍🏻
I tried the same steps as you did but it didnt work out for me. When the wax heated up it stays at the top , so i had to put my old water back in the bottle . What could be the reason .
@@batusirip8715 Probably your lamp requires a lower salt concentration. Salt increases the density of the water and thus makes the lava float.
I am currently using water and propylen glycol mix but i still cant get the flow that i want what would you suggest
@@batusirip8715 Could be a couple things. What exactly does the lamp do right now?
It flows slowly , i want a flow rate like in the mathmos , random ,big and small bubbles . Mine just performs a big bubble that goes up and down . Wax looks clean,but when it heats up i can see some things like dust or cotton in it . I tried just water at the beginning but all the wax stuck on the top when it heated .
@batusirip8715 Dunno about the dust, but if you want smaller bubbles you can add a tiny amount of dish soap.
what if I have colored water? like my wax is yellow but the water is blue
Food color or ink both seem to work fine.
Next time just use a sawyer filter and you'll make the cloudy master fluid pretty much crystal clear. Appreciate the information though and taking us through the ups/downs of the process.
How's your lava lamp formula now have you gotten the entire process figured out?
Not fully optimized, but I can make decently working lamps, see my preview videos.
I'd like to try and make a lava lamp entirely from scratch, using colored candle wax and water lightened with alcohol. i.e. instead of using wax weighted down with something and distilled water, I would like to try lightening the water with alcohol, which has a lower specific gravity than water and dissolves completely in it. Do you think it can work?
I'm currently working on a large project where I wanted to try that, amongst other things. Not 100% sure about paraffin wax, but I did a test with rubbing alcohol and liquid paraffin, and these substances mix once they are heated. Maybe ethanol is different, but in any case it's basically like having a molotov cocktail on your sideboard, so I hope you are aware of that 😌
@@Makstuff Yes, you are right, but the amount of ethanol needed to lower the specific gravity of water is not large. I already did a test with a small amount and more or less the mix is 40% ethanol and 60% distilled water and I don't think it is highly flammable. But then it also depends on the specific weight of the paraffin that is used
I somehow remember that I ballparked the required alcohol concentration to be more around 70-80%, which makes decent molotovs. But if you tested it and it worked at 40%, all the better 🤔 Anyway, please let me know if you end up with something that works, would love to hear about it 😇
@@Makstuff I hope that next week I will be able to find the time to carry out this experiment. I'll let you know 👍🏻🙂
Hi Makstuff, I just made my first LavaLamp from scratch!
I used pure vax of paraffine (not candle because contains impurities) made heavier with tetrachloride, and demineralized water with some pure NaCl for the liquid.
It works great (for now) !
IN THE 70S MY MUM BOUGHT ME A HUGE ONE, IT MUST HAVE BEEN T6HREE FEET TALL AND AT LEAST ONE FOOT IN DIAMETER. SADLY IT WAS CLOUDY FROM THE START AND BACK THEN WE HAD NO IDEA ABOUT HOW TO CLEAR THE OIL!!
Could that discolored residue be caused by burnt or overheated wax?
Is the "2000" hour lifespan a real thing? What happens after that?
How do you seal this again? Since the cap is broken?
Cycling your lamp is the way to go.
Which of course is an objective fact.
A very professional and helpful presentation.
I note that you unfortunately seemed to have ‘ruined’ some wax with the pen ink. Do you know of any way to replace the wax without using dangerous substances? I would like to do this if possible. Many thanks
Working on a complete refill using tea lights as wax. Might take a few months though 😌
@@Makstuff That’s interesting and good luck. I’m sure it will be worth waiting for. Thank you 😊
Instead of a dimmer you could try one of the newer 25 watt bulbs. 40watts are meant for those 60's through 90's lamps. Just a suggestion
In the end he tells you what you SHOULD do and demonstrates what NOT to do. So it's still educational, I guess.
a question, I have an old Chinese lava lamp that no longer works, but the liquid inside is clear and blue in color, now I bought a similar shaped but original lava lite, all this as soon as it arrived and cloudy so much that it is not sees almost nothing and is new! do you think if I pour the liquid from the old lamp into the new original one, does the lava flow work the same?
Tbh I don't know, but if it's a new lamp I'd just return it and demand a replacement from the shop.
hello I wanted to ask you something, what is the reason why the bubbles remain at the bottom and take so long to join the coil and return to flow? having filtered the opaque lamp, do you think it is due to a little soap?