Restoration of a 27” Grande Lava Lamp
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- How to fix your lava lamp. Fixing a cloudy lava lamp? Sticky lava lamp? This will show you how to filter fluid, filter wax, replace coils, and create new fluid. If you’re lamp is cloudy, sticky, or now flowing correctly, this is for you. Quantities mentioned are specifically for a 27” lamp, but will work for any modern Chinese lamp. Step by step Fix your lava lamp. Any questions or clarifications, I’ll do my best to answer in the comments.
I actually think the bleed in your Emerald City lamp is really pretty. It's just enough color that it enhances the wax. And my lord, the flow is pretty on that thing.
This is awesome! Until recently, I had no idea that you could refurbish lava lamps. I used to have a decent collection. Over the years, I would just get rid of them, or pass them along, when the got played out.
I think I just found a new interest/hobby. Thanks for the great informative video.
I also took a fiberglass driveway marker and ground a slit in it to slide a cloth through it so I could put it in an electric drill to spin it around in the empty glass with soapy water. Cleans amazingly well.
Great video, thanks for the info.
Going to try this with a few cloudy lamps I have.
cant wait to see a video from you on Coloring of the wax and fluid. fingers crossed.
Dyeing fluid is incredibly simple. I’ll make a video for it next weekend. Wax is definitely a lot trickier. I’ll do one for that at some point too though.
Hello friend greetings from chile, could you make a video cleaning a smaller lamp? And will you upload the video showing how to dye the liquid? @@user-fc5cp2vt5v
Thanks for the video helped out great bought myself a grande and it’s really cloudy. Gonna change water.
ive got the exact lamp you are working on and it came cloudy. I look forward to fixing it up now that you have shown me how to do it. Great video
I've had my grande since I was 14 and now I'm in my 30s. I refurbished it about 7 years ago and now it's not flowing. I guess it's time for another refurbish.
Great job! And clear / yellow is so much better!
I have the lamp with the 11” tall glass. I put it inside my oven on the warm setting which was hot enough to melt the wax and pre warm the glass, reducing wax sticking on the sides.
@@jeremyhagen7684 I generally just do it in a lobster pot half full of water now. Does the same thing.
Thank you for making this video.
Great video! I do the same with the filter. However, I put a fish filter pump on the end of it so I dont have to go through the painful process of sqeezing the bottle. Just a thought that might help you. Good work, man! Cool process & learned some things from you as well!
Yeah, I’ve seen a few different systems people set up for automatic filtering. I know they sell one with gravity bags that’s supposed to be pretty good too. I haven’t sought any out, because I realistically never filter lamps (except for small vintage) I just make new master fluid. Find it easier with better results. Was really only showing the filter process so people could get the idea in case filtering was the route they wanted to take.
I have two of the Beatle Yellow Submarine lamps that need work. Ones lost the color of the liquid & both have the wax that looks grainy. Also have problems with the bulbs burning out or not heating the lamp up sufficiently. Do you repair these? I have no idea of the manufacturer/source.
Been waiting for this video! Thanks
Would you ever do a tutorial for a glitter grande? I want to make one at some point. If you don’t do them no worries.
@@gabbyh.3022 I’ve done them before. Glitter is not something I play with all too often, but I mess around with them here and there. I’m sure I’ll do something with them sooner than later
May i suggest links to the products you uses, such as the plug and the funnle filter set.
Great Video, I learned a lot... I'm thinking about changing the color of my existing Grande wax and liquid. Do you have any suggestions of the best dye for the wax and for the water? Thank you for the time you spent making this video.
Couple things about that. Yeah, I can definitely point you in the right direction for dyes for both, but what color is your wax and fluid first off?
Great! I want to upgrade a couple of the grandes I have, so the wax is yellow in one and pink in another. One has purple liquid and the other blue. I’m also thinking about doing a clear liquid. Your grandes look so nice with clear liquid. Any suggestions would be great and very helpful. Thank you.
@@RobertBertone ok, so you’re fairly limited with which colors you can change your existing wax to. If you were going with new wax, obviously your color options are infinite. Pink, means you could go purple or red. Yellow, you could do green or orange (based on a basic color wheel). As far as fluid color, if you make new fluid, you can go clear, or any color you want realistically.
Yes, thank you. I would love to make my own wax, but it seems a bit complicated. I’m guessing I can use oil based wax dye for the wax. I look forward to any of your future videos. Thank you.
Excellent job on the video. I have an early 1968 us made lamp
Red wax, gold liquid.
You were clear on this being for Chinese lamps.
My lamp is 56 years old and was beautiful clear liquid but the wax was not smooth, full of bubbles.
I swirled it before I knew what a big no no that is and now the liquid is foggy.
What to do now.
There are videos, but I trust you because of you experience.
What wattage microwave do you have and what temperature setting and how long do you set it to melt the wax? Ps great tutorial , i have my daughters grande to do!
It’s just a typical 1000watt microwave. Depends on the temp of the wax when it goes in, so a specific time is hard to nail down. I just take it out as soon as it’s completely fluid.
I got the stainless rocket lamp back in the early 2000's. It worked great all these years. It's on A LOT. Suddenly, it stopped melting the wax. It took the 25w small base bulb. I tried a new bulb. And I always get the heavy duty philips bulb with the carousel shaped filament. They stopped working. I had to bump it up to a 40 watt bulb. Now it works fine again, but seems too bright. Why would it stop melting wax with the proper bulb?
I also have another from a garage sale with a rusty spring, but works great and another that turned cloudy after a couple years.
@@kewrock did the wax stop melting, or did it liquify and just stay in place at the bottom of the lamp?
@@user-fc5cp2vt5v No. It just stopped melting all the way. It would start to creep up. Then just stop. I put a higher watt 40w bulb in, now it works. But it worked with a 25w for 20 years.
What type of spring did you use? How long were each one before joining together?
I'm about to do the same thing on my grande that is the same colors. Now, did I miss the part about what to dye your water with?
Nice Job!!
major question: how did you get the red and yellow "paint" off the lamp you now call the emerald city lamp?
What is the reason to have a dimmer on a lava lamp if you turn down the heat will it still flow right?
Great video! Any chance you’d consider putting out a video on coloring the wax? Thxs!
Coloring wax is unfortunately pretty tricky. I use an assortment of different liquid candle coloring kits, but it’s really trial and error. Some colors will work out of some kits, some won’t. Some will work fine in small amounts, and mess up wax in larger quantities, usually there are ways to keep the wax viable, but it all depends on what it’s doing. It’d be a hard thing to cover that in a video.
@@user-fc5cp2vt5v. Do you do these for others? If so, cost? I have a pair of the Beatles Yellow Submarine from 1999 that I’d like to have redone.
thanks for sharing! very cool!
Hey Derek, great video! Appreciated the wealth of knowledge. I just bought a grande off marketplace not knowing a whole lot. Seems like I have the US made Giant you have on the left at the start there. Looks just the same with the black base, pink wax, top seal and plastic cap. I’ve tried googling from your description, but haven't turned a lot. Do you have any more info you can point me to? The felt base has a date of year 2000.
Another question, I’m struggling to get it to flow properly, it just stays predominantly in a single column. I wrapped it in a bit of insulation for a days cycle to see if that would help it warm up and that seemed to have a positive effect. I read about bringing the bulb up closer to the globe with an extension fitting. How does yours go for you?
Thanks again for the info! Looking forward to more videos.
Congratulations on the purchase. If you wanna shoot me a text (that way you can send some pictures), I’ll help you out however I can. 4 one three. For O for. Three I nine nine.
I was thinking about using a zero water filter system. Do you think that would work?
@@scottvahey4869 no. Definitely don’t do that. Charcoal and activated carbon filters (like zero filters) lead to even more problems.
Thank you so much for this video.
The 2 inch plug is genius.
Do you have a link for those caps ?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve obsessed over taking those caps off without damaging them 👍
a.co/d/9iMICPO
Oh hell yeah!!!!
Gorgeous results, very useful!
What is the cost for you to rebuild a grande?
Materials typically cost me about $33 if I’m not changing wax colors.
Hi, could you tell me what to use to dye the wax a really nice red pleas, currently I have the yellow wax and blue liquid but I’d like to change it to a clear with red. Thanks and great upload. Regards.
Unfortunately getting a yellow over to red is very tricky. Typically you can only get existing colors one or two notches over on the color wheel without much of a problem. If you slowly went to an orange, and then pushed it over to red, it’s doable, but if you’re going for a dark red (like my most recent custom) you’re probably gonna just end up with a nasty brown. Also, there is no easy single answer for wax dying unfortunately. I have a ton of fluid wax dye kits for candle dying, some colors work out if a kit, others from the same kit will destroy your wax. It’s all really trial and error unless you’re buying new wax and coloring kits specifically made for lamp restoration (but that gets expensive).
Great video, very enlightening. I have a 4 foot lave 'colossal' purchased from Lava directly about 15 years ago but likely Chinese made based on your cap explanation. It has a few issues but I would like to get it back up and running. Do you repair lamps for the 'non handy person'?
I would absolutely love to do a collosus. I’m familiar with the lamps. They are Chinese made, but their fluid formula is a bit different from the typical Chinese lamp. Nothing I couldn’t handle though. You’re in the US?
@@user-fc5cp2vt5v Yes, in SC. Lamp has been sitting for a bit, needs fluid, can send pics, etc offline if interested
For one tree - for zer for - tree on nin nin. Text me
@@user-fc5cp2vt5v what’s the best way to connect with you offline?
@@JayKaminskiI mentioned in the last comment. Text me. Number is 413-four zero four-31ninenine
Hello, I have a question for you. I ask because you seem to be very intelligent when it comes to lava lamps. In your opinion, are Mathmos lamps really that much better, and are they in your personal opinion worth the extra cost? I know they are the real original lava lamp company, and they are considerably more expensive, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Thanks ahead
They’re cool. I’ve never owned one, as I’m in the US and they typically cost about $500 minimum to get one over here. The vintage lava lite American stuff is such high quality, for a cheaper price tag, so I’m usually content with that stuff personally.
How do you dye the water?
Alcohol based fluid dyes
Where could you buy wax?
There are a couple of places. The company I get my surfactant from sells wax, but I’m really trying to not give him any more advertisements lol.
🔥🔥🔥
Help.I have wax stuck at the top of my lamp. What to do??😢
@@ReviveBodySculpting like while it’s hot or, all the time, as in when it’s cold too?
Can you add pigment to the wax? Like pearl or some kind of multichrome? Just wondering if they're oil soluble or if they'll bleed into the liquid.
I do play with Metallics and pearlescents from time to time (that dark green lamp I show off in the video has a bit of both), but I’ve had issues with the metallics settling over time and weird color bleed from pearlescents.
Where do I get that brush? Mine is bendable and I have to struggle getting gunk off the bottom
a.co/d/gNUd9Ny
Hello friend I hope you are very well, yesterday I bought a small lamp which was totally new and the water was crystal clear, but when it came to making it work and due to lack of information and experience I shook the water making the water totally cloudy, what can I do to solve this?
I would just filter in this case. Small lamps are easy and quick to filter fluid.
Link to that big brush
a.co/d/0h9zm9Wp
Do you have any links for the products? Let's see the colossus?
There is a video on my page for my massive custom if that’s what you mean. I can post links to products, but probably won’t get around to it this weekend.
My hearing isnt great, what was the name of the screw on filter you are using? Also i heard to mention there are electric filters, do you know the names of any that you can recommend? ( i was your 2nd subscriber btw, this is wonderful content).
I question i have is, when you transfer the wax out and back in, you lose some in the process. Is there a secret to how much wax is needed to make it do the lava-thing? Like if you took half of the wax out, would it still do the lava-thing, or would there not be enough to get the needed lift to the top?
Sawyer filters. I know I’ve seen someone using an electric filter setup before, but that’s all the details I know. The filter brand is sawyer. As long as you’re not losing significant quantities of wax, you shouldn’t have a problem. You’re always gonna have some leftover sticking to the glassware you use no matter how many times you reheat it. As long as you’re not being completely careless with transferring your wax, you’ll be fine with the quantities when you’re done. I’ve done the same lamp multiple times before, losing some with each process with no negative results.
@@user-fc5cp2vt5v someone is gonna ask this so it might as well be me, what size filter are you using for the wax?
@@andrew5207are you talking about a measurement as far as allowance of particulate matter, or just diameter of the filter?
measurement as far as allowance of particulate matter@@user-fc5cp2vt5v
@@user-fc5cp2vt5v allowance of particulate
I just recently scored a Colossus but the liquid is a little cloudy.I’m hoping that I can redo the liquid, but I’m pretty nervous.
Yes. Been looking for one for years (like everyone obviously) lol. I actually may have the opportunity to pick one up myself soon, not 100% yet. I’d be more than happy to help guide you through it. It’s the same principles as the grandes more or less. Did you get the Ebay California lamp?
@@user-fc5cp2vt5v yup! That was me. 🤓🤣
@@HugsAreFuncongratulations
Could you sell me some colored wax purple?
how big are these?
I'm dumb excuse me
27”
Lavanol
Want to add to your comment at 1:16:32, just as to be helpful for anyone new or unaware there still could be traces of chemical residues (the concern for me is the wax, not the surf of course) which is being spread around the kitchen easily, in multiple containers many of them. Trace amounts add up, then your thinking they are clean using hot water with soap, etc, then using them to cook. Ever see a shiny film floating on top of the water in a container or pot that wax had been in before even after "cleaning"? That's chemicals seen to the naked eye....Just invest in dedicated tools for your lava projects that YOU know are just for that...so there is no contamination going into your food or other dishes.
Fair point. I can’t argue with you there. I do throughly clean everything with 95% rubbing alcohol, after handwashing, and before the dishwasher though. Probably not a perfect method, but tetrachloroethylene is fairly easy to remove in cleaning, as it’s a chemical meant to clean, then evaporate when not in a sealed environment.
I am trying to fix my 15 year old lamp. The wax is destroyed. I need to know how to make new wax. Ive tried the paraffin wax and break cleaner. It didn't work.
I need a new wax recipe if anyone can help. Thank you!
@@1daltizer likely to be the next video
@@1daltizer brake clean generally had too many additional chemicals/impurities btw.
I have the same exact lamp that you're doing in this video my lamp is cloudy and some of the wax is burned and chunky I'm definitely looking to do something with it or buy a new bottle from someone in America I got a name and a number for a guy in Europe but I would be cheaper if I could find somebody in America
I do repairs/restorations, and I’m in the US.
@@user-fc5cp2vt5v that's awesome cuz I've been checking into all the materials and all the things I need to buy to fix it and it's getting pricey I have the Chinese model and some of the waxes burnt I tried to roll it around and now it's full of Bubbles and super cloudy it's not going well for me
What part of the US are you located in?
Any members can answer this question. isnt it easier to change the master liquid and redye new liquid instead of filtering. Filtering seems to be expensive with filter costs and a pain instead of just adding new dyed distilled water ?
Yes. It is in modern lamps. That’s why I showed how. I wanted to include filtering as an option if that’s the route anyone wanted to take for whatever reason.
*subscribes*
Didn't show us his mega lamp at the end as he said he would
There is only one other vid on my page, and it’s my mega lamp. Shoulda put it in the vid. My bad.
Did you add anything else to the mix? I’ve used about 3oz of surf and had the lamp running for 8 hours and the wax hasn’t moved an inch
No, nothing else. Is it a grande?
@@user-fc5cp2vt5v Yeah, i'm in the
UK. I have a new bulb and I have also raised the bulb so it sits just underneath the lamp but still nothin. The wax seems molten but it doesn't move.
@@gadgetboy38what are you using for a surfactant?
@@user-fc5cp2vt5v The stuff from LavaLabs
Any result yet? There is a approach you can take if you have a particularly stubborn batch of wax, but I usually save it as a last resort. Is this a newer lamp btw? Has it been sitting inactive for a long time? Also, did you find this vid from one of the lava groups? It would be a lot easier to assist you if you could send me some pics of the situation. Pm me if possible.