DIY Lava Lamp Formula
Greetings PrepHole, I need advice from some chemically-competent anons. I love lava lamps, and I'm trying to perfect an open-source formula for the original lava lamp goo and master fluid. Here's what we have so far:
Goo: paraffin wax, tetrachloroethylene, kerosene, microcrystalline wax, dye of choice
Fluid: DI water, propylene glycol, SLS
What I'm missing is something in the goo that makes it essentially opaque. Some have suggested a dab of oil paint, but in my experience whatever extra shit is in it messes with the consistency. People have tried mica pigments, but they tend to fall out of suspension and settle at the bottom.
I'm currently considering acquiring some stearic acid. Any suggestions?
I bet one of these opacifiers would work.
https://cosmetics.specialchem.com/product-categories/ingredients-pigments-opacifying-products
Can't help you with the formula but I'm curious what kind of container you're going to put it in. Always thought the huge lava lamps in Superman II were pretty cozy in a tacky kind of way (which I like).
The pillars are neat, but you need to have thick glass and a strong bulb to get that much lava moving. I'll probably be using interesting clear liquor bottles. Here's one in a VOSS water bottle I made a while ago.
Good glass choice. Did you reuse the base from an old lava lamp?
The goo is the non-polar part, so you need a dye or pigment that's hydrophobic enough to stay there. For proper opacity you'll likely want a fine powder/suspension, as opposed to something that colours the goo. IIRC printer toner might fit the bill, I believe it's what they use in some ferrofluids. You could also look into all the pigments used in the "Dye Trying" video series by Peter Brown, though most of those are likely water soluble.
>but they tend to fall out of suspension and settle at the bottom.
Not finely enough ground I suspect. If you get them as fine as fumed silica, they should stay in suspension solely from convection. If you can find a simple chemical powder that does the trick, then crashing it out of solution into a fine powder (e.g. colloidal silver) might be doable.
Also try lead iodide, it could look great regardless of which part it's in. Fluorescein too.
That bubbly look is actually real neat.
I think finding a pigment that's light, fine and hydrophobic is the key. I'll look into the pigments you mentioned. I'm interested in fluorescein, a blacklight lava lamp that uses a ceramic reptile heater bulb for heat would be sick.
Pigments habe to be worked into the oil with a mortar, not just dumped into.
Id go with a superlight one, with tiny particles like a microzied iron oxide (red) or graphite
Best thing I can suggest besides getting the chemistry right is getting a hotter bulb than you need and put it on a dimmer so you can control how much heat it puts out easily.
>something in the goo that makes it essentially opaque
So you want it to look worse?
Goo != Fluid
Would a reverse lava lamp work? Basically clear globs in a swirling opaque liquid? Maybe add some glitter or other larger particles in the fluid that move around but don't go into the goo.