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Build Your Own Lava Lamp

Posted by michael on from the better-living-through-chemistry dept.

Manip writes "My new project: 'The difficult part about making your own liquid motion lamp is, of course, the motion. We won't go into the lamp base too much. The store-bought ones use a 40w appliance bulb in a metal housing which directs the heat to the underside of the glass container. If you're making your own base, we recommend installing a dimmer switch so that you can control your heat output.'"

27 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Fun projects by Pacer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, not only can you grow your own drugs, now you can make your own lava lamp.

    All the fun of enduring pop-subculture at a fraction of the price. How inspiring ... how lovely ... how un-American!

    1. Re:Fun projects by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Add a roll-your-own strobe light and black light, and we can open a nerd Spencer's Gifts.

    2. Re:Fun projects by Kirin3 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Geeks on homegrown drugs making homegrown lava lamps...

      Hmm... and only a couple of week on the tail of this article... ;)

  2. Screw Lava by Timesprout · · Score: 5, Funny

    I want a full on Volcano Lamp

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
    1. Re:Screw Lava by zephc · · Score: 4, Funny

      I want a build your own E-Z-Bake Oven HOWTO. Maybe one that could fit in a 5.25" drive bay?

      Sure, it takes 4 hours to bake a cupcake, but still. Just don't think about adding eggs unless you don't mind a little salmonella.

      --
      "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
  3. Off Topic, But.... by Tsali · · Score: 5, Funny

    How many /.'ers actually own a lava lamp?

    Good.

    Now, how many of those who raised their hand are involved in a relationship with someone.

    Ahhh. You in the back. Anyone else? Good.

    Thanks.

    --
    This space for rent.
    1. Re:Off Topic, But.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Make sure the guy in the back understands that a hand does not count as 'someone.'

    2. Re:Off Topic, But.... by quizwedge · · Score: 2, Funny

      or try this....

      How many ./'ers are involved in a relationship with someone.

      Ahhh. You in the back. Anyone else? Anyone at all?

      No? Well, sir, do you have a lava lamp?

      --
      I have no .sig
    3. Re:Off Topic, But.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I was involved with this one girl, but it got to be too expensive, so I outsourced to India and now save 80% on the cost of maintaining the relationship! .....sigh

    4. Re:Off Topic, But.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Err, I think that hippies have a much bigger chance of having actual human relationships than other subgenres of geeks.

      Of course given a geek with a lava lamp, the big question is whether the geek is a hippie-geek or a computer-geek who wants to generate random numbers...

  4. Next Week On Slashdot: by niko9 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Make your own Tie Dye T-shirts!

    Also, the top 10 best ways of looking like RMS!

  5. beowolf by gyratedotorg · · Score: 0, Funny

    imagine a beowolf cluster of these!

    --
    Gyrate Dot Org - "Where high-tech meets low-life"
  6. Yes, but... by OrthodonticJake · · Score: 2, Funny

    The real question is whether or not you can make it edible. Extra points if it tastes good while heated!

    --
    I regularly report MSN spam to the Hotmail admins.
  7. Random Numbers. by wideBlueSkies · · Score: 4, Funny

    So now I can build my own lava lamp, smoke grass, and have my very own source of Random Numbers.

    Cool. cough. cough. Anyone got a clip?

    wbs.

    --
    Huh?
  8. How would MacGyver do it? by Trikenstein · · Score: 2, Funny

    A chocolate bar, some turkey fat, glass tube, tincan, some wire... What else?

    1. Re:How would MacGyver do it? by HoneyBunchesOfGoats · · Score: 3, Funny

      DUCT TAPE!! This is the most important ingredient in any MacGyver creation!

    2. Re:How would MacGyver do it? by Trikenstein · · Score: 2, Funny
      *smacks forehead, ducttape, yea, what was I thinking.

      I also think he'd use a button. Probably ground up and used as a catalyst somehow.

  9. Re:Mirror by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Funny

    "In case the site is slow, here is a mirror."

    Here's a google mirror.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  10. My Project. by magores · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've been working on a perpetual motion machine. But it seems like its taking forever and a day.

  11. Useless! by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 2, Funny
    If I wanted a great oozing mass bouncing around my living room and changing shape randomly, I'd invite McBride or one of his SCO PR lackeys over.

    (Not enought SCO news today.. I really HAD to do something to get my fix)

    --
    Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
  12. Lava Lamps? by Jonas+the+Bold · · Score: 5, Funny

    News for Hippies, stuff that matters

    --
    Everything seemed to be going so nice
    'till the end of all beings punched right through the ice
  13. Build your own fire hazzard by combinatorics · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I can build something that:

    o has no documentation about it's foundation
    o is a potential fire hazzard

    and pay more than what a well engineered alternative would cost.

    Sounds like M$ to me.

    --
    Dada ended art.
  14. Navier-Stokes Equations and Brunt Vaisala Frequenc by thedogcow · · Score: 1, Funny

    Lava lamps are a particular good example of the behavior of atmospheric and fluid dynamics.

    The Navier-Stokes Equations and Brunt Vaisala frequency come to mind.

    Of course this simplifies down to F = MA.

    God Bless Newton.

    --
    Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
  15. Re:The real reason these things went out of fashio by asavage · · Score: 2, Funny

    So heating a mixture of 70% and 90% alcohol isn't a good idea?

  16. How to tie-dye a tie... and a tutu, too! by steveha · · Score: 2, Funny

    First you take the tie you're going to dye and tie it. When the tie is tightly tied, you dip the tie in the tie-dye dye! Ooh! When the tie-dyed tie is dried, you take the dye you just applied and set it aside. Re-tie the tie-dyed tie, take another dye, dip the re-tied tie in this dye, too. Take it out, let it dry, untie the tie, and you've got a tie-dyed tie. And a tie's not all you can tie-dye. You can tie-dye a tutu, too! Take the tutu, tie the tutu, dip it in the dye, let it dry like the tie we dyed, now tear the tutu in two. Now you've got two tutus to tie-dye! Take the two ties you tie-dyed, and the two tutus you've torn in two and tied, and dip them in the dye!


    http://www.comedy-zone.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard/topic .cgi?forum=2&topic=18

    If anyone knows where this came from, and where I can buy a CD or something with this, please let me know. (I believe I saw this performed on a TV show called Laugh Tracks or something like that, but it predates that show.)

    steveha
    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
    1. Re:How to tie-dye a tie... and a tutu, too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      where I can buy a CD or something with this

      Buy CD-R blank
      Record self reciting instructions in jaunty manner
      Burn audio recording to CD
      Congratulate self on job well-done (optional).

      Or if you like, I can perform steps one through three and sell you the resulting CD for $19.95.

  17. Hopelessly inefficient... by Goonie · · Score: 4, Funny
    What kind of environmental vandal uses an incandescent bulb in a lava lamp? What right do you have to pollute the world by your wanton waste?

    With compact flourescent bulbs, there is now absolutely no excuse to emit all that completely pointless waste heat to illuminate your lava lamp! The lamp will be cheaper to run, and the bulb will last longer too!

    Just such an American thing to do...

    --

    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
    --Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)