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Build Your Own Lava Lamp
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.'"
Wow, not only can you grow your own drugs, now you can make your own lava lamp.
... how lovely ... how un-American!
All the fun of enduring pop-subculture at a fraction of the price. How inspiring
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
In case the site is slow, here is a mirror.
Martin Studio Slashdot Policy
How hot can an AMD chip get again?...
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
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.
A good thing to do even with the store bought ones. I use an X10 lamp dimmer on mine, but have also used a wall mount lamp dimmer to replace a wall switch for a friend. After these things get hot they generally get very active and it results in too many too small blobs of lava to be enjoyable. With a dimmer you can adjust the flow to suit your preferences even when the lamp warns up.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Make your own Tie Dye T-shirts!
Also, the top 10 best ways of looking like RMS!
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.
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?
I realised I was white trash!
Pass the 6-pack, Joe
Damn - and I always thought Gallo was nice wine?
oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
Actually, lava lamps are cool from a scientific point of view too : they are considered a very good source of randomness for RNGs.
...
Very shaggadelic
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
... here's a litt bit about making those crazy lightshows from the sixties.
"Yeah, well, Dracula called and he's coming over tonight for you and I said okay."
A chocolate bar, some turkey fat, glass tube, tincan, some wire... What else?
Try http://www.coolstuffcheap.com/gelalarebu.html
What kind of a summary/description was that supposed to be?
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
I've been working on a perpetual motion machine. But it seems like its taking forever and a day.
(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.
...is because they were found to be responsible for numerous house fires. I suspect the modern ones are far safer than those made in the 1970's, but I'd expect a home-made one to be potentially quite dangerous.
/. is the right place for it! :)
So I guess
News for Hippies, stuff that matters
Everything seemed to be going so nice
'till the end of all beings punched right through the ice
You can get a Lava Lamp for $10 at Radio Shack.
Physicsnerd
The patented formula uses carbon tetrachloride... VERY toxic and carcinogenic stuff. It used to be used as a cleaning agent until the FDA banned it in the 70's, IIRC.
Nothing to see here; Move along.
Not sure why there is a warning about making the Lava Lamps for profit because of patents. At least in the US, both patents listed in the disclaimer are expired. 25 years is the maximum protection.
Damn...all the interesting stories appear on slashdot always show up after a huge bong hoot and a guy needs a HUGE one after that depressing outsourcing story.
From: stormoen@sparc.isl.net (Stormoen MD)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: Lava Lamp Plans Here.
Date: 13 Jan 1995 08:08:15 GMT
Message-ID:
I've had SEVERAL requests for the plans, so here they are.
Sorry, I guess I lost the name of the guy who gave 'em to me.
(I recieved two versions, and I liked this one best).
WARNING!! This electronic document deals with and involves subject matter and the use of materials and substances that may be hazardous to health and life. Do not attempt to implement or use the information contained herein unless you are experienced and skilled with respect to such subject matter, materials and substances. The author makes no representations as for the completeness or the accuracy of the information contained herein and disclaim any liability for damages or injuries, whether caused by or arising from the lack of completeness, inaccuracies of the information, misinterpretation of the directions, misapplication of the information or otherwise.
Please note: The information contained in this electronic document can be found in the 1992 Edition of Popular Electronics Electronics Hobbyists handbook, published annually by Gernsback Publications Inc, USA.
Inside a lava lamp are two immiscible fluids. If it is assumed that fluid 1 is water, then fluid 2 must be:
Furthermore, fluid 2 must not be:
In addition, fluid 2 must have a greater coefficient of expansion than water. Check a Perry's handbook of Chemical Engineering, and the above list eliminates quite a few possibilities.
Here is a list of possible chemicals to use:
If desired, use a suitable red oil-soluble dye to color fluid 2. A permanent felt-tip pen is a possible source. Break open the pen and put the felt in a beaker with fluid 2.
It is recommended to use benzyl alcohol as fluid 2. (Caution!! Do not come into contact with benzyl alcohol either by ingestion, skin, or inhalation.) In addition to water, the following items will be necessary:
The performance of the lava lamp will depend on the quality of the water used. A few experiments must be conducted to determine how much sodium chloride is necessary to increase the water's specific gravity. Try a 5% salt concentration first (50 g of salt to 1 liter of water). Pour the red-dyed benzyl alcohol mixture in a Pyrex beaker. Add an equal or greater amount of water
Here's the groups.google.com link to the previous message:
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.
FWIW, the reason that you want a dimmer switch is that:
If the light is to hot -> the viscous fluid that you observe tends to turn into tons of small bubbles that go all over the place in not that cool of a way.
If the light is too cold -> nothing will really happen.
If the light is just right -> you'll get the sexy phallic undulating viscous membrane that women tend to prefer. Slight variations on this can be controlled with the switch.
Just an FYI....
Hunger is the best sauce.
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.
So heating a mixture of 70% and 90% alcohol isn't a good idea?
well... hes almost there, a lil more carcinogenic though I think.
I want 2D games back.
http://www.comedy-zone.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard/topi
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
I always thought they were much cooler then lava lamps. I used to have the formula when I was a kid. But my mother threw it out just because it was toxic!
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
An outdoor lava lamp.
I have some ideas, like taking a regular lamp and putting it inside a glass lantern/box, but there are probably some problems with getting the temperature right.
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
I saw several at wal-mar when I bought my plasma globe, right by the lava lamps amazingly
please don't ding my spelling, I am way to drunk to be proofing.
That which is done from love exists beyond good and evil
The fluid dynamics of the lava lamp The aerodynamics of the frisbee The physical dynamics of our friend the bucky ball Yes a very cool, exclusive club, if anyone dares to add one, walk carefully through these constantly moving paths for we are smaller than they. How did I end up with a joint in each hand?
I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
In college, for my chemical engineering plant design class, one group had a project producing dicyclopentadiene (aka DCPD). It's a solid white hydrocarbon that melts at a little over 100F or so (check www.chemfinder.com for exact numbers). Anyway, our professor said it was used in lava lamps.
In addition, the link mentioned that propylene glycol is one of the chemicals that can be used (for the part that isn't lava), and said it was expensive. Not true. Ethylene glycol (EG) and propylene glycol (PG) are both used in antifreeze. EG will kill animals if ingested (causes kidney failure unless you saturate your system with ethanol, i.e., booze). PG is a nontoxic alternative. It's not always as easy to find, and it might be colored green, but it's cheap.
Good luck out there, and don't start any fires you can't extinguish.
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
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?)
I've been wondering about this for years since I had one of those lava lamps as a kid. I vaguely remember reading in the instructions NOT to turn the lava lamp bottle upside down--and of course, I saw that AFTER I had already done so. Somewhere along the line, the lava lamp stopped working, even with the light bulb turned on. Maybe I'm remembering wrong about what it was that I was not supposed to do (but did anyway). Maybe that wasn't even why the thing stopped working. I was just a kid, so it was a long time ago. Has anybody heard of anything like this?
--
Happy Fun Ball got first post...because I taunted it.
Anonymous cowards, etc. An Arab is usually better.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Breaking News:
All over the world, intelligence agencies are reporting localized explosions which the CIA believe to be part of a terrorist plot.
The source has been traced to the undergound web site 'The Slashdot' in which people were encoraged to build an incendery device with the following instructions:
1. For the Blobby bit, use a wax based solution
2. For the fluid, use something of lesser density (Petroleum would be a good start)
3. Place in sealed glass container
4. Heat over Bunsen Burner
Police spoke to one of the bomb makers and he said he was 'trying to get laid by chikz0rz'
Burma?
http://www.emanator.demon.co.uk/bigclive/lavalamp. htm
I pass Mathmos HQ every day - nice window display.
They invented the lava lamp back in 1963, and are still going despite having to spend a fortune stopping far east manufacturers ripping off their designs. Quite a cute site so worth a plug.
...is replace the light bulb with a non-luminous heating element, and then just have some UV LED's in the base to "charge" the phosporescent goo periodically.
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
I built a Better-Than-Lava-Lamp a few years back - it more erupted than flowed and was quite cool to watch - but it was short lived. You see, what made it beautiful made it dangerous and it blew up real good! Check out Erupting Lava Lamp for a short video in Real format.
Aleks Oniszczak
VividPicture.com/aleks
This is slashdot for God sakes, we want an article on how to make a lava lamp with real LAVA!
Letter To Iran
Does anyone remember those water wave machines with blue and white fluid (water/oil?) in them?
I'd really like to find out how to make one of them.
Always thought is was colored water & oil but I was rather young in the 70's
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
and it came out REALLY nice... I'll post some pics if I ever get around to taking them.
.//chris
1/2L Kerosene
1/2L Water
Blue food dye
Pour water into approx. 1L glass or plastic container. Add blue food dye to taste. Float kerosene on top. (pouring it over the back of a spoon may help here) Seal container tightly, and shake gently to simulate rolling ocean waves.
0 1 - just my two bits
I once made a pocket version using turpentine and colored water. I used one of the small square bottles of turpentine that comes with Testors model paints. It was half full, so all I had to do was add enough colored water to fill it up. I used to carry it in my pocket everywhere I went, pulling it out during a dull moment (usually junior high math class) and tipping it back and forth.
Maxim had published faulty instructions on how to build your own lava lamp a few years back. Not only did it not work, it made a goddamn mess like you wouldn't believe... I hope your plans are better.
Way back when I was doing my O-levels {shows age ..... O-levels were what we had before GCSE's} my school physics department had a cadmium-vapour lamp. This glew with a particularly wonderful electric-blue colour.
..... even though it used some sort of high voltage power supply and toxic cadmium, that colour really made it worth all the dangers. {I think, from my spectroscopy experiment I did, that there is one red, one green, one blue and one violet line, but there may well be some invisible ones}.
I have never been able to find one. I wouldn't mind one though
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Do NOT use steel wool in your plasma globe project. STEEL WOOL IS HIGHLY FLAMMAMBLE. You can start it burning with a 9v battery.
DO use copper Chore-Boy potscrubber. That is what everyone uses, and the idea originally came from a guy named Ray, who wandered around a grocery store looking for something to replace the bare-HV-wire-wrapped-on-a-grommet that would arc thru the glass after a few months.
I worked at the first plasma globe mfr, as did Ray. If you see a plasma globe or tube in a museum, it might be one of ours.
The latest Slashdot meme.
I normaly dont reply to myself, but i have to say that i think it is REALLY disturbing that my post was modded +1 informative.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
1) Buy a Mac.
2) Install OS X.
3) Run iTunes with the Visualizer in full screen.
Makes Lava Lamps look like hand puppets in front of a candle...