In the winter of 1999, we often had power cuts, and in the evenings we had to sit by candlelight. Some candles burned for a long time, burning almost all of their paraffin, while others quickly melted away. Rubbing the surface of the candles with soap helped, but only for good candles, they were less swollen. For candles with fusible paraffin, this helped little. In general, I have accumulated quite a lot of cinders and just melted paraffin. I did not want to throw it away, and I tried to somehow use it. The first thing that came to mind was to make a candle yourself. The technology was more or less familiar to me, and I tried. From thick paper on a suitable mandrel, a cylinder is rolled up in two or three turns. The first turn of the cylinder inside it is necessary to rub with a slightly damp piece of soap, then the paraffin will not stick. The tail coil is glued to the surface of the cylinder. Let it dry. From 10-15 threads No. 10 we make a wick. The thickness of the wick depends on the diameter of the candle, thin, will melt a hole in the candle, and then go out. With a thick one, the candle will quickly sag. We twist the threads and soak in the solution boric acid or borax (so that the wick does not burn quickly), dry. I made the solution by eye, somewhere a teaspoon per glass. We take a square piece of cardboard, the size of which would completely cover the hole in the candle cylinder and still remain. We make a small hole in the center, we drag the wick there and fix its end. We pass the free end of the wick through the cylinder, put the cylinder vertically on the cardboard plug, pull the wick and place it in the center of the mold. Here, as a rule, either second hands or some ingenuity are needed. Everything was set, pulled, strengthened, now we pour a little paraffin into the cylinder (do not overheat the paraffin!), A small part of it will seep into the gap between the base and the cardboard plug, but quickly hardening, will play the role of a cork in the future. After the first portion has solidified, pour a little more and also let it harden. Now you can fill out the entire form. After the paraffin has completely hardened (at least an hour), we cut it and remove the mold. The candle is ready. Having made a couple of other such candles, I realized that this did not completely solve the problem, and decided to make a paraffin lamp. Its design is visible from the figure.
I had a copper wire with a diameter of 2 mm, reinforced by soldering in a tin can with a diameter of 75 mm and a height of 40 mm. The outer diameter of the copper spiral in the middle part is 8 mm, in the upper part 13-14 mm. The lower bell of the spiral is not critical, as long as molten paraffin seeps through it. Asbestos wick. The lamp can be immediately poured with molten paraffin, or filled with pieces, making sure that they touch the spiral. In this case, melted paraffin from a burning candle will have to be dripped onto the wick in order to soak it. The lamp requires some adjustment along the protruding length of the wick so that it does not smoke. I made two of these. The lamp burns steadily, but it can overheat during intense burning, and then all the paraffin can flare up. I did not have a long experience in its operation - the light was given to us, in the end, after all.
A lighting device with breathtaking visual effects was invented and patented in England in the 60s of the last century. The original lava lamp is a transparent container containing translucent paraffin floating in an oily liquid. This design illuminated by an electric bulb - this creates a movement of bizarre forms of drops and figures that you can look at endlessly.
The principle of operation of a lava lamp is the interaction of immiscible liquids of different densities when heated. If an intense dye is added, then the visual effect is enhanced.
The lava lamp consists of the following parts:
- incandescent lamps;
- transparent glass flask;
- filling mixture to create visual effects.
An incandescent lamp, located under the glass container, heats the liquid in it and highlights the drops that move randomly and create a bizarre play of figures. When the lamp is on, the temperature difference between the top and bottom of the glass bulb is several degrees, due to which the wax or oil balls float in the liquid. Rising, the viscous substance cools down and gradually sinks closer to the bottom, where it heats up again - a kind of “lava” movement occurs. These lamps have been produced for many years, currently you can buy a lava lamp from various manufacturers. A wide range of similar products presented for sale in online stores. In modern industrial lava lamps, special glass is used that reacts to temperature changes.
How to make a lava lamp with your own hands
Lava lamps have won the hearts of many people thanks to the harmonious combination of the smooth contours of the figures and the effect of a smooth, measured movement. Even many years after the invention, such a lamp organically fits into the interior of any room, while its principle of operation has not changed.
In addition, a do-it-yourself lava lamp will become a wonderful gift for people of any age. With its help, you can create an atmosphere in the room that is conducive to relaxation. The contemplation of constantly changing forms inside a glass vessel calms, helps to collect thoughts, harmonizes the situation. Making a lava lamp at home is not too difficult, most the right materials found in almost every home.
Lava lamp with oil balls
To make a lamp at home, we need:
- glass container of a cylindrical or conical shape;
- base for the lamp - any material that is resistant to heat is suitable - metal, wood, as well as plastic or ceramics;
- electric light bulb 25 W and a cartridge for it;
- wire, plug, switch;
- distilled water;
- technical or medical alcohol;
- metal spring;
- a piece of rubber;
- vegetable oil - castor oil is best (its density is optimal for a lava lamp);
- dyes for oil and water. Water can be tinted with ink, and substances insoluble in water and alcohol, such as oil paint, are suitable as a dye for oil.
How to make your own lava lamp:
- First you need to prepare the base on which we will install the lava lamp. Its shape can be varied - in the form of a cylinder, cone, cube, parallelepiped, etc. Such a design can be mounted from improvised materials - or use a stand of a suitable shape and size. Perhaps a small ceramic pot is suitable as a base for the lamp.
- Drill a hole for the wiring at the bottom of the stand in the side wall. Next, at the bottom of the stand, you need to install a cartridge for an incandescent bulb and connect a wire stretched through the hole to it - with a switch and a power plug installed on it.
- It is necessary to check that when the light is on, the stand does not heat up excessively. If necessary, make several technological holes in the side walls of the base to remove heat.
- Cut out a ring from rubber that matches the diameter of the top of the stand and glue it on to securely fix the lamp vessel and make the structure more stable.
- Next, we install the glass container in the prepared stand and test the stability of the structure. A coiled spring can be placed at the bottom of the vessel for efficient heat distribution.
- Let's start preparing the lava mixture. Most the lamp vessel must be filled with distilled water and alcohol - the proportions of the composition are selected empirically. The resulting liquid can, if desired, be given some shade using ink or other soluble dye. In a separate small container, tint the castor oil with a dye suitable color(bright saturated tones will look good).
- Add the prepared oil to the tinted alcohol solution. It is necessary to ensure that it sinks to the bottom of the vessel. If the oil floats, add a little more alcohol to the container to reduce the density of the liquid. This requires that there be some empty space in the glass vessel, since the lava liquid will expand when heated.
- The resulting mixture must be tested in action - turn on the light and follow the process of heating it. You can correct the interaction of the lava mixture by adding water or alcohol. When the desired effect is achieved, it is necessary to close the lamp vessel with a lid (it can be fixed with glue).
- We fix the vessel steadily on the stand. Miracle lava lamp is ready!
Lava lamp with paraffin
This method differs from the previous one in that molten paraffin balls moving in oil are used to create the effect of lava drops. Under the influence of heating, the paraffin will rise up - and, cooling down, take on various forms.
Rising to the top point, it cools down and gradually falls. Such a cyclic movement will be observed in the process of heating the bottom of the lamp vessel. After turning off the lamp, the paraffin will cool down and sink to the bottom of the glass flask.
First you need to prepare the design of the lamp - install a transparent glass vessel on a stand with a built-in 25 W incandescent lamp (assembly is carried out according to the instructions above).
To make a lava mixture, we need the following ingredients:
- distilled water;
- vegetable oil or glycerin;
- paraffin;
- bright colored beads or seed beads.
The sequence of preparation of the lava mixture:
- Fill a glass container about 3/5 full with the mixture cold water with glycerin (or vegetable oil). The resulting liquid can be tinted with a soluble dye.
- Add one teaspoon of salt and mix everything thoroughly until smooth. Additionally, you can add some bright shiny beads.
- After that, melt liquid paraffin in a water bath and add it to the lava lamp container. Pre-paraffin can be tinted with a special or food coloring.
- The vessel is tightly closed with a lid and inverted to make sure that there is no leakage. After all the manipulations done, the “magic lamp” can be turned on.
Application features
To start the circulation process of the lava mixture, it will take some time to heat up the lamp. It should be borne in mind that the working lamp heats up noticeably, so it is advisable to place it in a place inaccessible to small children. It should be noted that it is not recommended to leave the lava lamp on continuously for more than 8 hours.
How to make a lava lamp - video
Good day to all. I would like to share my pleasant impressions about the lava lamp from Start – Magma yellow. I saw this lamp by chance, there was a large number of colors and shapes, but I liked it yellow and just this shape.The principle of operation of a lava lamp.
The glass flask contains wax and a transparent non-freezing liquid. A lamp is screwed into the base of the lamp, then a bulb is inserted into this base. When plugged into the network, the light bulb begins to heat the flask, in which there is also a heating spring at the bottom. Wax gradually begins to warm up and acquires bizarre shapes and various sizes, smoothly flowing from bottom to top and vice versa. This process is mesmerizing and soothing. This lamp will perfectly fit into any interior, especially since the variety of colors offered in the store can satisfy even the most eerie picky.
Rules for the operation of a lava lamp.
The size and shape of the "drops" of wax may vary, but if the wax accumulates at the bottom or breaks into many small "bubbles", then most likely the Lamp has overheated. For the first warm-up, it took me about an hour, then the lamp completely cooled down, when turned on, it warms up in 30 minutes. The operating time recommended by the manufacturer is 8-10 hours, then the lamp needs to “rest”.
This warning on the flask smiled)
The lamp consists of a base with a lamp, a flask and a decorative cap, which is put on top of the flask. All these parts are not attached to each other in any way, which makes this lamp unsafe, if you shake it slightly, the cap flies off, and the bulb tilts to the side. Therefore, we remove the lamp in a place inaccessible to the child. Although in our family, it is he who is a great connoisseur of the beauty of this process, before going to bed, the child can look at the floating bubbles for half an hour and falls asleep in silence, without tears (My son is a year and a half, and, only with the advent of the lamp, we abandoned the bottle before falling asleep and lullabies ). Therefore, this is the main plus of this lamp. In our house, he acts as a night light. The light is not bright, dim.
There is a warning on the box and on the body of the luminaire that you must not touch the luminaire during operation. The surface of the flask gets very hot, this is another prerequisite for placing the lamp in a place inaccessible to the child.
The magma yellow lava lamp has firmly settled in the children's room, but soon I plan to purchase a lamp of the same series for my bedroom, but perhaps in a different color. If you raise the question of recommending this lamp, then I, of course, advise you to purchase this original lamp, but it must be remembered that for safe use it must be installed in a place inaccessible to children.
