Home Made Lava Lamp, Poor Man's Formula

Lava Lamp Scientists can now brainstorm and share ideas in the Science Lab discussion of the Lava Line.

The Poor Man's Lava Lamp 2
Another Try at Homebrew Lava

- I've taken another stab at the Poor Man's Lava Lamp recipe, and this time with greater success! The original formula can be referred to by clicking here.

Some of my findings: Obviously, mineral oil and alcohol do not mix. At room temperature, the mineral oil is heavier than the alcohol (even with all 70% or all 90% alcohol.) I wasn't getting any motion at all when heated. So, I had to make the oil lighter or the alcohol heavier. Water is heaver than the oil and the alcohol. So, I added a little water to the alcohol. This made the solution slightly cloudy. The change in weight was a success. The mineral oil "balls" began floating to the top and then back to the bottom.

Notes:

I used three springs from the inside of ball-point pens for the heating coil. I stretched them out and attached them in a triangle form.

- Oops, they later rusted. You better find stainless steel springs.

The mineral oil "balls" are far from lava - they're spherical and do not seperate and come together.

Just to see what happens, I aggravated the solution and the mineral oil seperated into tiny (1/16") bubbles which really moved up and down a lot! Actually this was a quite beautiful motion lamp - better than a sparkle lamp for sure. But when you want lava, nothing else will do.

My next experiment will be to add wax to the oil instead of water to the alcohol. This should make the oil lighter and hopefully add that "lava" texture.

If you have any ideas or questions, just post them in the Science Lab discussion of the Lava Line.

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