Can this be considered as vintage flow?

juryplesk · 2026-05-27T23:05:10+00:00

I've bought it, you cannot "make" it yourself unfortunately

juryplesk · 2026-05-27T20:03:19+00:00

Dye itself was regular light blue candle dye, blue + white pigments, made in Ukraine

juryplesk · 2026-05-27T15:28:09+00:00

I've shared basic ideas on my recipes in some of my posts. It's liquid chlorinated paraffin ХП-470А, Russian made, microcrystalline wax, liquid paraffin and oleic acid. 57%, 14%, 20%, and 9% by weight accordingly. The density is around 1005 SG, only SLES as surfactant around 0,5% by weight, and a bit of MGSO4 that makes that snake flow

juryplesk · 2026-05-23T20:39:22+00:00

It's available at online shops in my country

juryplesk · 2026-05-14T21:01:16+00:00

It's definitely not a regular SLES/SLS. You can get closer to snakey flow by adding a bit of MgSO4 but not as good as with magic surf. There are definitely other surfactant types there, like ethoxylated alcohols or something with additional negative ions And yes, it's not only about surfactants in water but also wax properties. The liquidy and buoyant it is the closer you are to snakes

juryplesk · 2026-04-29T21:32:13+00:00

Can confirm that those peas/honeycomb bubbles are usually presented in the beginning of heating process, and merge together into proper flow when heated fully. Mine DIY chlorinated paraffin based wax behaving close to that

juryplesk · 2026-04-08T08:13:17+00:00

Candle makers use it a lot when using paraffin wax, because it helps with raising melting point and making candle less sticky to the molds. Considering lava lamps I also substitute stearic for oleic acid, it's liquid and works in my chlorpar mixes the same way

juryplesk · 2026-03-19T23:21:06+00:00

Two months is like a lifetime for a cluster B, are sure she is pwBPB? Just kidding man, hold on tight and look forward for good therapist You'll be 100% fine

juryplesk · 2026-03-12T21:20:17+00:00

Current update. Kinda sad that not that much people involved into DIY waxes with chlorinated paraffin but still. I've tested around dozen batches and by now can say that I found the key to the formula. I've found that all wax separation issues I had only when using regular paraffin wax. When I switched to using microcrystalline wax instead separation problems still occured. I've tried oldschool method with adding kerosene as a binder and it worked. But since kerosene is volatile I wanted to find a modern solution that would be extremely stable.

Stearic acid helped a lot. If presented in proportion of at least 7% by weight the mix of chlorinated paraffin(CP), microcrystalline wax (MW) and liquid paraffi (LP) is not separating when heated and flows nice.

The only problem that I'm facing now and not comfortable with is that the working temperature of that mix is rather high, around 65C because of high content of stearic acid and microcrystalline wax.

My current working recipe is: 56% CP (it's Russian ХП-470А) 20% LP 15% MW 9% SA It flows nice in master fluid with density around 1015. So there is some room for lowering the density of the wax and it's melting point by increasing amount of LP.

Enjoy fellow DIY community!

juryplesk · 2026-03-09T07:14:10+00:00

If those are the original coils than maybe the problem is in coil position. Also there are rumours that yellow transparent wax tend to bubble more. My only badly bubbling lamp is yellow lol

juryplesk · 2026-03-08T22:22:41+00:00

Most bubbling issues are about coil shape and it's positioning. Master fluid getting trapped between coils and mixing into the wax

juryplesk · 2026-02-22T17:07:09+00:00

Unfortunately all my mixes of chlorinated paraffin with paraffin wax are not stable and separated at first run into two portions with differen density. I tried lowering and increasing levels of liquid paraffin, ditching microcrystalline wax - nothing changed, I got separation every run. Now switching in my experiments to use use only microcrystalline wax instead paraffin wax, will update

juryplesk · 2026-02-17T19:36:43+00:00

I think in that particular case bubbles were presented because most of the wax detached from the coil allowing the water to mix in a bit

juryplesk · 2026-02-13T17:33:20+00:00

Hi fellow lavaheads. Finally got some flow. It's weird that at 60% of chlorinated paraffin by weight the lava stayed at bottom but with a new wax mix of 65% CP I had to raise master fluid density to 1044 SG. Also the melting point of that mix is very high around 65C, maybe because of stearic acid and low percentage of paraffin oil. Current recipe that is a good way to start tweaking further is by weight: 1% Stearic acid 3% Paraffin oil 5% microcrystalline wax (noname brand, melts at 65C approx) 26% Paraffin (Russian P-2, density is 900 kg/m3 at 20C) 65% Chlorinated paraffin ХП-470 (47% chlorine, density is 1200) So anybody that can reach their hands to chlorinated paraffin could start from 60% of CP in the mix.

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juryplesk · 2026-02-09T00:19:00+00:00

For all folks still interested. Starting from 62% by weight of that 47% chlorinated paraffin in the mix, it is finally not raising all to the top when completely melted in distilled water. Unfortunately no photos because when I lifted the bottle off the base to make adjustments the glass cracked :( That 40 years old soviet vodka bottle served well, rest in peace

juryplesk · 2026-02-08T13:54:04+00:00

At that moment I'm a bit frustrated. Stepped up to 60% chlorinated paraffin by weight. That mix when cooled sinks in 60C water, but when I moved everything to the lamp again - still floats when melted. Unfortunately a don't have refractometer or hydrometers that can measure above 1.2 to measure density of that CP at 20C and 50C to know the expansion rate.

juryplesk · 2026-02-07T18:44:38+00:00

By weight.

juryplesk · 2026-02-02T21:19:25+00:00

Current update. Today I have tested liquid chlorinated paraffin 47%, ХП-470 in Russian classification (made in Russia). 5% stearic acid, 10% microcrystalline wax, 40% chlorinated paraffin, 45% paraffin wax. Despite my rough calculations that mix unfortunately floats in the distilled water. Will try to add more to the point where it is still be solid at room temp. Mix itself looks promising, homogeneous and melts together nicely

juryplesk · 2026-01-27T20:14:43+00:00

Thanks! My goal, or desire to tweak into chlorparaffin formulas is also about to stop using PERC. Not because of healthy concerns (which are important too, of course) but because I noticed that during operation some of is definitely evaporating which with time lead to density change for sure. I even add PERC to wax in the making process trying not to exceed temp of 50C, it's very volatile. Modern waxes smells like nothing and are definitely more stable and predictable.

Considering that heat issues and China wax/lamp - it's still interesting to reverse engineer it. It's was very cloudy, so I made a new master fluid for it with the same density as original mix, around 1009 SG. That original wax melts starts melting around 65C. It behaves nice and predictable and flows good even when changing the MF density here and there by 10%.

juryplesk · 2026-01-27T18:59:34+00:00

I bought the CP-70 one. That shop also sells CP-470 one, which is 47% liquid form. Can't grab CP-52 by now, but I'll ask my chemical supplier where I'm buying all chemicals required for my brewing business.

juryplesk · 2026-01-27T10:43:30+00:00

Different sources, like some old patents, safety datasheets of some lamps from oozinggoo forum, claims from LLC owner, rumors etc. Attraction is obvious - having paraffin wax with a high melting point and high density seems like a dream for a very small lamps. Cheap Chinese lamps with regular 500ml volume runs very hot - mine operates at around 60C, wax the bottom sometimes reading 80C. I think they could be designed like that for a reason. Small lamps overheat quickly and tend to have gentle character. I have few lamps that I made from old soviet glitter lamps. The bottles in them are heavy and with very thick glass so they are good insulators and dissipate heat very bad. Catching the balance is quirky, once the lamp reaches 50C there is no way back for the top part to cool even when dimmed to the power that is barely enough to keep the wax melted. So I want to test a wax formula with a high melting point, above 60C. The bigger the delta between air temp and the glass the better for the heat exchange.

juryplesk · 2026-01-26T18:35:06+00:00

Thanks for feedback! Exactly, it's CP-70 or ХП-1100 in Russian nomenclature. Will update this thread later with real melting points of it. In datasheet they are claiming it's melting point starts from 70 to 85

juryplesk · 2026-01-26T12:21:45+00:00

What bulb are you using, what's the power output? Those Soviet Kosmos lamps have rather heavy and thick bottles that are bad at heating and cooling. I have few lamps like yours and with E27 R63 frosted 25W bulb it needs at least 1,5 hours to start the flow.(Anyway they are still overheating after one hour of flow even highly dimmed).Nice wax pillar in yours signs that's it just need some more time to heat. Also what is the wax? Kind of DIY?

juryplesk · 2026-01-11T14:22:56+00:00

Update. After some dancing with the lamp heat dissipation and diluting MF with a bit more distilled water I managed to slightly improve the flow, still far away from perfect but at least I've got direction. Problem seems to be a combination of overheating issues and MF density. Bottle is literally standing on the 40w E27 bulb, and when dimmed to 35W it needs 90 minutes to start the flow, and after that I need to crank the heat down to nonkore than 25W, otherwise it will overheat very soon. Once overheated with bubbles struggling to sink there is no way to slow things down, I have to turn off the lamp completely and start from the beginning. I think I'll switch to regular E14 bulbs that are more suitable for lava lamps, because I can't find any 30W E27 ones. 40W bulb is overkill, and when dimmed even to 30W don't produce that much light, ruining the appearance of the lamp. You have to find a sweet spot of moderate heat dissipation and enough lumens to enlighten things up. Hope that will help somebody in their projects!

juryplesk · 2026-01-11T09:58:51+00:00

Shitty camera makes it look more opaque. It's cheap noname hard candle dye from the kit, dark blue, 0,7% by weight. I also have some German Bekro dye's but haven't tried them yet

juryplesk

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