I FINALLY found a Lava Lamp here. No, it’s not an officially branded one, but it’ll do quite nicely. Hola (formerly B&Q) stocks one with red wax, clear oil and silver base/top. It’s the only place I’ve seen one here yet. Now I just need some shag carpet and a circular bed.
Glad to hear you got your pad almost ready. Shag carpets should be found at the night market, I think. And the spool?
I also finally identified the place I saw them before: the “decoration” store in the Dinhao area, they have small ones but cheap. I had put the address in the thread about decorations for Chrisrtmas/Halloween/Easter.
Hi. I have this large 52 oz. original 90’s US-made Lava Lite-brand lava lamp for sale for NT $10,000. Yes, it’s expensive, but these are lamps are regularly going for upwards of NT $7,000 on eBay stateside these days and you won’t have to wait for it or pay shipping from the US. The lamp is located in Pingtung County but I can ship it cheap anywhere in Taiwan. Feel free to ask any questions and thanks for looking
I bet you can make your own for a lot less than 6000 though. Maybe not branded Lava Lamp but it’s the same…
Probably involving wax and oils and wax compatible dyes. All of them available at chemistry stores. (Taiwan seem to not care about DIY chemistry, they will sell almost anything to anyone).
It’s actually not so easy to make your own lamp. You can purchase the supplies to do so from the US (https://www.magmatower.com/). I’ve done so myself. Though it’s not too terribly difficult to do, it can be costly and sort-of time consuming with shipping and finding the right base and globes and such.
Tell you what @Taiwan_Luthiers … I know you’re interested in business opportunities and you’re a talented artisan. If you can create (and promise technical support for) a relative equivalent, I will gladly transfer 6k NTD to your bank account. The price and size/function of the lamp can be negotiated
Let us know. I am completely sincere! Other Forumosans may also be interested. If I’m satisfied, I will recommend you on social media.
I found a bunch of recipes on youtube using vegetable oil and baking soda/vinegar. Finding how they’re really made is a bit harder as google as usual is inundated with useless information and fake pintrest links. I get the impression the underlying liquid is oil/paraffin of some sort, dyed to whatever color you want. The challenge is producing the right shaped glass bottle, a suitable base and all that. Plastic may be cheap but it’s one of those items that must be mass produced, you can’t make one off plastic piece unless it’s 3D printing.
So finding the right chemicals and stuff is probably the easy part. Most should be available at chemical stores, but I’m sure most manufacturer has a secret blend of 11 herbs and spices.
If I made a single lava lamp for 6000 I might just about break even if I am lucky. Much easier to tell me to make a bunch of lava lamps at a lower price per unit.
Nope, no maintenance other than switching out the bulb when it fuses and needs to be replaced. It takes a standard 40 watt incandescent appliance bulb. I haven’t seen incandescents around much here lately but I’m sure they can be found. I’d include an extra one in the sale also.
The ingredients should be available at chemical stores here in Taiwan. No need to order them online and pay extreme shipping charge.
I’m not a glass blower though so I won’t be able to make custom shaped glass jars (and the glass must be pyrex, not normal glass bottles).
Incandescent light bulbs are going to be hard to find. You could use LED lights (even better as they have color changing LED that can add additional dimension to the lamp) but you must have a heater in the water in order for the light to work as intended. The upside here is you most likely will not need to change bulbs much at all, as heating elements will last forever as will LED lights…
Update: Or just go the easy way and buy the thing!!
It turns out “perc” or dry cleaning fluid is controlled in Taiwan so nobody sells it.
Here is the entire search string:
It’s called 熔岩燈
I actually googled dry cleaning fluid and someone asked on Yahoo answers about where to buy them to make lava lamps. He said he couldn’t find the chemical. Importing the dry cleaning fluid is illegal without a license either…