Buchner Funnel paper

I know I’m relatively new here, but I wanted to share something I learned. I rebuilt a 14" lamp that I picked up at a thrift store, and everything seemed great. I replaced the wax, added fresh master fluid, changed the color—basically gave it a full rebuild. The only issue was that there seemed to be air bubbles trapped in the wax. I had the flow set just right, and everything else was good, but the air bubbles really bothered me.

A few nights ago, I got fed up with it. When the air bubbles rose to the surface, I decided to stick a chopstick in and stir them. Well, that just led to a ton of tiny bubbles throughout the fluid. At first, I wasn’t too stressed since I knew it was just wax. I cycled the lamp for a day or two, and while it helped a little, there were still a lot of tiny bubbles floating around.

I realized the wax particles were pretty large, so I didn’t think I needed a major filter. Instead, I decided to try using chemistry filtering paper, like the kind used in a Buchner funnel. I placed the filter paper in a clean funnel, primed it with distilled water, and then slowly poured the master fluid through it into a large Pyrex measuring cup.

Next, I mixed a 1:1 solution of surfactant and distilled water, then gently sloshed that mixture around the wax ball before filtering it again. The results were amazing—I was able to remove a lot of the wax debris, as you can see in the second picture.

For anyone considering using a coffee filter, I highly recommend giving this method a try instead. It worked wonders!