My wife likes lava and glitter lamps we have had several over the years but the only thing I find annoying is they take a bulb that only one shop locally sells and they arn't cheap which when they blow and they do often it is a pain, we use a lot of GU10 bulbs in our house so we always have spares and they can be picked up in nearly every shop including the pound shops so I decided that that was the bulb to use a little internet search showed I could get the bulb holders in bulk quite cheaply but I wanted to see what I was buying as it was going to need to fit and be mounted in place of the standard bulb holder so I found my local Maplin electronics store has them on the shelf I paid for one what I could have got ten more basic holders from Ebay but I only wanted one.

Step 1: Disassebly

Now as I think that as different make lamps will be different designs it is best to make your own measurements and adaptations this is my lamp and my way this time.

As with all prodjects I am not responsible for your safety and well being please always disconnect the power supply and make sure you don't have a trip to the A&E dept.

Step 2: Parts and Measureing

With my parts collected and the lamp in disassembly I could offer the perts together to work out the best way to put it back together again.

I was really lucky in that the new bulb holder had a wire clamp that fitted between the prongs on the lower half of the original bulb holder.

Step 3: Wiring

Once the base is reassmbled the way it came apart but with the replacement bulb holder in place the wiring needed to be connected I was going to use a piece of chocolate block and screw the ends of the wires together but the base is quite shallow so I opted for soldering and heat shrink covered wires and for good measure the white insulation that came off the wires where they entered the orginal bulb holder.

Step 4: Finishing Up

After connecting up the wires and insulating them quick test was done to make sure it worked then the wiring was carefully folded up into the base and the felt cover reattached and as you can see it lights up and the glitter starts to move much quicker than with the standard bulb. The little bits in front of the lamp are the only left overs which are the orginal bulb holder and a plastic top hat shaped insulater from inside the screw tube that holds it all together with the new bulb holder having extra insulation it wasn't needed and ment the wires were not crushed through the tube.

With the bulbs I have as spares they are rated at 50w but we have started to buy the SMD chip (LED) bulbs although more expensive the burn time is much more than the standard bulbs are expected to last with lower power consumption, they get a bit warm but no where near as hot as the di-chromic lamps so I thought I would try one in the glitter lamp and it works a treat once it has warmed up it works just as the standard bulb does and has the benifit of a lower power consumption.

All in all I am happy that it works and I can relax a little that it's not burning a hole in my wallet anymore.

Just a note that after running the lamp for a while on the SMD bulb that while it did work the flow was a little slow where as the 50w was way to fast and I thought it may get to hot and damage the fluid so went and picked up a pack of 20w bulbs and these work a treat the flow rate is good and the lamp works just like the standard bulb and has yet to burn out so fingers crossed.