Nathan Walton took an old gallon jug wine bottle, fill it with mineral oil and rubbing alcohol, and heat it up with a 30 W bulb inside a cut out cooking sauce pan and voilà: White Trash Lava Lamp.
Here's my home made lava lamp. The container is simply a gallon jug wine bottle. Because of this, a friend once referred to it as the "White Trash Lava Lamp". The wine was Ernest and Julio Gallo, if I remember correctly. I do remember that it stank to high heavens when I poured it down the sink. Avoid, avoid, avoid. The base is a cheap spun aluminum sauce pan, obtained from the local 99 Cent store. The handle was removed, and a hole was cut in the bottom with a nibbling tool. You'll see no pictures of that. It's remarkably difficult to cut a circle with a nibbler. From there, it was simply a matter of rivetting a socket for a 30 watt appliance bulb onto the inside of the pan and wiring it for 110 VAC.
Link - via Miss Cellania