Dear Alice, I recently purchased a lamp with a frayed cord. Is this easy to fix? Where should I start? ~ Regina
via Rental House Rules {where they have how to links and lots of advice on buying second hand lamps!}
Dear Regina, Last week I did an unreasonable amount of little projects, spurred on my the list I made for the William Morris project. Funny you should ask, because one of the things I did was to repair and re-wire a lamp. This little light was given to me years ago by a dear friend for Christmas. I used it, and moved it, and eventually broke it. Somewhere along the line I also lost the threaded rod that held it all together. It sat in a drawer, or a box or a bag for seriously 9 years, and I could never bring myself to just get rid of it. I also never managed to fix it until this week.
The first thing to do is inspect what you do have, is your lamp complete? Does it have a socket, switch, cord? Is it stable? Do you need to add feet, or like me a new threaded rod to hold it all together?
This is a diagram of basic parts. Not all lamps are identical, but they usually include a healthy dose of these parts. {via glassart3}
When I got out my bag of parts, I realized the the bakelite piece holding the socket together was broken. I decided the best way to fix it was superglue and duct tape. It works quite well, and no one will ever know. Except you. Then, I made a list, went to the hardware store and purchased a lamp kit. It was the easiest thing to do, it came with extra nuts and washers, as well as two threaded rods. I needed a cord too, to I took one off of a super lame Ikea lamp that was in my give away pile. {free!}
The lamp I have is basically a bunch of parts, stacked on top of a threaded rod. It was like a giant beading project, only I didn't lose all the beads. I started by threading the socket cap onto the rod, and then adding parts down to the base. The rod was longer than what I needed, so I marked it, and cut it off with my very favorite English hack saw, the 'Break Neck'. It's so lovely, and so handy!
After that was done, I added a washer and two nuts, forming a lock nut on the end of the rod. This keeps the whole thing firmly together. The next step was the actual wiring.
I threaded my lamp cord through the rod, up through the socket cap, and stripped about half an inch off each side.
{you may say 'hey, I can totally see that duct tape!', just wait.}
Twist these wire ends so that they don't fray out and poke you in the finger. Each socket has connections that vary a bit, this lamp just had little 'tunnels' that I sent the stripped wire into, then tightened down the connection screw on top of the wire. {lamps are simple circuits, unless you have a crazy fancy light that has computers or AI inside it, you don't really have to worry which side each wire goes to}
Once the connecting screws are nice and tight you can add the finishing touches, socket sleeve, harp {if relevant}, shade and bulb. I do not recommend a CFL. If you are really worried about how much electricity you use in your lamps, buy a halogen bulb please. Other wise you might end up with a brain cloud. I am not kidding, CFL bulbs can do you in.
That's about it. If you have further questions, ask in the comment section below, and I will do my best to help!
Washing clothes, Alice
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