I fixed my lamp today all by myself!

[Digit]

I have a pair of lamps that belonged to my brother dating back to the early 60's.
The switch had gone bad, and I purchased a new socket, if that is the term, so I could fix the lamp and still have a matching pair.

I looked up directions on the internet and did it all by myself! I did use the same cord, which was fine...and I am glad I was not tackling rewiring an entire fixture.

I did encounter a problem with the piece at the bottom of the fixture. It did not appear to be threaded and therefore would not secure the metal tube which ran through the ceramic part of the lamp. I looked through my toolbox and found a screw which "held" it all together.

Normally, I am afraid of anything of an electrical nature, so I am basking in my accomplishment.

I thought I would have to pay someone to do this. Yay!

[Warpy]

1. The one comforting thing about working with electricity

is that once you pull the plug or throw the breaker, there's nothing left in those wires, unlike plumbing that always has something in it to drip all over you.

If you feel brave enough to start tackling ceiling fixtures and wall switches, get yourself a little electrical tester at a hardware store. It's only a couple of bucks and will provide a great sense of security because you'll use it to test anything you're working on to make sure the juice is really off.

Congrats on the first repair. Now on to installing those dimmers!

[eleny]

2. Congrats!

I've rewired some lamps in the past few years and enjoyed it. One set were the lamps I had on my bedroom end tables from when I was a kid. Some of the metal on the base was a mess, so I cleaned it up and painted it with some metallic paint. They'll be good for a lot more years.

Rewiring a lamp completely is not hard. Actually, you did the hard part for your project. The only thing that gets tricky is if the lamp is made up of lots of parts and you need to know how to get those parts back in the right sequence. Most of the time, it's very easy. Just lay it all out as you take it apart.

And yes - you saved yourself a pretty penny!