Monday, June 16, 2014

Large Cherub Banquet Lamp with Bad Socket

A large brass plated cherub banquet lamp (want to know more about banquet lamps? check out this picture index of lamp parts.) came in the shop the other day and was complaining of having problems with the switch. The bulb wouldn't stay on and would flicker. This lamp has a burner gallery around the socket and a 4 inch ball shade holder.
Banquet lamp with bad electric socket
First thing is to test the problem and sure enough, this lamp switch will not make a good connection. The bulb flickers and you have to balance the socket key in one position to keep it on. To fix this we are going to replace the keyed socket interior. We also notice the cord is old and not polarized. The customer agrees to spend the extra $2.50 for a new cord.
cherub banquet lamps socket interior
The socket shell is removed from the socket cap by using a flat head screw driver and applying pressure just above the key shaft. Next we use our small clamps to hold the key shaft in place and unscrew the key counter clockwise.
clamp the key of a socket to unscrew it
We push some cord slack through the lamp body and pull the interior out to get access to the screw terminals. Notice this socket did  not have a UL knot.
pull the old interior out of the lamp
The old interior is removed and the old cord is pulled through the lamp body. This is a perfect opportunity to tighten the lamp body. Using a wrench, we tighten the steel nut on the bottom of the lamp body.
tighten the lamp body with the cord is removed
The stripped ends of the new lamp cord are pushed through the lamp body. A UL knot is tied on the top.
tie a UL knot
The new socket interior is wired to the lamp cord: smooth wire to the brass screw and the ribbed wire to the silver screw. The cord slack is pulled down from the base of the lamp.
pull the cord slack through the lamp
With the slack out of the line, the interior should be down at the socket cap. Attach the socket key to the interior so you have the socket interior at the correct orientation.
The socket shell clips into the socket cap with a click on both sides by rocking and pressing on the socket shell.
press socket shell into the socket cap
With the socket in place we screw in a bulb, plug in the lamp and make sure it works.
Viola! Total cost: <$3.00 Total Time: < 15 minutes

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