Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Large Bronze Table Lamp with Chewed Up Lamp Cord

Emergency! We have a gashed lamp cord. I hope the pet that caused the damage is OK.

A customer brought in this patient and there was no time to test. It went straight on the operating table. According to the customer, a dog had chewed on the cord. No problem. If you have read much on this blog, changing lamp cords and sockets are the ABCs of lamp repair, but not all of them require the same technique. The only lamp part we need for this project is a new lamp cord.



Start by removing the lamp harp. Lift the locking couplings and squeeze the lamp harp together near the harp base.


Remove the socket shell from the socket cap. Simply pry the shell off with a flat head screw driver and rock it back and forth.




Remove the socket interior from the lamp cord. 


Untie the UL knot in the cord (if it has one) and smooth out the cord so it will slip through the lamp body easier. 


With the cord removed it is a perfect time to make sure the lamp is tight and check the nut on the bottom of the lamp rod for looseness. The new lamp cord goes in the same way the old lamp cord came out. Twisting the stripped wire helps add structure and keep it together as it travels up the lamp. 


The new lamp cord made it about 10 inches into the lamp and started to hang. It could not be reached from the top so we are going to use a snake line to pull the cord up the lamp. The best snake line we have found is a beaded chain. A good tool to have is 36 and 48 inch beaded chain lengths. Feed the chain in from the top of the lamp and let gravity pull it through to the bottom. 




Connect the snake line to the lamp cord. We use a piece of brass wire. Any type of light gauge single wire would work. To add additional strength to the connection, you can solder the cord at the top and solder the wire to beaded chain. 



Gently push the wire up from the bottom while pulling on the chain at the top. Move slow and do not pull through a snag. 



Clip the top of the lamp cord and pull the parallel wires apart. Strip the lamp cord and tie a UL knot in the cord. Attach the socket interior with the smooth wire going on the brass screw and the ribbed wire on the nickel screw. Pull the cord from the base of the lamp to pull up any slack and seat the socket interior on the socket cap. 



Move the socket in to the right position and attach the socket shell. The socket shell snaps into the socket cap and there should be two clicks: one on each side of the socket shell. 



Put any missing parts back on the lamp like the lamp harp. Add a bulb and test the lamp.


Prefect. Total Cost <$ 4.00 Total Time < 20 minutes

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