Pink Porcelain Table Lamp with Short Rod Rewired

A customer brought in this lamp the other day and wanted it to be rewired. They also wanted a harp base on the lamp so it would use a lamp harp for fabric shades and not be limited to the bulb clip style shades.

First we inspect the lamp so we can gauge the lamp parts needed for the repair. Next we notice the lamp plug is not polarized and had tape on it.

In modern lamp cords and parts the polarity is important so we will be replacing the lamp cord with a polarized cord set. Another thing we notice is the socket cap has a side outlet for the cord, but the cord goes down the lamp body. The side outlet is just a hole so we will replace the socket as well.

With the inspection complete, we will need the following lamp parts: push-thru socket, harp base, polarized lamp cord, seating ring, rubber washer and brass nut.

 We start the repair by removing the socket cap from the socket shell. Sockets are usually mark "press" and can be pried open at this point.

The socket shell is pulled from the cap and the socket interior is left. This socket is oddly soldered to the socket cord. Most socket interior have screw terminals that eliminates the need for soldering. To remove the socket interior, we simply clip the cord.

The old lamp cord is pulled from the base of the lamp and the old socket cap is unscrewed from the threaded rod on the lamp body. Now we begin to put the lamp back together. This lamp has a challenging threaded rod. It is short and hard to reach. We use a scrap piece of steel to reach the hole in the top of the lamp with the threaded rod.

First we prepare the rod by threading on the bottom nut and placing the washers on the rod. Then with the steel rod, we can reach the top of the lamp body.

Holding the pressure from the bottom, we now attach the top rubber washer, seating ring, harp base, and nut.

With a nut driver, these parts are tightened. The socket cap is added and tightened on the lamp with the set screw.

Now we are ready to rewire the lamp. The first part is to thread the lamp cord up the lamp from the base and out the socket cap.

Now we tie a UL knot in the lamp cord and attach the socket interior. The socket shell is snapped in to the socket cap. Notice the orientation of the push-thru knobs? They should be center of the harp base and the harp base should be complementary to the design on the lamp base.

A bulb is added and the lamp is tested.

Great. Total cost < $15 Total Time < 40 minutes