Monday, August 8, 2016

Vintage Eagle Cast Iron Industrial Gooseneck Desk Lamp Pull Chain Socket

Industrial style lighting is very popular for its simple lines and function over form design. In the early 1900's Eagle Lighting brought us some really great simple Gooseneck style desk lamps. They were so simple, many of them are still around and working well. We had a chance to look one over and here is what we did for repair.





As with any repair, we start with an inspection. Looking at the cord, socket, base, and body this lamp seems to be in really good shape. The lamp cord has an old style plug where both prongs are the same size. This means they are not polarized and we will need to replace the cord. The socket sounds and feels good, but we might find it needs work too. 

We start by unscrewing the shade from the socket. 


Next we open the socket. The socket shell is removed from the socket cap. The socket shell is slid off the socket interior. 







The socket insulator looks really good so we will reuse it. The socket interior is also in good shape. Next, we remove the old lamp cord from the socket interior. 



Now we need to pull the old lamp cord out and push the new lamp cord in. This operation can be tricky with bent arm lamps so we are going to use a guide wire. First we will attach the guide wire at the top of the lamp to the old cord. Then we will pull the guide wire to the base of the lamp and attach our new lamp cord. Finally we pull our guide wire up to the top of the lamp. Then the new cord is ready to be attached to the socket. 
















The new lamp cord is stripped. 




We tie a UL knot in the cord and attach the socket interior. The smooth cord attaches to the brass screw and the ribbed cord attaches to the nickel screw. 





The socket insulator and shell is placed back on the socket. We make sure the pull chain is pointing down and snap the socket shell into the socket cap. 






Next the shade goes back on the socket. 







Now we add a bulb and test the lamp. 



Very nice! Total Cost < $8.00 Total Time < 40 minutes.

Vintage Eagle Hi-Lite Industrial Gooseneck Lamp Bullet Shade Vintage No. 340

It is back to school season and we a celebrating with some unique desk lamp repairs. Today we have this nice gooseneck desk lamp made by Eagle. We don't have much information about this lamp except for what the label has to offer: Eagle Hi-lite Catalog number 340, pull tab, made in the USA.



It is a nice small lamp with an industrial flair, textured gray finish and gold accents. This lamp is working but the old lamp cord is not polarized. Since this lamp works it is hard to call it an official repair. We will replace the lamp cord and make sure other components are in good working order.



Here is the only lamp part we need to refresh this lamp: polarized ivory color lamp cord.



polarized ivory lamp cord
polarized ivory lamp cord

Upon inspection, we find this lamp is not our traditional socket and bulb lamp. To keep it small this lamp has a transformer in the base to change the house current 120 volt AC to 12 volt DC. The lamp also has a different style bulb. This lamp takes a #93 12 volt bulb with bayonet style post.


Luckily our bulb works. If we did not have a working bulb, the repair would be put on pause until we could get a working bulb.

To replace the cord on this lamp we need to unscrew the nut from the push button switch.





The base cover comes off the lamp.



Here we can take a look at the transformer and make sure there are no signs of problems: dried or cracked wires, heat spots or places that look burned. The transformer looks good so we are still on track for the lamp repair. The cord connects to the transformer with a simple wire nut.


We remove the wire nuts and snip the old cord just below the knot. The old wire has some clear sheaths for additional insulation. We will take them off the old wire and use them on our new lamp cord.



Using the old cord as a guide, we measure how long the wire needs to be and where the knot should be tied.



We attach the new cord to the wires of the transformer. The smooth wire on our lamp cord attaches to the black wire on the transformer. The ribbed wire connects to the white wire. Since our old wire nuts are not brittle or worn out, we reuse them.





With our lamp cord connected, we tuck them in the base of the lamp and close the lid.




With the nut screwed tightly on the switch, we test the lamp.



Perfect. Total cost < $8.00 Total time < 30 minutes.