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Puzzled about rewiring a chandelier

pliant
17 years ago

I've been looking all over the internet for information on how to rewire an old chandelier. I have had no luck at all, which surprises me. Does this mean that diy people shouldn't be undertaking this? My experience is limited to rewiring lamps (there are lots of sites that give step by step instructions for that) but I'm assuming that a 5 arm chandelier would be more complicated. If anyone knows where I can find instructions, can you let me know? Or, should I even try this? Thanks!

Comments (9)

  • brickeyee
    17 years ago

    It is about the same as a lamp but higher temp wire is used instead of plain old zipcord.
    This alows the insulated wires to have a smaller diameter to fit through the arms.
    The central body of the chadelier typically has some volume available to joint the wires for all the arms together and take a single set of wires out to connect to the branch circuit wires.

  • pliant
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Thanks brickeyee - I think I might give it a go myself.

  • brickeyee
    17 years ago

    Use a high temperature insulation that is also thin.
    There are plenty of them around, but they can get a litle pricey. Since you only beed a few feet it is not really that expensive.

  • texasredhead
    17 years ago

    There is a lamp socket at each arm. Is there wiring to those sockets now? To rewire, it will be necessary to be able to remove the sockets so the new wires can be attached to the bases of the sockets. Quite often on older sockets the wires are soldered to the sockets. There are new sockets available at most hardwares that have screws on the bottoms to attach the wires. All of this depends on the size of the sockets on the arms and how much room is available. A black and white wire need to be attached or soldered to each socket. Then it is a matter of bring all wires to the center of the fixture and connecting all like colors together to be attached to the main line that will go through the top of the fixture to be attached to the ceiling box. Hopefully the romex in the ceiling is grounded so that the ground wire should be attached in some manner to the mounting apparatus of the chandelier. Recently we did this with 20 antique chandeliers when we were wiring a large winnery in Dallas. Imagine hanging 35 lb. chandeliers on a 30 ft. ceiling.

  • wwoodwo_yahoo_com
    16 years ago

    see

    http://www.repair-home.com/Repairing_a_Chandelier_Arm

    This is an instruction sheet on how to rewire a single arm of a chandelier, but basically the instructions would just be repeated for each arm.

    There is a typo in sentence 2 of #7 of the instructions:

    instead of 'pull the old wires' it should read 'pull the new wires' to read:

    7. To thread the new wires into the chandelier arm, you will attach them to the old wires with electrical tape. Then pull the new wires through the arm as you pull out the old ones. Remove the tape and discard old wires

  • old_sooner
    16 years ago

    Any one know where I can get a spare bulb socket for my hallway ceiling light fixture. I have tried several lighting stores and hardware stores, but no one carries something like mine. The bulb socket is ceramic, and has a screw thread on the outside of it. After putting the glass bowl on, a metal type screw sleeve (collar) has to be screwed on to secure the glass bowl. By the way, the fixture is such that the open end of the glass bowl is on top. Specifically, bulbs are inserted from the open top of the glass bowl. Please see link for a picture of what I mean. Thanks

    Thanks in advance for any help in identifying where to find such a bulb socket.

    Here is a link that might be useful: example

  • enright
    16 years ago

    My husband completely rewired an antique chandelier last year. Shortly thereafter, we noticed that the area around the bulbs was getting burned. Too much heat seemed to build up in the socket. Now, most of the lights do not light because the sockets are burnt out. I recently read that you are supposed to use special "high heat" wire in chandeliers. Does anyone know anything about this problem and/or where we can get new wire to solve it.

  • ljob_7_hotmail_com
    12 years ago

    switching a hard wired to a plug-in, hang anywhere chandelier, 5 lightbulbs, still in the box light fixture

  • soltc
    11 years ago

    I have a kitchen chandelier with 6 arms and a center spot light. The spot light socket blew out and needs to be replaced.

    The socket is a 3-way turnkey - spot light, arms, or both.

    I want to be sure the I connect the 3 leads to the correct screws (2) on the socket

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