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lamp wiring

boothbay
9 years ago

We have a lamp that suddenly stopped working. I figured a short somewhere cause the bulb would go on an off on its own. The same thing would happen when i tried other bulbs. I wanted to get rid of it and not waste time on it, but the wife loves it for sentimental reasons. I took it apart and there is shown 4 wires...a pair of each going to the screws of the socket. The problem is that they are short that it would be a problem to attach them to the screws, maybe that was why it shorted? Anyhow I had the same extra wire and cut off 4 strips to add to each of those wires with tape, but it was awkward to say the least. Is there anyone here that knows a way around this, other than discarding it? LOL BTW, the addition also could not be long cause it has to be cradeled into that socket and there would hardly be any room for long wiring. Also, out of curiousity, can one use a 3 way bulb into a lamp made for single light?

Comments (2)

  • Ron Natalie
    9 years ago

    A 3-way bulb will light only "one way" in a regular fixture.

    There usually isn't much more wire in the lamp than necessary to get them connected to the socket when it is minimally extended. You've figured out why. As long as they are firmly attached to their screws and not frayed such that they're contacting something else, the only other possibility that the wire is broken internally somewhere.

    Do none of the three positions of the the switch light the bulb?

    Do you have a meter? One side of the plug (typically the fatter side) should be connected to the screw threads on the socket. This should be a low resistance no matter what the switch is set to. The other blade of the plug will be connected to the button in the center for half the positions on the switch. There's another contact between the shell and the button that is also connected to the switch and will be zero ohms for half the settings.

    A 3-way bulb has two filaments (for instance a 50-100-150 has a 50W and a 100W).

    The switch cycles them OFF - 50 - 100 - BOTH.

  • boothbay
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Sorry if i mislead anyone about the 3 way bulb. This lamp is not for a 3 way bulb, I was just asking that question in general. Yes, the wires are the frayed type. I found an older cord that just has the plug and bare end at the end so that would be perfect for the plug part of it. I neglected to mention that this lamp also had a small lamp at the bottom that would be used if one chose to as a night light. When I took off the wires from the socket, one twisted pair went to the brass screw and the other went to what looks like the negative side, but like most other sockets in a situation like this i always noticed that the brass and negative were always facing opposites, but the other pair went to what i thought was the ground screw...but its not green, just plain like a negative. Is this typical for this situation? The opposite one had no wires connected to it. As a last resort, I would be just satisfied using the main light to light up and we rarely used the night light, but we had to turn the switch twice in order to put them both off.

    This post was edited by boothbay on Sat, Dec 27, 14 at 15:22