Rewire Your Own Lamp!
Posted by Lori Pepe-Lunche on Friday, September 7, 2012 Under: DIY (Do It Yourself) Projects
When you come across a little treasure at the junk shop or flea market, wouldn't you like to bring it home and transform it into a beautiful piece for your home? It's super easy to do.
Here's how you can do it in less than an hour.
I wish I had taken a picture of the state I found this one in...you wouldn't have believed it! For $10. how could I go wrong. It was really dirty brown with some rusted parts still hanging off of it.
The first thing you do is take it apart and clean it. Then decide what you need to replace.
I had to replace everything!
Get your threaded pipe, cut it with a small hacksaw to the length you'll need it when completed or purchase it already sized correctly. (* If you need to cut it, be sure you screw a nut onto the main piece you will be keeping. After you make the cut, you can unscrew the nut and it will re-thread the end of the pipe for you.)
Insert your pipe through the holes that hold the lamp and base together. Screw the nut onto the bottom end of the pipe, under the base.
Place a collar over the top of your pipe as well as another nut, then tighten this nut which will hold your center pipe in place and your lamp body and base together.
Now you're ready to wire this puppy. Thread your electrical wire through the threaded pipe starting underneath your base until you have about 1 1/2" coming up through the top of your pipe.
Next, place a hard plastic candle tube over your threaded pipe so that it sits on the collar. (* I use these tubes that you can purchase in various lengths to extend the neck of some lamps.)
Then place your harp base over the threaded pipe so that it rests atop the candle tube.
At this point you should only have about 1/4" of threaded pipe coming up through your harp base.
Screw just the base of your socket onto the last 1/4" of threaded pipe.
Split and strip about 1/2" of wire, wrap the hot wire around the brass screw in your socket and the neutral wire around the silver screw and tighten both screws.
At this point put a plug on the other end of the wire so that you can test your connections before finishing up. Put a lightbulb in the socket, make sure it is on, and plug it in. DON'T touch anything though. If it is working, pat yourself on the back, unplug the light and then finish up. (*If it's not working, unplug everything and switch the wire connections in your socket and try again.)
Now you can push your wired socket into the base and place the harp on the harp base.
All you need now is a bulb, a shade, and a finial to keep your shade in place. It's SUPER easy and you can get all of your supplies at your local well stocked hardware store!
Now it's time to treasure hunt! It's going to be a good weekend for it...Lori
In : DIY (Do It Yourself) Projects
Tags: "re wire a lamp easily" "diy lamp re wiring"