Herself bought a lamp some time ago, and it sat for awhile before I got around to it.
The problem was pretty simple. It had an old style bakelite socket, which the threads wore off and it would flop around. Easy enought, go get a socket and screw it one.
So I went to Ace Hardware and picked one up out of the bin and came back to fix it.
No sweat. Cut the lines, screw on the new socket base, attach the wires and stick it together. Done it dozens of times.
Screwed in a new LED bulb, plugged it in, and turned it on.
POP!
Wut?
Try again.
POP! SIZZLE!
What the hell.
I watched as the cord burnt up in my hand.
So back to the bench it went, where I took it apart.
I drilled out the rivets and looked at the guts.
Clearly, it blew out internally. Here’s the problem:
Made in Mexico. Yeah.
So I went to Homeless Despot and got a new cord and a better, Chinese made socket.
It was easy enough to pull the old wire out, and shove the new one in. I screwed on the base, which was better (it had a lock screw), and attached the wires. Mind the polarity. Shouldn’t matter, but the hot goes on the wire attached to the brass screw. That would be the wire attached to the skinnier of the two prongs on the plug. Shouldn’t really matter, but in general it’s better to switch common rather than hot.
Snapped it all together and lit it up with a traditional bulb.
I thought it might have been something with the bulb, but I put it in the garage door opener and it works fine.
Must have been that cheap assed mexican socket. Interestingly, it was a Leviton. A brand I trust.
Whatever. It’s working now.
Inspected By Pat 