Hi. I have very little experience with rewiring a lamp. Just the basics. I own a Toucan lamp from the 70s. (Full disclosure: It’s a knockoff, made in Hong Kong.) The socket for the lightbulb is inferior, which makes the lamp unsafe. (See attached pics.) I want to upgrade it, replacing the socket, either with an incandescent or LED socket. (Currently it uses an S11 intermediary base lightbulb.)
Is it possible to get a socket that can fit in the holder built into the beak (aka is that a standard-sized piece?) or do I need to think bigger, i.e. improvising a way to install a new, safer socket?
Thanks!
Last edited by hellfrick; 12-27-20 at 11:52 AM.
Reason: adding more info
The original socket was likely safe enough but it appears someone used a bulb of too high a wattage. If it works it's probably safe to continue to use, especially with an LED bulb. No, you are unlikely to find a socket that will just lock in place without having to do any work. You can use glue to adhere a new socket. You can go to a small E12 or E17 socket size and use incandescent or LED bulbs. That would help prevent someone from installing too high a wattage bulb. Or you can glue in a LED light that does not have a replaceable bulb.
I am replacing a bunch of light fixtures, and they all have a mounting bracket with a grounding screw. This is probably a dumb question, but can I use the grounding wire from the metal box, wrap that around the fixture ground screw, and then tie that to the main/incoming ground with a wire nut? Or, is it better to have three separate grounds (one from the main, one from the box, and a separate one on the fixture mount)?
I bought a Woods brand timer switch to replace the basic toggle switch supporting a bathroom ceiling fan. The timer switch has 4 wires (black, red, white, and green). When I removed the wall plate covering the two old switches, I see 5 white wires simply clustered together at the ends with a large wire nut. See attached photo.
In order to avoid removing that wire nut, could I just cut one of the white wires and connect it to the white wire on the new timer switch, leaving that large red wire nut in place?
[img]https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.doityourselft.com-vbulletin/408x408/wiring_sm_9201b8563e750da879cc50dbedc4d7e73e1dd896.jpg[/img]
Another question: when I removed the wall plate, the ground wire was held in place by the bottom screw holding the switch. To connect that copper ground wire to the ground wire of a timer switch, does the bare copper ground wire still need to be somehow in contact with the junction box?
12-27-20, 10:34 AM
