Solving an Electrical Problem

Garage and estate sales are a great place to find old floor lamps to decorate your home. However, you need to be careful with the lamps because the wires are often old and brittle and the lamp won't be safe to use until you rewire it. This is something almost anyone can do by themselves. If you've found a mid-1930s Torchiere floor lamp you want to use in your home, here is how you can rewire it.

Take Lamp Apart

You need to take the lamp apart so you can rewire it. Start by removing the light switch on the lamp. Turn the switch counterclockwise to unscrew and remove it.

Next, you need to take the bottom off of the lamp. On a 1935 Torchiere lamp, the bottom is screwed onto a pipe that runs through the inside of the decorative stem on the lamp. Unscrew the base and take it off of the lamp. You want to set the pieces of the lamp on the floor in the order in which you took them off so you know how they all go back together again. Set the base on the floor.

Take the weight off of the pipe and set it next to the base. The weight is circular-shaped and is often made out of marble, but it could also be glass or another material made to look like marble. You should now cut the wire cord for the floor lamp with wire cutters to make it easier to continue to take the lamp apart. Slide each part off of the pipe and set it on the floor next to each other in a row.

The last part you'll take off the pipe is the ceramic light socket at the top end of the pipe. Unscrew the bottom of the socket from the pipe and remove it.

Disconnect Wires from Socket

If there is a light bulb in the socket, remove it. At the bottom of the inside of the socket are five screws. Three screws are made out of brass and two are metal and silver-colored. Unscrew the two silver screws to take the bracket off of the bottom of the socket.

Once the bracket is removed, you can loosen the two screws holding the wires to the base of the socket. Remove the wires and pull the wire cord through and out of the pipe.

Put in New Cord

You should use a lamp cord made out of copper to replace the old cord. Copper lamp wire is a high-quality wire that will last a long time. Start by putting the wire through the base and the weight and then push it up through the pipe that goes into the decorative stem of the lamp.

You will have to trim the end of the wires in the cord so you can screw them into the bottom of the ceramic socket. Pull cord apart a little to separate the two wires in it. Take the pair of wire cutters and trim the insulation off of each wire. Trim about a half an inch off of the insulation at the tip of the two wires. Make a hook on the end of each wire and wrap each one around a separate screw. Tighten the screws to secure the wires to the base of the socket. Screw the socket back onto the pipe and put everything back together in the opposite order in which you took it apart.

Connect Electrical Plug

The electrical plug will come in two parts you can pull apart. Pull the plug apart to expose the screws for the electric wires. Slide the wires up through the hole in the housing for the plug and screw the wires to the connections on the plug. Push the inner part of the plug back into the housing for the plug.

Socket Fitting

The original ceramic sockets were built for light bulbs with a large diameter base. You can still find light bulbs to fit into the old socket, but if you want to use energy-efficient light bulbs, you should get an insert you can screw into the socket so it will take a smaller diameter bulb. Put a bulb in the socket, plug the lamp in, and turn it on. The lamp should work like new.

If you are worried about the wiring of the lamp or your home, make sure to contact an electrician with a business like Central Heating and Cooling.