What material should I use to hold a live lamp piece in place?

Question

I am repairing a lamp whose plastic rotary knob has degraded and broken (as seen on the right of the photo below). The knob originally moved a small metal pin, which conducted the electricity for the lamp (the pin is visible in the center of the image on the left, and the top of the image on the right).

Now that the knob is broken, it can't hold the pin in place. This has happened before and I've just glued the plastic back together, but now I'd like a longer term solution. Since I can't find a replacement for the plastic knob, I have inserted a cord switch into the wire instead, which works just fine. But to make this solution work, I need to keep the metal pin in place and in the on position.

Here are some options I've considered:

• Solder (risking damage to the plastic bulb fitting)
• Non-conductive putty (couldn't find something that fit the bill)
• Glue
• Cardboard
• Rubber band

I've seen some posts online that suggest glue, cardboard, or rubber bands would work for low voltages (the latter two would be used to wedge the pin in place). But I don't know if 120 volts counts as "low voltage" for this purpose. So I'd appreciate any advice on whether one of these solutions or another one I haven't thought of would be most appropriate.

Answer 1

It looks like that pin is the internal mechanism of what used to be a switch that was integral to the socket. There is no a way to safely hold that in place. You are likely to get a high resistance connection or arcing, either of which will eventually destroy the lamp, and could cause a fire in the process. It generally isn't worth the effort and risk to attempt a home repair/redesign.

Replace the socket. It looks a lot like this one:

You can find replacement sockets of pretty much every type, including ones with integral switches of different configurations. This one I linked to at Amazon ($3.28 with free shipping as part of a larger order), but it may also be at your local Home Depot, Lowes, or electrical or lighting supply store. Or you can redesign the lamp using components that are certified by UL or another organization.

But repair it by replacing whole components that are designed to be used intact. The components aren't generally repairable. If you can't find the exact replacement, modify the brackets or other mechanical parts that hold the socket in place rather than trying to modify the electrical components, themselves. Hardware store have a big selection of brackets and parts you can use to make things fit an existing fixture.

The black and white wires in the lamp have crimped terminals that look like they may be salvageable to simplify connecting to the screw terminals on the replacement socket. You might need a Dremel tool to free them. If it's too much effort, just snip the wire behind the crimps, pull a little more into the fixture, and make new connections.