"micky" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:56:39 +0000 (UTC), Joe Mastroianni
wrote:

I have a desk lamp of the "brave little toaster" style which says to use
a 60W bulb.

Inside the light, it 'says' 60 watts.
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/...g/12036539.jpg

My wife insists on a 75 Watt flood, which gives the right amount of
light, but it gets hot as blazes.

How much do you think 125% over the maximum matters?

I put 100 watt bubls in my kitchen ceiling fixture with 3 globes
keeping the heat in, and over a couple three or 10 years, the plastic
around the metal sockets got brittle and fell off in chunks. One
socket stopped working too, bad wire connection at the metal socket.

I also used a 100 watt bulb in a desk lamp with a cone shaped metal
shade, and iover a couple years it damaged the socket, but in this
case the built-in switch. The kind of socket that is colinear with
the rotating knob that is the switch, (like is used in over the bed
headboard lamps with the long salami shaped bulbs) I have to grab
the round thing hard and trun hard, to go from on to off and offf to
on. The next two notches, which are the same thing are easy, but that
makes a full revolution, and the next 2 are very hard again.

No fires. And this is 100 for a 60, not 75 for one (the ceiling
fixture. The desk lamp may have been designed for 75)

BTW, the lamp is probably 50 yeaers old and will last another hundred
after I replace the socket/switch. During the really hot weather I
had to start using CFL in it or it was too hot to get close too, but
the switch was damaged already.

You are blessed with luck and good fortune; but I hope your insurance agent
reads your post and figures out who you are because I don't want you in my
risk group. And, test your smoke detectors regularly.

Tomsic