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micky micky is offline
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Default follow-up on rubber pigtail light socket

Follow up on rubber pigtail light socket. My CFL won't screw into
mine pigtail socket far enough to turn on.

A) I'm sure they still sell rubber pigtail light sockets, but I
looked through the electrical dept. at 2 home depots and the best Ace
Hardware in town and didn't see one.

B) I don't want to take down the socket that's there now and be
without a ceiling light until I finish trimming the rubber.

C) I thought I'd just use the guts of a lamp, so I went to my lighting
box to look for one. First thing I found were those things that screw
in to a light socket, have a receptacle on two sides, a chain on a
third side that controls the light socket at the other end. That
didn't work either. Couldn't screw it in far enough. For example,
if you really didn't understand my description:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-2-Outl...9#.UfMhgawudac
Somehow, even though I don't remember ever using more than 3 of these
at one time, my mother and I had six altogether. (If you don't count
the one I'm using in the attic.)

DDDDDDD) Found things I had thought were light bulb flashers, but they
looked to old for that today. Decided they might be light bulb
extenders. Yes, they work fine. CFL is working as desired.

I have 3 of these t hings. I think I got them from my mother about 15
years ago, and that she had them since 1950 at least. Probably
because she too had a lamp that a regular light bulb would not fit in.

Here is one they sell now,
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-M...0#.UfMcOawudac
but as you can see, it wouldn't screw far enough into a pigtail socket
any more that CFL would, because of the wide part immediately above
the threads.

Here's another one sold now but also too big
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...QEwBg&dur=1822

Here's a whole page of them, none of which would work.
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/light-socket-extender

It's funny how they tried to make it better, with porcelain or
plastic, but they made it so it wouldn't work for me.

My mother's extenders have no plastic or ceramic, only something that
looks just like the metal threads of a bulb, except a little bigger so
it will thrread ONTO the lightbulb. And behind that is another set
of metal threads, the size of a standard (medium-size) light bulb
base.

E) This is why you should never throw anything away.