Paul A wrote:

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...


Paul A wrote:

"A" wrote in message news:k1Fqb.327388$pl3.158331@pd7tw3no...
I was reading an electrical book titled "Your Old Wiring" by Shapiro.
Fantastic book by the way - see if your library has a copy of it if
you
want
to learn about wiring in older houses.

There is a paragraph discussing replacing incandescent bulbs with
compact
flourescents. The author was saying that the replacement flourescent
bulbs
can lead to socket damage due to the weight of teh compact
flourescecnts
and
the heat that their ballasts produce.

Personally I've not run into any problems (yet) with my compact
flourescents - and I was wondering if anyone else has?



I had some problems about 12 years ago with CFs being too heavy for some
inexpensive lamp sockets , pulling the shell
out of the base, but CFs are much lighter and smaller now and none of
the
current ones have given any problems like that.

Boy, those had to be some pretty poorly made sockets, I've never hesard of
such
a thing. Can you describe their construction?

Jeff

Tough without pictures. In a very enlarged form, think of a soda bottle
with the spout down, and cut it off a couple of inches above the spout. That
is the part that attaches to the lamp body. The socket rests on that and
the cover and support for the socket (the remaining bottle) fits back into
the base, only held by pressure. Pretty common, actually.

Yeah, I know those sockets. Pretty much the standard in table lamps.

In the olde days they were made of heavier and springier brass and had some
pretty well formed sharp edged detents to keep the body retained in the cap
part. IIRC the bodies had the word "PRESS" stamped at the point where you pushed
in to release the detent on one side. And, you usually had to use a fair amount
of muscle to get the pieces apart after pressing there.

The present makers seem to have copied the original design, making it with
****tier materials on worn out tooling. I've been annoyed by having those
sockets tip apart while just changing table lamp bulbs.

Probably a bit of JB Weld in the joint area would fasten them together enough to
prevent their collapsing when bumped into by a bumbling moth. You generally
don't have to take those sockets apart again very often once they are in place.

I suppose somebody somewhere still makes quality versions of those bulb sockets,
but you aren't likely to find them in lamps made for sale to the present
generation of "value oriented" consumers.

Just my .02,

Jeff


--
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone to
place the blame on."