I do the dangdest things some days.

I have a silly little gooseneck lamp that hangs upside-down from a
magnet on my mill to illuminate the work site. It was a cheap lamp
many years ago when "high intensity" lamps were a new concept.
Tensor pioneered that using low-voltage bulbs, this was a follow when
the lamp mfrs started making small 115-volt 40-watt bulbs. It
uses a 40-watt "high intensity" bulb with a small screw base. Such
bulbs are still readily available at Wal-Mart.

The switch on this cheapo lamp recently failed, so I took it apart
to replace the switch. I then discovered that the lamp socket was
history too: the whole back of the socket with center contact had
disintegrated with heat and age.

I've had this silly little lamp hanging there for so long I've grown
rather fond of it -- so I decided to fixit. This lamp is so old it
is cheap-made-in-Japan when Japan was making stuff not quite up to
what China makes nowadays.

I suppose a new bulb socket would cost about a buck if one could be
found that would fit, rots o' ruck. I preferred to see if I could
restore the old one. I turned a center contact post from brass
rodstock and nickel-plated it. Turned a little teflon insert plug
for the hole in the back of the socket, with a slot to pass the shell
wire and a center hole to locate the new center contact. Then I
mixed up some stuff I had on hand that is supposed to become
ceramic-like when it cures. I put a bit of shrinktube on the new
contact head to keep the ceramic paste off it, gooped the ceramic
stuff into the cavity and baked it for 2 days at 150F. I'd never had
much luck with that ceramic goop before, probably because I could
never leave it alone long enough. It worked great this time. My
silly little lamp is now all fixed with a new switch and a new socket,
20 years of shop grime scrubbed off it with 409 and a new coat of
paint where I'd silver-brazed a little housing to accomodate the new
switch. It's back in place on the mill now and I grin every time I
use it. I guess I've grown rather fond of that silly little
gooseneck lamp I've been using for a long time one way or another.
I missed it when using the mill while said lamp was out for surgery.

I made a "Lil' Lamp" inspired by another RCM poster some years ago;
you can see it at http://users.goldengate.net/~dforeman/Lamp/

It's really a better light, but it doesn't have the history the tacky
old lamp has.