!@#$%&* Wedge Base Lamp Socket

I have experienced this issue a multiple of times on exterior landscape type fixtures. My first impression was that it would be near impossible to construct the sockets, or the fixtures, out of a lower quality material. :-]

The solutions I've tried that appear to work are:

2) Buffed & coated the contacts on the lamp with a silicone spray to reduce corrosion, and the resulting removal difficulty.

4) Replace any of the sockets with loose, or low tension contacts, that allow arcing to take place.

Since taking these actions it's been years since I've had a lamp break on removal.

For the lamps that broke on removal I constructed a pick to help remove the broken lamp base. It consisted of a thin piece of flat spring steel (street cleaner brush) with a short hook bent on the end, and ground down to fit into the socket. This allowed the hook to be slipped in along the side of the lamp, and pull it out. A small pair of Hemostats (like a medical person would use) also works.

Louis--

How about trying a small piece of surgical rubber tubing, like the lamp extractors for the old telephone style wedge base lamps used in the old 1A2 W-E PBX systems? It slid over the glass as far as possible, and you gently wiggled the lamp out of the socket.

Aha! Got out the hemostat (used normally to hold small objects while soldering) and literally removed the wedge end of the bulb bit-of-glas by bit-of-glass :-(

Now, what kind of silicone spray do you recommend?

Thanks for your pointers! I was dead-ending trying to find replacement sockets.

...Jim Thompson

Or use a pen body - cut the end off to leave a hole of size 'x', where 'x' fits the bulb. :-) Used one of these to remove small bulbs from equipment in years gone by.

Ken

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I use LPS brand available at the local electrical supply.

I suspect that if you were very careful in placement, and amount used, an anti-oxidant (no-ox) compound would work also.

The silicone has always worked for me so I haven't tried anything else.

Louis--

I have some contact lubricant/protector. I think I bought it at an auto parts store. It is used for trailer light plugs but the instructions say that it can be used on 110V lamps to prevent seizing. This stuff looks a lot like Vaseline.

Hell if I know. ;-)

Bill @ GarberStreet Enterprizez };-) Web Site -

Jim, to get the glass out, cut a potato in half and shove the cut end into the socket then unscrew as if the potato were a bulb.

It's *wedge* base ;-)

But I've used the potato trick on some ceiling floods that decided to come out minus the threaded part.

...Jim Thompson

In news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com (EEng):

No, to get the glass out, cut a potato in half, shove the cut end into the socket, twist for about 2 minutes, then bury the potato and forget about it. Problem solved!

: )

Made myself a tool to handle this kind of problem. See picture at:

Newsgroup: alt.binaries.schematics.electronic Subject: !@#$%&* Wedge Base Lamp Socket - BulbExtractor.gif Message-ID:

...Jim Thompson

On Wed, 5 Nov 2003 13:14:24 -0500, "Mark Jones" wroth:

I tried that once and all my warts went away!

Jim

James Meyer posted for all of us....

Genital?