Hello
We had these 2 ceramic tree branch lamps for quite a long time! Both knurl knob lamp sockets wore out and the lights would no longer turn on. :-(
So off to Home Depot for some new $8.00 lamp sockets! Many new lamps have these new fancy turn knobs that you turn to go on and turn to go off! What is wrong with the good old push through style we had when we were little? Hope I am not showing my age here? Well Home Depot had plenty of the Turn Knob style but I found some push through and to my surprise they are the commercial grade! LOL
I pick those up and when I wired the new sockets in, I used the multi-meter to see which wire was connected to the skinny prong on the 2 prong lamp cord. That is the hot wire that gets screwed onto the gold color screw terminal on the lamp socket. The wire connected to the fat prong is the neutral wire and screws onto the silver color screw terminal. The reason is that the silver terminal is connected to the metal thread part of the lamp socket where the bulb screws in. So if a finger touches the metal threads it is safe. If the hot wire is connected to the threads then the electricity would flow through the finger and through the body to ground always taking the shortest route to ground. As another precaution there is a cardboard insulation around the metal threads so if it was wired wrong there is little chance a finger would touch these metal threads. That is just basic electricity.
(broken link removed)
How has your experience been wiring a lamp?
Pic 1 - Home Depot Commercial Grade Push Through style lamp socket.
Pic 2 - Old lamp socket with Brocken switch
Pic 3&4 - This end is connected to the skinny prong is the hot wire because the multi-meter shows zero ohms.
Connecting this to the gold color screw on the socket which connects to that small tab inside the bottom of the ligh socket. This is safer place to connect the hot wire.
Pic - 5&6 All done
![[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/312/312897-ea145265a294b5a3e973ebb92aef49d1.jpg?hash=5gRnG5FKO7 "[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?")
![[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/312/312898-c102689794542dd6e561b5e73686fa0a.jpg?hash=x9ck_ero2u "[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?")
![[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/312/312900-1380fb65869141ff15d06f53963191a3.jpg?hash=PPvuUXMk10 "[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?")
![[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/312/312906-0ca12f347bf3c977fe561cf79b81b810.jpg?hash=pj48AfTb4- "[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?")
![[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/312/312907-f3aa007ba3a3922abfe0262e47b402f4.jpg?hash=gyhYZWXiPW "[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?")
![[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/312/312908-1b3e8c5fb45a3d7aeccc78d554ea360f.jpg?hash=fdox4Wb7bi "[Hearth.com] Fixing a broken lamp socket. - Which wire is hot & neutral?")
We had these 2 ceramic tree branch lamps for quite a long time! Both knurl knob lamp sockets wore out and the lights would no longer turn on. :-(
So off to Home Depot for some new $8.00 lamp sockets! Many new lamps have these new fancy turn knobs that you turn to go on and turn to go off! What is wrong with the good old push through style we had when we were little? Hope I am not showing my age here? Well Home Depot had plenty of the Turn Knob style but I found some push through and to my surprise they are the commercial grade! LOL
I pick those up and when I wired the new sockets in, I used the multi-meter to see which wire was connected to the skinny prong on the 2 prong lamp cord. That is the hot wire that gets screwed onto the gold color screw terminal on the lamp socket. The wire connected to the fat prong is the neutral wire and screws onto the silver color screw terminal. The reason is that the silver terminal is connected to the metal thread part of the lamp socket where the bulb screws in. So if a finger touches the metal threads it is safe. If the hot wire is connected to the threads then the electricity would flow through the finger and through the body to ground always taking the shortest route to ground. As another precaution there is a cardboard insulation around the metal threads so if it was wired wrong there is little chance a finger would touch these metal threads. That is just basic electricity.
(broken link removed)
How has your experience been wiring a lamp?
Pic 1 - Home Depot Commercial Grade Push Through style lamp socket.
Pic 2 - Old lamp socket with Brocken switch
Pic 3&4 - This end is connected to the skinny prong is the hot wire because the multi-meter shows zero ohms.
Connecting this to the gold color screw on the socket which connects to that small tab inside the bottom of the ligh socket. This is safer place to connect the hot wire.Pic - 5&6 All done
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