How to Repair Antique Lamps

There are two basic antique lamps. First would be the truly antique oil burning lamps and then would be the first electric lights of many years ago. For this example we will discuss the oil burning lamps. They are virtually collector’s items and many people have them in their homes. Learn how to switch the lamp over to electric. They can also be retrofitted to still burn oil again.

Items you will need:

• Needle nose pliers


• Wire strippers


• Cord and lamp plug


• Socket


• Oil lamp conversion kit
  
  
  1. Take off the shade or glass globe from the lamp. Set it aside.
  
  
  2. Unscrew the burner and thoroughly clean any oil and soot residue from its base.
  
  
  3. Place the converter kit on the lamp and screw it in position where the metal burner was located.
  
  
  4. Push the lamp cord into the cord hole in the conversion kit and make sure you pull enough cord through to make wiring easy.
  
  
  5. Use the wire strippers to take the insulation off the cord exposing bare wire. Take the socket housing apart and loosen the contact screws for the wires.
  
  
  6. Wrap the wire, which has the smooth insulation around the brass screw in a clockwise direction, and the wire with the ribbed insulation around the silver screw with the needle nose pliers. Replace the housing after tightening them both down firmly.
  
  
  7. Pull your excess cord through the housing and make sure that it is down firm against the lamp conversion kit.
  
  
  8. Put a low wattage bulb in your converted lamp and replace the shade. Now your new lamp is ready to place into service and should provide you with reliable service for a long time.