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