Restoring the Original Light Fixtures: Part 2

I thought it would be a nice thing to post pictures of my process in case someone searching how to rewire lights stumbles across our blog. In particular this would apply to rewiring a table lamp, because I'm using the rayon cord and I don't show the ground wire. It is a very simple process and something anyone who is minimally handy can do. For those of you not interested, this is probably really boring. ;)



DISCLAIMER: I am not an electrician. I am rewiring our lights as a hobby. Please take on electrical projects at your own risk! Do your research. One thing to consider is that old fixtures are often not originally equipped with a ground wire. For safety purposes, a ground wire was added to our lights when they were installed (not pictured). If there is ever an electrical short in a metal fixture, it could become electrified and shock/harm a person who touches it (the person being the shortest path to the ground). Many everyday objects like table lamps, alarm clocks, toasters, etc don't have a ground (think two-prong vs 3-pronged plug). Hardwired fixtures should always be grounded.



So.... you may remember that a while ago I posted about the cleaning and paint removal from the original antique light fixtures in our house. First I removed all the old 1920s cloth wiring and stripped the paint off the brass. Antique looking parts are not hardware store material, so I had to order everything online. I bought almost all the replacement lamp parts from Grand Brass . I also got some brass darkening solution from Architecturals to patina the new brass fitter. A side note about buying lamp stuff online: I was thrilled to find a mogul socket reducer *geek* which makes it possible to use a standard light bulb in an antique lamp with a oversized mogul socket. I own two mogul floor lamps and the oversized bulbs are hard to find and are usually a bright 100 watts.

Originally I was thinking I might be able to reuse the original ceramic interior sockets (called fatboys because they are bigger than modern sockets). Some of them were quite corroded, so I decided to replace the interiors with modern parts and reuse the original exteriors for looks. I was able to find interior sockets with antique looking turn-key knobs, so they look pretty original! (I'm not throwing away the old ceramic sockets because I hate to discard anything original. They will just serve as art).

Side note: Modern hardwired fixtures often don't have a knob on the socket because they are controlled by a wall switch. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have knobs on my pendants but it's how it was done in the 1920s. Knobs on the pan chandeliers are actually useful because you can turn a few bulbs off for a makeshift dimmer.

Here is the basic order:
Old fixture, new wire, old fitter (aka shade holder), old exterior socket top, new cardboard insulator disc, new interior socket, new cardboard insulator, old exterior socket.



Here is a close up of the rayon wire. Inside the black and white rayon is a modern plastic coated wire. Most people would not go through the trouble of using cloth covered wire since these hang from the ceiling (rayon wire is usually used for table lamps), but we wanted to keep the look authentic.



Plain plastic lamp wire is easier to work with than this rayon covered plastic wire. I wasn't sure how the pros keep keep the rayon from unraveling, so I improvised by covering the ends of each wire with electrical tape. This will get brittle over time, but it's not serving an electrical function, it's just keeping the rayon from moving around.

At this point, the wire has been threaded through the end of the fixture chain, the fitter, the top of the exterior socket and the paper disc and I'm ready to attach it to the interior socket. This picture shows an "underwriter's knot". This knot prevents the wires from slipping off the screws if someone accidently yanks on the cord (standard wiring process).



Screw the wires onto the socket. Standard process is that black is hot so it goes on the gold screw. White is neutral and goes on the silver.



Once the socket is wired, you slide the cardboard insulator over it, ensuring to cover the screws so they don't short out on the exterior socket.



Then you slide the exterior socket over that, and it's ready to pop together with the top of the exterior socket.



Now it's time to screw the socket to the fixture chain end. I have not laced the other end of the wire up through the chain yet. This is because you want the wire to be free to twist with the socket at this time. The fitter gets turned too because the knob is sticking out the side.



Lace the wire up the chain after it's all screwed together and it's finished! I tested each lamp by jerry-rigging a plug by splicing the wires to a plug from a strand of Christmas lights. Yay, it works!



One finished pendant.



The finished bathroom sconce.



Next up... the Pan Chandeliers



The pan chandelier is basically four pendant lamps that are wired together. I wired each socket, then laced the wires up into the pan.

There is an additional length of wire that is laced down one of the chains from the ceiling. You attach all four lamp wires to this one wire.



Separate all the black wires from the white wires. (Note: It is recommended to use a heavier gauge wire if doing this sort of thing to a chandelier with lots of lights)



Twist the black wires all together and join them with a wire connector. This connection ensures that each bulb is connected to the main power, so all bulbs will work even if one burns out.



Lay the wires down in the pan so they are not visible when the chandelier is hanging.



TADA!

Along with a few other replacement parts the whole thing cost less than $100 to clean and rewire all the lamps. They are safe, they function, and they look a helluva lot better. We'll post pictures of them installed once the house is cleaned up and we put the pretty glass shades on!

Restoring the Original Light Fixtures: Part 1

All of our light fixtures were taken down last week, as the electrician has been rewiring our whole house, eliminating the "knob & tube", replacing the corroded cloth wiring, etc. We will also be dry-walling over the plaster ceilings before they go back up. I took it upon myself to clean all the fixtures, mainly to strip the paint from the canopies. Unknowingly I signed up for a much bigger project. As is turns out, most of the fixtures also had original 1920s cloth wiring that was disintegrating. There were exposed wires all over the place and surely must have been shorting out. I can't believe they even worked.

Here are some shots of the lights as they were. The long chains are the pendant fixtures from the bedrooms, hall and breakfast room.



Close up of the canopies of the pendant fixtures.



This little one is the bathroom sconce. It was totally painted, including the fitter (shade holder).



First things first... I've taken apart lamps before, but never anything quite this old. I did some research on the internet first, looking specifically into antique lighting. One page I found talked about "being careful not to disturb the black paper lining". Oh, you mean than crumbling black powder that dumped everywhere when I opened the socket? More research shows that the old paper socket liners were asbestos. Don't worry, I had on gloves and a mask.



Here is the pan chandelier from the living room. More of the same disintegrating cloth covered wires. Look closely for the electrical tape. classy!



It didn't take too long to open up all the lamps. We have four pendant lamps, one sconce, and two pan chandeliers with four lights each, for a total of 13 sockets. I found a website* where you can buy lamp parts. I'm waiting for my wire and replacement parts to arrive.




At the recommendation of the internet I picked up a can of "Citristrip", a "safer" paint stripper which has less fumes. I used an old plastic storage tub as an impromptu spray booth. I still sprayed it outside because the fake orange smell was too strong.



The Citristrip leaves an orange film on the paint. You can easily see if you missed any spots. I can see this being great for larger items with vertical surfaces (like a door frame) because it is a gel and sticks to the surface without running down like liquid solvents do.



About two hours later the paint is buckled and coming off the brass. Next it's time to scrape it off!






I scraped most of the paint off with a plastic putty knife. Then I moved to the sink and used 0000 steel wool and a wire brush under running water to remove the rest of the paint. A couple of the canopies had more layers of paint than the others so I had to spray them again and soak overnight. The next day the paint came off easily.



As I'd hoped, the canopies were a beautiful patina underneath all the paint. The bathroom fitter is lighter brass- I think it was painted early on before it had a chance to tarnish. I am going to patina it a little darker so it matches it's base. There are only four fitters because one fixture was missing it's original (it had no shade). I ordered a replacement bell shaped fitter (not shown) that is remarkably similar to the originals. It, too, is bright brass and I plan to darken it with the patina solution.



The newly cleaned bathroom sconce. What an improvement!



The other canopies are speckled, but are also beautiful.




Stay tuned for photos of the rewiring process and how they turn out in the end!


*Note: I originally ordered a bunch of lamp parts from www.jalanes.com, but it took three weeks, half my order never arrived, no one ever returned my emails, and they were difficult to get on the phone so I cancelled the order. I ended up ordering from www.grandbrass.com, which turned out to be cheaper too.