Lamp switch Help

[Jeeper75]

Hello everyone. I am fixing a lamp for a friend at work who buys them at garage sales and wants me to fix them. Usually simple enough but not this one. It has a 3 way switch on it and I see 4 wires hooked up. Thought that was odd and pulled the wires off without marking them. I pull the lamp apart and realize it has a small bulb in the base to light it up.

So you would have 1: Base light on only 2: regular top light bulb on 3: both base bulb and regular bulb on.

I hooked them back up to what i though they were. There are 3 screw terminals on the socket. So I hooked a hot from the little bulb and regular bulb up. One wire from the regular bulb to the neutral. And the other wire from the small bulb to the ground. Plugged it in and the base light is on. Turn switch and pop. Whoops. How should I wire this up? Thanks

 

[2ManyProjects]

Hello everyone. I am fixing a lamp for a friend at work who buys them at garage sales and wants me to fix them. Usually simple enough but not this one. It has a 3 way switch on it and I see 4 wires hooked up. Thought that was odd and pulled the wires off without marking them. I pull the lamp apart and realize it has a small bulb in the base to light it up.

So you would have 1: Base light on only 2: regular top light bulb on 3: both base bulb and regular bulb on.

I own a table lamp similar to that, but it uses a separate switch for the illuminated base. I've also seen ones set up on a single switch, as you describe.

It will depend on the specifics of that particular switch; but I'd wager that the action you're most likely to find would be: "OFF --> Lamp 1 Only ON --> Both ON --> Lamp 2 Only ON" (then back to OFF)

I hooked them back up to what i though they were. There are 3 screw terminals on the socket. So I hooked a hot from the little bulb and regular bulb up. One wire from the regular bulb to the neutral. And the other wire from the small bulb to the ground. Plugged it in and the base light is on. Turn switch and pop. Whoops.

Have you confirmed that the switch itself is in proper working condition, and not shorting to the case at ANY time?

How should I wire this up? Thanks

You first need to reliably identify the connection terminals on the switch. One of them will be the "Common", where power is fed into the switch; and it is critical that you get this right. The other two will be for the hot lines feeding each lamp socket; it doesn't really matter which of these is which, except perhaps from an esthetic standpoint (personally, I'd want the small base lamp to go on first).

Next you want to tie all the Neutrals (from both bulb sockets and the incoming power cord) together; none of them go to or through the switch. The integrity and long-term reliability of these connections is, if anything, even more important than usual; for if they were to fail, the user could wind up being the path-of-least-resistance between the hot side and the ground (via the lamp chassis).

The "Ground" wire on the incoming power cord (if any) should be tied to a metallic part of the lamp frame/base, but probably nowhere else, and certainly not as a substitute for one of the Neutrals.

Assuming that you are re-wiring this lamp from scratch, I would STRONGLY recommend that you use a polarized plug. It doesn't necessarily need to be a three-prong type; but that would be better yet.

 

[Jeeper75]

Thanks for the info, I also just found a diagram online which shows. Thanks