In an effort to reduce shipping fees for you, the majority of the parts I link to are from Grand Brass, with only a few exceptions. The rest (or all) can be purchased online. Hardware stores have a very limited supply of good looking, quality lamp parts, but you may find some of what you need there. This risk is much lower with a hand drill of course, but it's always better to be safe than sorry. When drilling into any material (i.e.: a custom lamp base or shade), please wear safety goggles, and NEVER wear gloves! If the spinning bit gets ahold of the material of the glove, it could potentially pull off the glove and parts of you along with it. Just remember to never plug in one of your lamp creations until you've tested it. Luckily in this class, we won't have anything to do with live electricity until we've built our practice cord sets, so there's little to no reason to be apprehensive. And never, under any circumstance, for any reason, put a fork in an outlet. The same rules still apply metal, water, and our bodies are good conductors of electricity, so please never combine any of these things with live (in our case, plugged in) electricity. And ta da! Problem solved without interrupting conduction.Īs kids we are taught (for good reason) to fear electricity, and how to navigate it safely. *Fun Fact: Graphite, while shouldn't be connected to any live wires, is an excellent lubricant for stubborn threads of a socket! If you're having trouble screwing a lightbulb into a socket, unplug the lamp and rub graphite onto the inside threads of the socket. electronic circuits (they're made of a conductive polymer).other metal (eg: the lamp body, harp, or metal shade).Here's the short list of all the materials that should NOT come in contact with any live metal on a lamp: It's important that no other conductive material come in contact with the 'live' metal, so even though the parts are designed to prevent this, your awareness of what materials are potential risks is important. Metal is one we take advantage of for this class in the form of lamp cord wire and plug/socket prongs, threads, and terminals. (Portable = any lamp that is not hardwired into the wall or ceiling.) As long as both wires of the cord (Hot and Neutral) are isolated from the exposed metal parts and isolated from coming in contact with the exposed metal parts of the lamp, there is no need for a ground.ĮLECTRICAL CONDUCTORS are types of material that allow the flow of electrical current in one or more directions. This will be in the form of the round prong on a three prong plug or a green wire in some lamp cords (yellow in Europe).ĭue to the improved designs of modern lamp parts, there is such a low risk of live electricity making it's way to touchable lamp parts and as a result, most modern interior portable lamps are not grounded. Instead of passing to earth through the person, it will go through the ground wire. Some cord, used mostly for hanging pendants, has three wires and the third is what's called the 'ground'.Ī GROUND is an additional wire, a backup path, that provides a bypass through which electricity can flow if there's a short in the system (i.e.: a 'live/hot' wire is touching metal that is touching skin). As a result, most lamp (or zip) cord is made up of two wires. The current flows into the lamp cord via the ' H ot' wire and returns to the source via the 'Neutral' wire. The CURRENT is a flow of electrical charge within the circuit that powers the lamp. When the connections are made properly, the circuit will “close” (controlled by a switch) and current will flow through the circuit and light the lamp. In our case, a circuit consists of a power source (breaker box > wall outlet), two conducting wires (lamp cord), and a small lamp to which the free ends of the wires leading from the power source are attached (socket & bulb). I'm not going to dive into the deep end of electricity know-how, but there are a few important tidbits I want to share before we get started like the basics of what a circuit is (the combination of the lamp cord, socket, plug, and switch creates one), electrical current (the fuel flow that lights the bulb), why portable lamps aren't grounded, and what materials will conduct electrical current.Ī CIRCUIT is a closed loop through which charges (current) can continuously move.
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