Mogul light bulb adaptor - how to remove or get it to work?

[Sara]

I have an old floor lamp with a mogul (large base) bulb as its center light. It takes a 3-way, and I have been putting 100/200/300 watt bulbs into it. The mogul bulbs are getting hard to find and a bit expensive, so I thought I'd save some money by buying an adaptor so I could put a regular bulb in the center lamp. Found one at a hardware store; it's ceramic, and the clerk said it was good up to 600 watts (is that possible?).

The adaptor fit the socket well, but when I screwed a regular-base 200 watt bulb into it & turned on the power - no light!

Now I am trying to remove the adaptor, but it's pretty firmly seated in the socket and there's no way to get a grip on it. The socket is made of ceramic and looks old; it may be original.

I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to remove the adaptor, and/or what I messed up that's causing it to not work correctly.

Thanks, Sara

[Jeff Wisnia]

Yes, if it is installed in a mogul socket rated for that much power.

Sounds like for some reason that adaptor didn't screw in far enough to reach the (two) contacts at the bottom of the lamp socket. Maybe the threads were dry and the threads "galled" and stuck before it screwed in far enough.

If you don't mind wasting that adaptor, you can get it out the same way you remove the base of a broken off light bulb. Jam a small screwdriver between the adaptor's body and the threaded metal shell inside it (Guard your eyes, the ceramic could chip and fly.), and bend the metal shell inward far enough so you can grab it with the jaws of a pair of pliers and apply enough torque to unscrew it.

If you want to try using anoter one of those adaptors, smear a little oil on the threads before you screw it in. Before you install it, PULL THE LAMPCORD PLUG, then reach inside the lamp socket with some small hook shaped tool and pull on the two contacts at the bottom of the socket so they bend up a little to insure that they will firmly touch the contacts on the end of the adaptor.

Good luck,

Jeff

[Sara]

Thanks so much, Jeff, I will give that a try.

Take care,

Sara