I am trying to rewire a 5 arm brass chandelier. The original wiring is
16 ga stranded wire which was hard wired to the fixtures (several of which are defective which is why I am rewiring).
One end of the arm has a straight run from the entry hole but then there's a sharp bend which I can't negotiate by pushing the wire. If I start from the other end (which has an immediate 90 degree turn through a narrow hole) I am able to push one stranded conductor completely through the arm, but I am unable to get the second conductor to get past the 90 degree turn. I've tried doing this using the original wiring (which I plan to replace).
I've tried 2 conductor lamp wire but that's too wide. I've tried using conduit lube but that doesn't seem to help. I don't have any 18 ga stranded wire on hand, but the diameter of stranded wire including its jacket appears not to vary with gauge.
Can you take the arms apart somehow? Sometimes it's more than one piece threaded together.
If you can get one one wire or string or anything through the arm, then use that to pull your two wires through. The key to that working will be to figure out a way to attach your two wires to your pulling wire in a way that doesn't increase the diameter of the connection too much. To do this, you may want to strip the insulation off the ends of your two wires before you connect to the pulling wire. That way you are just dealing with the diameter of the wire itself, rather than the diameter including the insulation where you make the connection for pulling.
I did this a few years ago using some braided steel wire, approx 1/8" diameter I had laying around. It was stiff enough to be pushed through the brass arms of the chandelier I was rewiring but flexible enough to make the tight turns in the arms.
I put a small ball of solder at the forward end just so the wire didn't catch as it traveled. I sprayed teflon based lube into the arms every turn or 2 to keep things going.
Some fishing line, a small weight, and gravity should help you to put strings through all of the arms. I'm assuming the chandelier is removed from the ceiling. Use the strings to pull the wires through.
I use very high heat (200 degree C IIRC) 16ga wire which not only has a very thin insulation but it also seems slippery. Apart from being easier to pass through the arms it will also withstand almost any heat build up. I don't know where you'd buy this normally--a lamp rewiring place I suppose since it's made specifically for that purpose. I bought a quantity ten years ago from Grand Brass in NYC. They have a website.
Lately I've become the old codger who goes around taking down the illegal advertising on plastic rectangles, either stuck in the ground with a big stick or wire legs, or tied to telephone and light poles.
Actually, it's pretty satisfying, my n'hood looks a lot better, and as an after-effect, I've found lots of uses for the things I take away.
From the poles, I get a lot of long plastic ties, the ones with the rectangular hole at one end and the little teeth along the rest of it.
They have lots of uses and this would be one of them.
The thoughtful polluters use various sizes of plastic ties, and one will fit your chandelier. Poke or drill a hole at each end.
I wanted to run a wire, for the new sunvisors with illuiminated mirrors, through the frame at the top of my windshield, and the big thick one worked great.
The crummy contractor who did my next-door neighbor's stoop and steps didn't bring any reinforcing, so he used a bunch of my wire legs.
The plastic sheets replace a lot of uses I used to do with newspaper or blankets or other things. Protection for the grass when I spray paint; protection for my car's upholstery when I carry things; better than newspaper for something to kneel on when I work under the dash of my car and kneel on the bumpy rocky blacktop. Good for sitting on dirt without getting wet or dirty. I'm going to line two sides of my inside basement window well with plain white ones so I'll have a little more natural light in my basement.
I'm not the only one removing the advertising. There seem to be about two others, because when I don't get to certain locations right away, someone else does.
This blight took about 4 years to grow from almost nothing to verrrry bad. I see it starting in Indianapolis too. If it comes to your town, stop it quickly, because everyone will be doing it if you don't.
(I make an exception for signs immediately in front of the property or business they are advertising, for For Sale by Owner signs if they are on the closest main street, for yard sales that will occur within the next two weeks (in practice, only one week are found), for concerts or special events that will occur soon, unless there are many too many signs, and for the apartment building and racket club near me. I want them to be fully rented and to succeed. I'm not obliged to treat every law breaker equally. . There may be a couple other exceptions I can't think of now.
(So far, I haven't been making an exception for churches. Does anyone think I should? It seems to me churches should be obeying the law even more certainly than others, and almost all churches do.)
Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.
We often joke about the homoaners but this time, it is true. Robatoy passed away about two years ago. Hee was a regular on a couple of groups but 12 years after the original post his legacy lives on.
replying to Robatoy, chandelier_newby wrote: Just tried this 14 years after it was posted and after an hour of frustration at how to get something (anything!) through the bends in a chandelier arm. Thanks to Robatoy in memorium.
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