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Oct 07, 2024 Last reply: 1 year ago 6 Replies
T

I have been lumbered with repairing a cheap standard lamp unit by my youngest daughter. As she provided a take away Indian supper as an inducement, I feel rather obligated!



I guess it has been knocked over; damaging the shade mount.



Fairly fragile contact? welded 3 spokes to a metal washer trapped in the bulb holder and supporting a cylindrical fabric shade wrapped around two metal rings.



The spokes and rings are steel rod around 3.5mm dia. now snapped off at the weld points



Clearly no heat can be applied to the shade because of the fabric so I am wondering about simply forming a *u* cup at the end of the replacement rods and *resting* the shade rather than attempting a full repair. This could be backed up with needle and thread by others.



For material, I have steel welding rod or perhaps brazing rod for appearance.



Progress so far is limited to machining a new centre out of brass. I am now trepidating about my capability to neatly braze brass rod to brass washer:-( Perhaps soft solder.



Any constructive thoughts welcome.


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T

I would definitely be looking at car body filler, epoxy, JB weld or Miliput for a repair like this.

Soft (leaded) solder is also fine wherever you can take the heat

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T

Solder best for strength I think. Apart from multicore, I doubt I have any leaded solder. I'll have a go this evening.

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T

Hmm, whilst I do get pleasure obtained from fixing things, in this instance a new shade sounds by far the simplest option.

Tim

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T

Indeed. Tempting to suggest something with a dog proof stand as well! I am moving away from brazing/soldering. My centre has an upstand edge (sourced from a posh mixer tap) which will take a 2BA thread. I have some white finished mild steel rod which opens a different set of ways forward...

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T

I suppose it depends on which weld points are broken? On the rim where the shade material is attached then there is no chance of using heat without incurring damage to that material.

At the bulb holder end if you can separate the parts brazing or soft solder is possible. If the latter is the case I think I would cut the support rods repair the bulb holder end with whatever is your chosen soldering method then rejoin the support rods using some thin tube to make a coupling which could be epoxied together. Suitable tubing could be obtained from your local modelling shop admittedly at a price.

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T

I'm fairly well equipped following 3 tours in industry and lots of farm sales. I acquired a Boxford centre lathe in 1983:-)

The shade is totally broken off from the 3 support struts (one of which is missing altogether).

The design is something short of good sense in that the tripod legs are only 300mm or so apart. The whole thing is just waiting to fall over.

Having had a play with brazing rod this afternoon, I decided it was not going to be strong enough. Curiously it needed annealing to take a sharp bend. Nothing salvageable from my collection of gifted supermarket trolleys (amazing what arrives in farm gateways!). I have some 6mm rod which might do but a bit clunky compared to the original.

The boss comes back tomorrow so I need to do some washing up etc. Projects on hold!

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