We have a pair of old bedside lamps. I noticed on one of them the shade was turning. I assumed it was loose, but on checking it was still held on tight - it was the bulbholder which was turning. I wouldn't have bothered to do anything as if this turns too much the wires come loose from the terminals inside the bulbholder, and then either the light doesn't work, or it blows the plug's fuse if the live and neutral touch. However, this was a really old lamp with a brass bulbholder. What if the live came loose and touched the brass fitting with the earth also loose? Well, the RCD should trip of course, but I thought it safer to sort out the loose fitting.
I couldn't see at first how the bulbholder fitted to the lamp body (which was alabaster, so not exactly the strongest material). There was a brass nut under the bulbholder, and it was loose. I wondered about simply turning it to tighten it, but then the bulbholder would have turned too, and that risked twisting the wires inside. So I thought I'd take the top off the bulbholder (the ring nut which held on the shade also held the top of the bulbholder on). Well, there was almost no play in the wires, so it wouldn't come off. Why not just push the cable up from the base to get more slack? The cable was 6mm diameter T&E. The hole through the side of the alabaster was probably 6.01mm! I needed pliers to push/pull it through. Then, on the inset centre of the underside of the alabaster base I noticed another brass nut. What was that for? I started undoing it, and noticed the bulbholder moved slightly away from the base. When it was undone completely, I could see a threaded steel tube. This appeared to pass all the way through the alabaster to the bulbholder. So the bulbholder was held on by the nut at the alabaster base, then the threaded steel tube, then the brass nut at the base of the bulbholder which internally screwed onto the steel tube, but also had an external thread which held it to the bulbholder! Now it was just a matter of pushing the cable through so there was enough slack to check the connections inside the bulbholder. But...
There wasn't enough free cable to push through. It was attached to a flying linear dimmer, and that was in the way. It seemed the quickest thing to do would be to disconnect the cable from the dimmer. There were four screws holding the back of the dimmer on, then the three screws holding the LNE wires, and the two screws holding the cable grip. Once the cable was loose it was possible to get enough slack to check the bulbholder connections. Of course, there was nothing wrong with them! Then I got the bedside lamp reassembled and tightened up so it no longer turned. So all that was required now was to reconnect the cable to the dimmer. The holes in the connector block holding the LNE wires were very low down, and the cable grip obscured them somewhat. I had to unscrew the circuit board from the dimmer base to make it easier to get to the connector holes. I pushed the wires into the holes but something didn't seem right. It was then I discovered that the connector holes were blind. The wires couldn't be pushed through completely. I cut the ends straight, and used snipe-nosed pliers to put them in the holes, as there still wasn't much room to manoeuvre them. Then it was a matter of tightening the screws, and putting the cable grip and back of the dimmer on. The light came on without problem when tested.
It all took almost an hour...