Please help me affix an Uno lampshade to an old lamp
June 23, 2013 5:16 PM Subscribe
So, I have this old, ugly lamp. In the hopes of improving the appearance of this lamp, while at the World Market the other day, I bought a new shade for it. Because I am a noob who has only bought cheap lamps in the past, I didn't notice that the shade was an Uno shade (in fact, the Internet tells me it's an Uno downbridge lamp shade) whereas the lamp has a harp fitting. But! The socket is also threaded, so theoretically, it should be pretty easy to turn this into a regular Uno socket, right?
Wrong. I have been all over town. At the Lowe's, though they sell many, many such lamps they only sell harps in the parts section. The employee I asked for help looked at me with confusion (no surprise) when I asked for help. At the local hardware store staffed by awesome, knowledgeable people, I was sent home with two 1" conduit locknuts. The nuts fit on to the top of the socket perfectly, but won't pass the threads. Clearly the 1.25" locknut is way, way too big. My Google-fu is clearly insufficient to be able to complete this task on the Internet -- I was only able to find instructions on how to attach a harp to an Uno socket.
How is it possible that so many Uno lamps are sold, and the little piece on which the shade sits screws onto the socket (i.e. is detachable), but that piece is apparently sold nowhere at all? Where do the lamp makers get these things?
Does anyone here know how I can attach this shade to the socket?
Wrong. I have been all over town. At the Lowe's, though they sell many, many such lamps they only sell harps in the parts section. The employee I asked for help looked at me with confusion (no surprise) when I asked for help. At the local hardware store staffed by awesome, knowledgeable people, I was sent home with two 1" conduit locknuts. The nuts fit on to the top of the socket perfectly, but won't pass the threads. Clearly the 1.25" locknut is way, way too big. My Google-fu is clearly insufficient to be able to complete this task on the Internet -- I was only able to find instructions on how to attach a harp to an Uno socket.
How is it possible that so many Uno lamps are sold, and the little piece on which the shade sits screws onto the socket (i.e. is detachable), but that piece is apparently sold nowhere at all? Where do the lamp makers get these things?
Does anyone here know how I can attach this shade to the socket?
Your problem is you're using the wrong terminology. On the shade end of things, the support structure that fits onto a lamp with a harp is called a washer spider, and the part you need is an uno-to-washer adapter, which will look like this and is available many places online and probably at a lamp and lighting store if you happen to have one local to you.
posted by drlith at 3:26 AM on June 24, 2013
posted by drlith at 3:26 AM on June 24, 2013
I just had a similar problem and I used this to fix it. It doesn't fit perfectly, but I was able to tighten it enough that it works.
posted by ephemerista at 7:41 AM on June 24, 2013
posted by ephemerista at 7:41 AM on June 24, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks for all the responses and the lesson on terminology! I think I'll start with one of the latter two, with nylon locknuts as a backup. Fingers crossed!
posted by CoureurDubois at 10:41 AM on June 24, 2013
posted by CoureurDubois at 10:41 AM on June 24, 2013
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I think the conduit locknuts are a good guess, but the threading may not be at the right angle. If you can't find a nut that truly fits, ask for a nylon locknut -- you can torque that onto the bolt and the metal threads will cut into the nylon insert sufficiently that it will stay. (It will also, of course, be more difficult to remove, but if you have a wrench to begin with you can do it.)
posted by dhartung at 6:10 PM on June 23, 2013