# How to fix this lamp?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-this-lamp/547190
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 19, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-this-lamp/547190 "2010-07-19T03:56:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@filmyak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmyak)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-this-lamp/547190/1 "2010-07-19T03:56:01Z")
OK, so we had this great funky lamp hanging in our kitchen, and then it died. Cost too much to find a lamp anywhere near as cool, so I found a guy I could mail it to and he’d fix it. To save $$ in shipping heavy glass, we took the glass part off and kept it here.
Lamp was repaired, returned, we reinstalled it… but now we don’t have a clue as to how to attach the glass back to the hanging bulb holder! We’re assuming there’s a missing part, and I believe it was an Ikea lamp (though I don’t think they sell it any more, we can’t find it), so we’re clueless as to where to even start looking.
Hence, Straight Dope time.
I’ve got photos posted here:
[http://s970.photobucket.com/albums/ae183/filmyak/busted%20lamp/](http://s970.photobucket.com/albums/ae183/filmyak/busted%20lamp/)
2nd photo shows what it used to look like when we first bought the house. Other pics have detailed images of the pieces. This is a needle in the haystack attempt, but who knows what magic fellow dopers possess?
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-this-lamp/547190/2 "2010-07-19T04:17:24Z")
It’s obviously missing a retainer clip of some kind. If there is a whole in the bottom of the globe then it’s basically a reverse table lamp assembly and you would have a decorative nut holding it up. If there is only the large hole in the top of the globe then there is a retainer system that grabs it from the inside.
I would first contact the person who repaired it and ask if he still has the part. Then I would go to a lighting store and show them what you’ve got.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-this-lamp/547190/3 "2010-07-19T04:23:28Z")
There are globe lights that have a channel cast into the opening. They install by aligning with the base and turning (usually clockwise to install). Did you twist the globe to remove it originally?
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### Author:  [@filmyak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmyak)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2010, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-this-lamp/547190/4 "2010-07-19T08:26:43Z")
Can’t remember how we took it apart. We can’t find more parts, and the repair shop says they didn’t get anything else (I believe them). I think we lost the part here at home, and would buy a replacement one if I could. I guess a lighting store is the next step.
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### Author:  [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2010, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-this-lamp/547190/5 "2010-07-21T02:47:36Z")
The white glass? part, maybe a diffuser, that surrounds the bulb looks like it has a reverse thread on the outside. Could there have been a metal piece that screwed onto it that the globe attached to either before or after it was screwed on? Seems like an awful lot of threads but it’s possible, I suppose. That’s the only thing I can think of.
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### Author:  [@filmyak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmyak)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2010, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-this-lamp/547190/6 "2010-07-21T06:42:08Z")
Yeah I dunno, we’re in the middle of renovations at the house and there’s crap everywhere. I’m gonna look again for another part, but I can’t find anything. No hint on the lamp as to where something attaches to, either.
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### Author:  [@icbm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icbm)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-this-lamp/547190/7 "2010-07-21T17:13:23Z")
Amplifying what Thin Ice said, I’m guessing you need to search your house for something that looks like it is made from a bent-up coat hanger. It might have a pair or trio of loops of wire that can be slightly compressed so they reach into the spiky glass sphere, but won’t come back out. The loops would join up to a circle in the centre that would thread onto the white collar around the bulb socket. The object might also be made of plastic if the inside of the lamp was not designed to get very hot.
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### Author:  [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-this-lamp/547190/8 "2010-07-21T17:24:03Z")
Yeah, from the rolled rim at the top of the blue part, it would seem that something would go underneath this lip or that the lip would rest on something to hold it in place.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-fix-this-lamp/547190/9 "2010-07-21T17:27:38Z")
That is a sweet lamp.