The Historic District

Hi All and Happy New Year,

I have had a few days off work this holiday season and thought I'd get a ton of stuff accomplished around the house. Alas, I have spent most of my time scratching my head about "how to" questions, rather than getting my hands dirty.

Here's one of 2 things that came up. I have an old gas light fixture that has never been electrified. I want to electrify it but I am a bit confused about one little part: how do I attach new electric light sockets to the old gas jet nozzle thingies (for lack of knowing, or being able to find out what they are called. Really, there seems to be no significant information out there about this.)

The light fixture came to me without gas mantles or shades or holders: really, where the light would be produced theres nothing but a 1.25 inch long "tube" that sticks straight up. I think they should screw off, but haven't forced too much. I'm not sure if they are stuck or really not supposed to unscrew. I also am hesitant to put too much pressure on them and squish the tubes flat.

Does anyone have experience on this part ? I am stuck about what to do and can't find a darned thing online or elsewhere that is helpful. Once I know what to do here, I am pretty good to get this thing done since I have rewired other light fixtures in the past. Thanks for any assist you can give me.

Stonehouse, have a look at this.
http://www.theoldabove.com/product/1900 ... ss-shades/
It should give you an idea on how it’s done. This fellow joined up a long while ago but I haven’t seen a post from him in just as long.
The gas nozzle should just screw off. Have never converted gas but I bet the gas thread (probably NPT) will screw onto a standard light socket. If not you may need to get creative. One other thing, peg the gas valve open, Don’t want any one turning the valve and slicing the wire.

Gothichome wrote:One other thing, peg the gas valve open, Don’t want any one turning the valve and slicing the wire.

high strength loctite works wonders for this too, simply disassemble the valve, clean off any grease then reassemble with red loctite, and voila, no-turnie!

You might find you need to enlarge the hole through the valve if you want to run wires through it - ones I have seen are a much smaller bore than the arms themselves

Thanks both. I disassembled a friends gas turned electric light (thanks !!) and saw that there are threads on his - hopeful for mine. now i need a warmish day to slather on the ol' PB Blaster (dang that stuff stinks) and carefully try to remove what I can. if not - loctite and I will become good friends.

Not relevant to chandeliers I think, but I will mention it here as it's pertinent to gas conversions. On the wall sconces in my bathroom I sourced some of the switching units for "touch lights" on ebay and wired the sconce to come on with touch rather than via a switch. I can now control my electrified gas lights by touching the old gas valve key - it's kind of fun

I've always said, if my house was a little older, that I'd like to have one working gas light.

As the others have said, the valves should be threaded into the tubing. You should be able to find appropriate fittings to thread into the tubing to have the bulbs in whatever orientation you want them to be. Places like GrandBrass should have what you need.

The only thing I'll add is to keep whatever you take off along with a photo of how the fixture looked originally in case someone in the future wants to convert it back.

Mick_VT wrote:Not relevant to chandeliers I think, but I will mention it here as it's pertinent to gas conversions. On the wall sconces in my bathroom I sourced some of the switching units for "touch lights" on ebay and wired the sconce to come on with touch rather than via a switch. I can now control my electrified gas lights by touching the old gas valve key - it's kind of fun

I have one on my bedside lamp, it simply screws into the socket and accepts the bulb and has low medium and high. I was too lazy to change the stuck socket so that fixed it;-)

we had one of those clap lamps in our cabin, ( clap on clap off) you can see the light of the cabin from the house.. My dad always referred to it as the honeymoon suite because it is right beside the lake and so peaceful so if a couple visited they would get the cabin and have some privacy.... then just after bedtime everyone at the house would have a laugh as the lamp started turning on off on off in rapid succession... lol

phil wrote:I have one on my bedside lamp, it simply screws into the socket and accepts the bulb and has low medium and high. I was too lazy to change the stuck socket so that fixed it;-)

I didnt use a screw in convertor, I used the unit that is built in - a little black box - easier to hide

hook it up to your tablesaw and you can have your own sawstop
i know thats a really bad idea and you already have one,,, but it's the same technology

phil wrote:hook it up to your tablesaw and you can have your own sawstop
i know thats a really bad idea and you already have one,,, but it's the same technology

well kinda - minus the ultra high speed brake