I came up empty-handed when I searched the internet for information on rewiring Ikea’s Jonsbo Oröd table lamp.  So, internet, this is my gift to you: complete instructions.  I found this lamp sitting on the ground next to my beloved Dumpster (context) with a broken dimmer switch and a slightly battered shade.  $7.00 worth of lamp kit (next photo) restored $50.00 worth of lamp.  Totally worth it if you ask me!

Plus, I acquired a new skill in the restoration process.  Rewiring a lamp is not hard.  I should know: I had to do this one three times, but I’ll get to that.  Here’s the pretty glass base with the old lamp kit removed.  I had to cut the cord to get it out.  I hope it goes without saying but…unplug the lamp while you do all these steps.

Here’s the General Electric lamp kit I bought at WalMart.  This would work great for a thrift store or garage sale lamp too.  Any lamp that’s not in working order can be like new for under ten bucks, with a smidge of sweat equity invested.

Here’s the thing about the Jonsbo Oröd, though.  It has a piece that most lamps don’t have.  I don’t know what the name of it is, but it was covering the lamp nipple.  (I know.)  So how about we call it the lamp bra?  That thing was in my way.  It was screwed on REALLY tightly, and because of how cozy it was with the harp bottom (those vertical metal pieces) I was afraid to twist too hard because I really didn’t care to lose any skin during this project.  After lots of patient searches for other lamp disassembly tutorials, I decided lamp bras are not common.  I would have to deal with this using my wits alone.

“Wits,” in case you didn’t guess, is code for “brute force.”  I tore that bra to shreds with my pliers.  I would have just gripped the edges to twist the whole piece loose, but the plastic was too soft to withstand twisting.  Removal became the only option.  When I had cleared enough room for the pliers to grasp the center portion, then I had room to twist the thing loose without jeopardizing my skin.  I had to tap into a deep reserve of patience to complete this step.  I actually wondered if this one obstacle would render the whole project impossible.

But at last the part I needed was exposed.  Some sort of red waxy stuff filled the top grooves, which explains why the plastic piece had been so hard to remove!

It also explains why the new socket cap sits crooked.  The threads weren’t completely…threadable.  I did my best.

Next I fed the cord through the silver cord-cover original to the lamp.  (It did not come in the $7.00 lamp kit.)  I poked the cord through the socket cap…

…then measured about three inches so I knew how far to separate the halves of the cord.  I had to use the tips of a pair of scissors to start my rip, being careful to keep the scissor blades in the shallow groove between the plastic coatings.  You don’t want any wire exposed, except at the very ends where it’s already exposed when you buy the cord.

Then I tied the “underwriter’s knot.”  It sounds official and in the diagram it looked intimidating, but after muttering a string of prepositions to myself I managed to complete the knot without any major difficulty.  I didn’t notice until I looked at this photo, but my instructions had something “importent” to tell me about safety.  (“Don’t force a polarized plug into an outlet it doesn’t fit,” is basically what that section says.)

Moving on!  It was time to wrap those bits of exposed wire to the screws on the socket interior.  Here’s where I admit that I’m literal to a fault.  I had no trouble wrapping the first wire clockwise around the protruding screw on the side of the socket interior.  I tightened the screw then looked for another screw on the opposite side.

Nope.  No screw.  Again I started to panic just a little bit.  My lamp kit was defective!  They had sold me a dud pack that was missing a screw!  So much for my quick weekend project!

But wait.  What was this “extra” screw on the back of the socket interior for?  No screw where there should be one, and a screw where there should not be one…at least according to the instructions that I was clinging to like a lifeline.  In my own defense, I didn’t want to slap together something that was going to catch the apartment on fire.  Knowing my limitations (by which I mean my utter lack of electrical training) I wanted to follow the instructions exactly.  But I happened to have another lamp all pulled apart–it’s been sitting behind my desk for, um, months?  I keep meaning to get back to it but there’s a metal part on that one that I can’t get off.  Aaanyway.  That lamp also had one side- and one back-screw.  So I copied.  Wrap one wire clockwise around each.  Tighten the screws.  *Note: your instructions probably specify which wire should wrap around which screw.  In my kit the ribbed wire wrapped around the silver screw and the smooth wire wrapped around the brass screw.  Just a detail to pay attention to.

Gently tug the cord from the bottom to take up any slack and get that big knot nestled down a bit.  Then snap on the socket shell.  You really have to push to get this baby to pop into place.

I wanted to check my work before I put the whole lamp back together.  Here’s how it looked with all the pieces assembled…and…

…there was light!

What I sort of completely forgot was that I couldn’t just drop the whole assembly back into the glass base.  So I had to unscrew the lightbulb, pop off the socket shell, unwrap the wires from the socket interior, untie the underwriter’s knot, remove the socket cap, and pull out the cord to start over.

Then I had to feed the cord through the hole in the side of the glass base, thread the cord (now split!) back through the cord cover and out the top of the glass base, and slide on the silver cap that makes the base look finished.  This was also unique to the Jonsbo, not part of the lamp kit.

Then on went the socket cap, in went the underwriter’s knot, on went the wire wraps and down went the screws.  Over went the socket shell and…

…BAM!  Light’s on again.  But want to guess what I forgot?  Oh me, oh my.  Remember how I exhausted my patience reserve at the beginning of this project with the lamp “bra?”  You know what that means, right?  When I noticed the silver cord cover listing weirdly sideways inside the glass base, I got testy.  I had to take everything apart yet again to install a washer I forgot about.  Lovey’s the one who first removed it because he had the strength to twist it loose.  It goes inside the glass base above the silver cord cover.  It’s the piece that ensures the cord cover and lamp shade don’t list lopsided like so:

So I guess I shouldn’t say this project was quick and painless, but it was simple.  (The problem was that I was too, a little bit.  Buh-der.)  The struggle and frustration were amply rewarded, though.  Now that I’ve managed an electrical project I feel more like a real DIYer and not like “just” a crafter.  The wall above the new/old lamp is to be the subject of an upcoming post.  Bumblebees, dragonflies, beetles–oh, my!