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Want to add a touch switch to a lamp. Halp! [10 pts]?
First off, 10 Points if you have obviously read the whole post, and it reflects in your answer.
Alright, so I am at slightly above amateur when it comes to wiring. I know how to strip wires, splice cords onto appliances, soldier and I have some basic know-how with ohms law and circuits. I have been on the lookout for touch switches these days. I have an old iron lamp with an iron oxide finish on the pedistal. It's an awesome lamp with this cool parchment shade and everything. The only thing it lacks is an actual switch.
I decided on a touch switch, but I have no idea how to install one. Do I need to run the wires to polar opposite ends of the lamp frame? Do I hook one up to the positive lead and one to the frame? Do I hook both the control leads up to one spot and hook the pos and neg up like I would on any other switch? Do I need to add a bolt or other "touch spot" to the lamp?
Your help is much appreciated.
2 Answers
- andygrochLv 69 years agoFavorite Answer
If you already bought a controller, will it fit in your base? If it will, here is what you have to do. The yellow lead from the controller is the ground. You will have to take the retainer nut off the rod under the base. Slip the ground over the rod and put the nut on and tighten. The black from the controller gets attached to the hot side of the cord(the smooth or the one with printing on it ). The white wire from the controller is connected to all the neutrals from cord and up to bulb socket( the neutral cords will have ribs on them ). The red from the controller gets hooked to the hot to bulb socket ( smooth cord). If all of these steps are correct your lamp will now work off your touch, wheter the switch is an on/off or three way touch. There are also controllers that simply plug into the wall socket and your lamp plugs into that. Good luck.
- ?Lv 59 years ago
It's a switch... Install it in series with the light on the hot wire where voltage will always be present while plugged in. If the existing plug doesn't have a ground installed then don't worry about hooking the ground up on the switch. It sounds like an older lamp that doesn't have an existing ground on the plug.
If you would like to retrofit the lamp wiring so that it does have a ground then obtain the correct plug and adjacent wiring and attatch the ground of your switch and the ground of the new wiring (green wire) to the frame of the lamp. Nuetral stays wired to nuetral and once again your switch goes in series with the light on the hot wire (black)
Like you said your slightly above average in this so just make sure you insulate your connections good enough to avoid grounding out the hot wire on the frame. You should be fine...
