That vintage lamp I bought at a sale last Saturday was a total fire hazard

Picked up a cool old brass lamp at an estate sale in Tacoma for $15. Got it home and when I plugged it in, the cord started smoking after like 2 minutes. Turns out the wiring was all cracked and frayed inside, totally unsafe. I ended up buying a new cord kit for $8 at the hardware store and rewired it myself, took about an hour. Has anyone else found dangerous electrical stuff at sales and fixed it up?

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noahs824mo ago

Oh man, that brings back a story. My buddy Dave grabbed an old floor lamp at a flea market in Puyallup for like ten bucks. It looked real cool with this green glass shade. He got it home and plugged it in for maybe five minutes before the whole thing started buzzing real loud and the plug melted halfway into the outlet. He had to call an electrician because the outlet itself was fried. He ended up stripping the whole lamp down and rewiring it from scratch too, took him all afternoon and he burned his finger with the soldering iron. Now it works fine but he jokes it's the "death lamp" whenever anyone visits.

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finley9394mo ago

Bet Dave learned his lesson about old wiring real quick.

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