Fixing our wobbly floor lamps

If there is glass in the house, most likely I will break it. To John's dismay I've broken several drinking glasses. But on Friday I was rushing around trying to get out the door and make it to a yoga class when I realized I left my phone charging on the living room end table. Stupidly I walked over there with my gym bag and yoga mat in tow. I felt the lamp sway a little but I figured I could still grab my phone and steady the lamp at the same time. Wrong. The lamp come crashing to the floor and the glass lamp shade exploded in a million tiny pieces.

We considered just getting new lamps, especially since after we moved in 2005 with "professional"* movers (Moishe's) somehow our floor lamps were never quite the same. They wobbled and were very tipsy. But since they are on the floor and are very rarely moved it didn't seem like a big deal. We took the better part of Saturday to shop all around the Lighting District, but didn't quite find what we were looking for and plus the prices were a bit high.

Since I had to at least get a new lamp shade, I called around and asked if anyone could repair the lamp base. One place recommended that I email a picture or two and they would let me know if they could repair it. Well, once I actually took a look at it, I realized it would be a (fingers crossed) fairly easy fix. The base is some kind of cement or ceramic material that was encased with black plastic. The problem was that the top part of the base broke off, the lamp was not attached to the base at all since the bolt only attached it to the top portion. I thought a heavy duty glue would do the trick.

I have a bottle of gorilla -correction used Elmer's Ultimate- glue that I couldn't use any more because somehow the bottle glued itself shut. I kept it around since it was an almost full bottle, and I figured if I was really desperate I could some how cut the top off and use the glue then throw the rest away. I tried jabbing a hole with a small pair of scissors, until I realized that my electric drill would do the trick. I don't get a lot of opportunity to use the drill, so I relish the times that I do. I held the glue bottle in one hand and just drilled a few holes with the other. I rinsed and wiped off the drill bit immediately after since I didn't want to ruin my drill bit with glue. And eureka I'm back in business.

The following our pics of my handiwork. I recommend taking pictures whenever attempting to fix things, not only to make long drawn out, rambling blog posts; but to also serve as guide when it comes time to put the thing (what ever you are fixing) back together again.

*The movers at Moishe's also managed to break a $200 dollar light fixture in our old building. And they crushed my very expensive hat we got in Paris for a hat wedding.