Make sure the light is off but the easiest thing to do is to take a potato and jam it in there and then twist to remove the broken socket. http://www.ehow.com/how_2130645_light-bulb-socket-raw-potato.html http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infelectrical/infbrokenbulb.html
If it makes you feel better "THE" you can pm ABM and ask about me. I went to a few Blazer Bashes back in the day.
Just make sure the power is off. A friend of mine broke a bulb in the socket and decided to remove it with his Leathermans tool. He forgot to turn the switch off. Said it was "dark" so he thought the switch was off. {rocket scientist for sure} He was actually serious when he told me to NEVER use a leathermans to work on anything live. Duh OK boss.
Already repped you too . . . I like the potato idea better than needle nose pliers. Hope I don't scewr up the socket . . . if I do I'll call bintim and you can explain why I have french fires in my electrical outlests.
Problem wih my lights is they turn on with a timer. I'll make sure the lights are out, but it's this wierd timer that came with teh house . . . so I could just see the thing turn on while working on it. Do you like the potato idea?
That's OK. I could lose my job for making moves on a customer.............oh wait, I don't have a job!
Damn it . . .. this is what makes me procrastinate on these projects. I could try to figure out the breaker (my box isn't labeled . . . but I'll never get around to it) I'm going to forget the breaker and jsut go with the potato right when i get home from work (before lights usually turn on . . . what's funny is the lights have mind of their own and I never really know when they will turn off and on)
Some weekend you should really flip one breaker at a time and go through the house and see what each one controls. Make a new list for the breaker box.
You are scaring me now. You said before the lights come on............are they on a photoeye? Once again, MAKE SURE THE POWER IS OFF! This is why I don't like to give advice over the phone or internet. A lot of stuff can be done by the individual IF he has a knowledge of all the devices involved and is able to remove the energy from the devices. If not.................zzzzzzt.
Personal experience? I told HCP that on the phone. More than one building has burned because of that.
I always always always turn off the breaker before working on lights. You never know when somebody might accidentally wander in and hit a switch without thinking about it. If you don't know which breaker does it, then just flip them all off. My brother bit into an extension cord when he was 6 and I was 4. Fucking terrifying shit. He had 13 plastic surgery operations. The only thing worse than standing next to your brother when his face is fucking charred is sitting in the waiting room for years afterward watching all the horribly disfigured people waiting to get their shit done too. Man, there was one 7 year old burn victim kid I saw when I was about that age that I still remember. Gave me nightmares. Anyway, I learned at a very early age not to fuck around with electricity. Anything short of a basic lightbulb change and I'll turn off the breaker.
Good thread. The theme: Do NOT **** around with electricity if you don't know what you're doing. As for Sly's suggestion about the breaker box, EVERYONE should do the same. I actually did it before I bought my place. I found out that 80% of the wiring was on one 15 amp breaker while three 20 amp switches didn't seem to connect to anything. I used it as part of the negotiation and the seller paid to have the wiring balanced. And because an electrician had to be called in, the bedrooms were upgraded to arc fault breakers.
3 20 amp breakers are required by code for the kitchen area as well as one for the laundry room. That is so you have plenty of power to run kitchen appliances, etc. One breaker may wire only one receptacle on your counter. The arc fault breakers are required in bedrooms by the newest code.
