Chandilier repair

[nealtw]

My friend has one just like the one in the photo accept it has 4 tiers and 24 lights, hanging from an 18 ft ceiling.
A little hard to dust this thing is an understatement as the bottom of it is about 10 ft off the floor.
Something inside let go and the bottom tier was hanging by the wires.
With the attitude I can fix just about anything, we ordered up a 16 ft step ladder.That was a mistake as the foot print of this monster just barely fit in the entrance way of this big house and when I got up there it was quit a reach to work on the fixture so if there is a next time it will be scaffolding.
When I took it down I had to hold the weight of the light in one hand while I removed the screws. I learned a trick when putting it back up. The metal box in the ceiling has extra screw holes in the sides. I made a long hook out of a metal coat hanger, one end in the hole in the box and the other end into the chain to take the weight while you work on wires and screws.

In man handling this thing down to the floor two more section were loose or broken so now we are into this thing.

While this was going on I learned that this was not the first time this had happened. It had been fixed by an electrician friend who spent a whole day looking for a part and found one in a used building material store.

When we got into this thing we found that they had joined the pipes with what looked a little like a plumbing union with a hole in one side for the wires to go thru and sure enough 3 were broken. These thing were cast out of pot metal and they weren't just broken they were full of cracks so there was no point in finding more of the same. The pipes 1/8 ips and we discovered that 1/8 npt fits so we found some 1/8 npt tees to make the joint, really tricky to get the wires run thru them but they worked and we had to juggle pipes and bobbles as the length was not quit the same. We decided we best change the top one to as it would be the next to break.
What we found there was what should have been used for all of them. It is called a hickey they are made out of steel and the wire is no problem to work with.

 

[bud16415]

Around here that’s a doohickey. A hickey is a pipe bender or a mark on your neck from running into a doorknob.

What works nice for stuff like that is a drywall lift with the top removed and a flat board bolted on.

Good job though and good to see you are keeping busy.

 

[nealtw]

That was 9 hrs on Tues.

 

[oldognewtrick]

If there's attic space above, get a boat trailer winch and rig up a pulley system to raise and lower it. I've seen several like this in some houses we've worked on.

 

[nealtw]

If there's attic space above, get a boat trailer winch and rig up a pulley system to raise and lower it. I've seen several like this in some houses we've worked on.

We talked about it. We did come up with a plan if it ever comes down again.
It will be extended down about 2 feet with a plug in the cord just above the unit
so you could unplug it, unhook it and take it down with a much smaller ladder.

 

[bud16415]

I had one in my dining room at the old house and used an S hook to change the length. I would raise it up and down depending how the tables were arranged. You could do the same thing to lower it for service or cleaning.

 

[nealtw]

The S hook would be at 13 ft.

 

[slownsteady]

Hopefully it is sturdy now, but the next time you're up there add a safety cable just an inch shorter than the wires.
A bunch of years ago, I was at a friends apartment, sitting at the dining room table when there was an incredible crash form the apartment above. Their chandelier fell in the room directly above us. It hit their table and shattered. the sound of the crystals bouncing around above us was amazing. luckily, they weren't in the room. If they had been at the table, there would have been serious injuries.

 

[nealtw]

This this was hanging by the cord and wire nuts a safety cable hooked to the top would not have helped.

 

[slownsteady]

That's my point. It's just luck that the power cord held it...and didn't short anything in the process. a piece of aircraft cable woven down the chain (or whatever it was hanging on), would not look weird and could be the difference.

 

[nealtw]

It would have to be tied around the bottom, Not so nice in a $M house but yes it would be a killer.

 

[slownsteady]

I'm assuming it would fit down the center at least as far as the bottom tier. But if not, perhaps there is a plan B

 

[nealtw]

The house will soon be on the market, I don't plan on worrying about it. The whole thing just hangs on that little flat steel with 2 screws up into the box.

 

[speedy petey]

"Around here that’s a doohickey. A hickey is a pipe bender or a mark on your neck from running into a doorknob."

Everywhere else it is just a hickey.

I've been doing fixture repair for like 33 years, since my teens. The main thing is to make sure chandeliers are made up tight. It is inevitable that some bozo will spin, and spin, and spin a chandelier while cleaning with NO regard that spinning it in the same direction continuously could possibly loosen it.

 

[bud16415]

Actually in my 50 years of messing around with light fixtures I would say the real Bozo’s are the artistic fellows that design these things with no regard to anything except the outward look they are going for. Many ceiling fans are not far behind. The lamp fixture builders have a limited list of these Doohickey’s to pick from mostly threading together a lot of stuff with those little 3/8 threaded tubes and thin sheet metal nuts.

I think SnS idea is great string a safety cable to any of these things when you build one. Most likely the biggest danger is a Jbox not adequately attached.

Most of the time you cant tighten this stuff down because it’s clamping against a part like a cup made out of thin tin and plated. What they should have is lock nuts and washers on connection points.

 

[nealtw]

Actually in my 50 years of messing around with light fixtures I would say the real Bozo’s are the artistic fellows that design these things with no regard to anything except the outward look they are going for. Many ceiling fans are not far behind. The lamp fixture builders have a limited list of these Doohickey’s to pick from mostly threading together a lot of stuff with those little 3/8 threaded tubes and thin sheet metal nuts.

I think SnS idea is great string a safety cable to any of these things when you build one. Most likely the biggest danger is a Jbox not adequately attached.

Most of the time you cant tighten this stuff down because it’s clamping against a part like a cup made out of thin tin and plated. What they should have is lock nuts and washers on connection points.

The part I liked the best was threading the parts together, guess what is happening to the wire.