I have a chandelier hanging over my entranceway, it contains eight lightbulbs facing down. Noticed yesterday that two of the bulbs were burned out.
The thing is 12 feet in the air, so I got out my big stepladder.
As I was unscrewing the first bulb, the socket came loose. Examining it, there's a screw inside the socket that connects it to a bracket on the chandelier. That screw had fallen out on the floor with a clatter.
How does one insert a screw, inside a lightbulb socket, upside down, 12' in the air, while holding the socket up (against gravity), in the dark?
I pulled out all of my locking screwdrivers (with clips to hold screws) and none of them would touch it. Tried several times to finesse it with my big sausage fingers but never got close.
Finally I had a brainstorm.
I put a dab of wood glue on the screw head -- the stuff is just viscous enough to hold the screw to my long-shank screwdriver, but it'll dry clear if any remains there. With a flashlight in my mouth, I climbed the ladder, steadied the chandelier with my left hand, and slowly worked the screw up into the socket with my right hand. Found the hole, tightened, replaced the bulb, bingo.
How many dabs of glue does it take to replace a lightbulb? One.
Home 