I just saw listed
thru one of the
stagehand tools.com or tools for techies type websites something I believe called a
HPL lamp seating device. There is a few websites like these out there that sell for the most part gadgets for techies but I don't remember which one I saw it on. I was searching for a
Socapex cable tester at the time.
OK, I invented such a lamp seater in concept but did not refine it or pattent it. In my case it was a short length of 1" schedule 40 pipe and a rubber mallet. What I saw on the website was a wee slight much better in refinement. I know there is a post somewhere about me using such a technique on new S-4 Pars a few years back.
They can at times be tight when new - this as opposed to the ones that at times that are loose. It's a cast aluminum as a part. Give me 600 new ones and 10% will be too tight and 5% will be too loose. Give me old ones and 10% will be too lose to the extent the lamp simply falls out this by way of both lamp
base sockets stretching out or the aluminum support for it going out of whack, and them that were too tight becoming normal for the most part.
I kind of recommend this
HPL lamp seating tool as a sort of
widget of the year type of thing. Not cheap but as opposed to the bag over the lamp, this will allow you to fully seat the lamp without breaking the
bulb or pulling out a section of pipe and hammer. (yea I broke a few lamps in doing so.) Anyone wish to do a search and provide a link for this red tool I'm thinking of?
Anyway, on the lamp bases, most all pins have a nickel plating on them which is corrosion and or finger ****ing resistant. No, don't be eating that Hershie bar with the same hands as you are playing with the pins, but it's not otherwise noted that the pins on any lamp have problems with contact with one's dirt on the hands. Probably not a bad idea not to overtly touch the pins but for the most part it should not cause problems.
What's presented above is probably very accurate in resistance but the amount of resistance it adds to a pin would be fairly minute as compared to a just plain bad lamp
base or bad lamp stuck into a good
base.
Your problems with lamps and bases are probably un-related to this touching of the pins - more just the lamp
base socket going bad in stretching out. they get old and go bad with time.
Too bad
ETC doesn't just sell the no doubt $1.00 each
crimp terminal lamp
base socket you can re-crimp onto your already installed heat
wire. Probably a liability type of thing in providing a proper
crimp to the
wire. The price of a replacement
whip/
socket is a wee
bit expensive given what it is. But this is
ETC.