JAY EMRIE wrote in a message to ROY J. TELLASON:

RJT>RJT> JE> Tore (literally - the screws that held it together were
RJT>RJT> imbedded 1
RJT>RJT> JE> 1/4" deep and had a head that matched nothing I
had) the old one
RJT>RJT> JE> apart. 

RJT>So what kind of screws were they?

JE> Not really sure. They were rather small (head maybe 3/16" in
JE> diameter) and the head had three holes equally spaced. They were
JE> way to deep in the 1/4" hole to even think about getting a pair of
JE> needle nose pliers on them.

Yow.  I ran across something like that which had two small holes in the
screw head.  These were flush with the surface so that I could get the tips
of needle nose pliers in there,  but I had to get a special tool ($9) from
the mfr (TEAC) to do the job right,  then found out that I couldn't do the
job much anyhow,  as spot welds had broken and a whole thing had to be
replaced.

Three holes equally spaced is worse,  though.

I've got bits for allen,  square,  clutch-head,  torx,  and have since run
into tamper-proof torx,  and triangular (!) screws.  I'm guessing that
there's some engineer at the screw factory that has way too much time on
his hands...

RJT>

RJT>RJT>The transformer primary winding shouldn't draw all that much 
RJT>RJT>current when there's no load on the secondary side.  If it 
RJT>RJT>hums,  it's because there's probably a lamination loose in 
RJT>RJT>there.  Some sort of "stuff" applied to it should
quiet it down.

RJT>JE> It doesn't take much current to make transformer laminations to
RJT>JE> hum. No way of doing anything to quieten it.

RJT>No?  I haven't tried this,  but I would think that the application 
RJT>of silicone rubber or some other kind of "stuff" should do the 
RJT>trick.

JE> What good would silicone or anything else do if yu have to tear the
JE> lamp apart just to see how it was made?

If you had to trash it,  not much,  but maybe it could hold the bits
together instead of screws when you were done?  :-)

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