Removing a broken light bulb

It happens to everyone at some point, so today we're showing you how to remove a broken light bulb in just five minutes.

There’s nothing worse than having a bulb blow on you, but it’s even worse when the blasted thing breaks as you try to remove it. Instead of scratching your head and wondering how many of your mates you’ll need to change the bulb just take our advice and it’ll be out in five minutes.

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What you’ll need:

Large bowl
Pliers
5 Minute epoxy
Flathead screwdriver

Step 1: Clean up

The first thing to do when trying to remove a broken bulb from a socket is to make sure you’ve gathered up all the shards of broken glass that have fallen to the ground. The last thing you want to do is to stand on some.

Step 2: Grab the stump

With your pliers, try to get some purchase on the bit of bulb that remains – we’ll call it the stump. Twist the stump counter clockwise and hold your bowl nice and close to the bulb – this will catch any falling glass. Hopefully the stump will come loose. Don’t worry if it doesn’t.

It may be hard to get at the stump

Step 3: Use the epoxy

If you can’t budge the stump with your pliers alone then you’ll have to use the epoxy. Squirt some epoxy into the centre of the stump (the rusted bit in the image above) but be very careful that it doesn’t spill over the side. This will basically glue the stump into the socket and you’ll have twice the work to do. While the epoxy is still soft stick your flathead into the middle of your epoxy to make a flathead screwdriver sized hole. Allow the epoxy to harden fully and use your new hole and screwdriver to remove the broken stump.

It’s as easy as that.