Todays Project - What did you do today?

[JScott]

The low beam headlight socket on my Ford Fusion melted last week.  I couldn't find a replacement H11 socket at the auto parts stores so I ordered one from eBay.  When it arrived I tried it with my bulb and found a small discrepancy.  The socket was missing a slot to accept the internal tab in the bulb.  For the price of a return I decided to just modify the one I had.  I used a 3/32" endmill to open a slot for the 0.625" tab.  The pictures tell the tale.

This is what I thought I had ordered.
   

The part on the left is what I received.  You can see the tab in the bulb base on the right and no corresponding slot in the socket on the left.
   

Here is the 1/2" collet I used to hold the ?0.1875 endmill.  This is a case of using an R8 collet to hold a smaller bar which in turn holds smaller collets.  This one is made by Kennametal.
   

I used a parallel to hold the socket in the vise.  It was not terribly sturdy but I was just milling nylon and it held.  As my mentor tells me, "If it works it isn't wrong."
   

Here we see the finished slot.  It is well centered which is lucky because I just set the position by eye.
   

And lastly we have the assembly with socket and bulb.  It fit pretty well.