Wiring A Socket to an HPS ballast with a socket....socket!?? Help me out here!

So i just got this 465w PL systems ballast for twenty bucks off craigslist...

Didnt come with a lamp or a socket tho so i gotta get those...

The ballast has a lamp cord socket on the back...for two round prongs and one flat one...

My question is do I have to buy a socket with a lamp cord on it?? They are more expensive..

Or could I just buy a porcelain socket like when wiring a kit and insert the wires in to the sockets on the ballast? Or would that not work without a ground?

Please help me out here
Thanks gang

sticking the wires in to the ballast is a shaky technique at best.

do they sell lamp cord plugs that are like extension cord repair ends? that would be the best. or take the ballast apart and change the female lamp cord plug to a regular 120V receptacle end, and use a male cord repair end.

as for the socket. they do make just the socket. mogul base. just hook the wires to it and tighten the screws.

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Thanks pal...but I already read that thread when i wired my own ballast....as I said this ballast came assembled legitimately housed and all that....

So I guess I'll just buy the damn cable then...

I wire all kinds of ballasts, but you cant take the ballast you have and do a DIY wire on it. The ballast you have is meant to have a socket with the same plug. You could take the ballast out of the metal casing, and then take the wires and splice them with an extension cord and then you could just get a socket and splice it to it too. Thats really the only way to do that.

It has 2 round ones and a flat one? That should be a sun systems plug, just go to the local horticulture shop and find one. If you know how to solder, nothing about these ballasts is difficult.

Never run it without a ground! EVER! That is definitely not OSHA approved.

I'm not 100% sure on this but having a 465w ballast and a 400w lamp will burn out the lamp faster from putting to much power into it, also you can't use just any socket there are different kinds you need the one that goes to the lamp.

guy at the hydro store wired in a new socket. he's handy as fuck i guess....cost me 15 bucks for the part and labor not badd

75 dollar 400w Dual spectrum setup, yeah boyyyyeeeee!!