Hi all,

I just wanted some advice on a little project I'm doing, a custom 13-watt PL-S fluorescent fixture. Currently I have a Robertson CC1320P ballast connected to a Leviton GX23 lamp socket, in a way I have drawn in the image below. I wanted to ask, does it look correct, and also, how do I go about connecting a stranded type wire into the other hole on the socket? Should I use a 'pigtail" 18 gauge fixture wire, or is there something else I could do? Thanks! (FYI, I'm still a beginner with electrical and all that)

Ugh those push-in connections are a pain! Normally I would suggest tinning the end of the stranded wire so it becomes stiff enough to be inserted into the hole, but if you don't have the means to do that then yeah I guess a solid pigtail is the way to go. Schematic looks just fine. I would suggest grounding the metal shell of the ballast (using a three-prong cord), as well as any metal enclosure that may be used for this.

I'm looking around various sites online and I'm getting confused with what exact 18awg wire to get, and how I could obtain just a short bit of it too. It seems like local hardware stores HD and Lowe's don't seem to carry line voltage rated 18awg solid copper in shorter variants... Correct me if I'm wrong...

Yeah they probably don't carry any unfortunately. If there is enough length I would chop a little piece off of the ballast to use for this.

Honestly a little afraid to do that... I don't even have a proper wire cutter/stripper

Photo for reference

I used this wire for a fixture some time ago: https://www.ebay.com/itm/298315657092?itmmeta=01M1YZHRSTRKBZJ074G51TFKVA&hash=item4574ffaf84:g:bCIAAOSwjDZYdju3

Individual 18 gauge solid core wires are actually pretty hard to find. The only places I've seen them aside from online are stores catered towards selling electronic components and you usually have to buy a 25ft or 50ft spool.

I usually harvest it from any dead ballasts I come across.

As for connecting wire to those push in connections, they are designed to accept only 18 gauge solid wire, you might be able to get away with tinning stranded lamp cord or by crimping a ferrule to it, pigtailing a short piece of solid core is probably the safest way.

So what I ended up doing was just taking some of the ballast's own wire and using that instead. Thanks yall 

Now, just finding a way to ground the ballast itself... As it doesn't seem to have a very obvious way to ground it

Typically they are just moutned to a grounded fixture body, but in this case you can just put a scre and nut through one of the moiunting holes and use that for grounding