Drilling an Extra Faucet in Iron Sink

I want to add an extra faucet to my kitchen sink (too long a story for this thread but it involves my two wells, one with great drinking water and the other that is higher capacity).... The sink is a nice old cast iron sink with white enamel coating. First, can I reasonably drill a new hole in the sink for an additional faucet? If yes, how is it best done? Will a standard drill do this? The sink is very thick, and I don't want to damage the surrounding enamel when I drill it....

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Rob PA

Reply to
Rob Gray
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Why not just put a lab-style faucet with a gooseneck spout through the counter next to the sink? Or maybe an old commercial laundry-sink style wall-mount faucet on the wall above, assuming the spout is long enough. That way, you can shove the extra out of the way when you aren't using it. Any new faucet is going to require more than one hole anyway, isn't it? Does the sink have enough flange are to allow that? I suppose a carbide or diamond hole saw would drill through the enamel, but I'd be paranoid about it crazing or flaking off, especially if it is old.

aem sends...

Reply to
ameijers

The sink stands alone on its own cabinet, so there is no surrounding counter and the wall behind would not be easily accesed..... There are single hole faucets for sale, especially the bar type faucet which is all I need for this spare one...

Rob

Reply to
Rob Gray

Yes, it can be done. It is very difficult to drill cleanly through the porcelain finish.

Easiest: Look in your yellow pages for a tub refinisher.

DIY Use carbide grit hole saw to get through the porcelain and a slightly smaller, best quality, hole saw to drill through the cast iron.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net

Reply to
DanG

As someone said, the porcelain enamel is the problem, not the iron...cast iron drills easy. Just thinking out loud but I wonder what a torch (acetylene) would do? Would it melt the porcelain - which is just glass - in a localized area?

One thing that might work is to lay out the hole and grind away the porcelain before drilling. I'm thinking of something small like a Dremel tool using a small, fine bit or maybe sand pad to get rid of the porcelain. You wouldn't have to get rid of all of it, just a thin circle slightly larger than the hole you want so as to isolate the rest of the porcelain from where you want the hole. Once isolated, drill with impunity.

You can drill the iron with a standard bit...just do it at a very slow speed. If you do get your hole and new faucet, caulk/putty so that water won't be getting to the raw iron in the hole.

-- dadiOH _____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

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Reply to
dadiOH

Thanks for all of the responses!

Rob

Reply to
Rob Gray

Yes, I watched a friend do just that. He actually stood 'in' the sink for leverage and drilled the hole with a hole saw. The 'cut' was nice and clean. Do it at a slow speed and it might be wise to lubricate the cut. Cast iron is actually quite "soft".

Reply to
Rudy

Even if you do crack or chip the enamel, such mistakes can be repaired.

Reply to
JerryMouse

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