Breaking a cast iron bath

[Howard]

Has anyone broke up a cast iron Bath, how is it done and is it easy? is it ok to do it in situ ?

[Mike Taylor]

Use up your aggression with a big hammer but wear ear defenders and eye protectors Keep hitting along a line acros the bath and it will brake eventually No problem in situ other than the noise

[Terry D]

It's fairly easy, although very noisy. Use a sledgehammer. Once you make the first break, it's easy. Eye, ear, head and body protection are essential. I managed to fit mine into about five stong plastic sacks and got a fiver at the local scrapyard.

Terry D.

[BigWallop]

A cast bath is so strong that it needs two people hitting it with sledge hammers to make any sort of effect on it. Doing it in situ' would cause you to fall through the floor with pressures you need to exert. Best to lift it out in one go, which is easy when the bath is lifted on to one end and walked out of the way. BY walked I mean that swivel one edge out, then the other edge, and so on, and the bath is easy to handle. When you stand the bath up on end, remember that all the weight is in the belly of the bath, so if you want to stand it up against anything, the base of the bath should be against it and not the surface side.

To take one down a flight of stairs is easy when the bath is laid on a board, or a bit of old carpet, and slid down. They're not really that heavy. The old lady and I have lifted three or four up two flights of stairs before. The only look daunting but their not.

[Bob Mannix]

It's not quite as difficult as (the appropriately named ) BigWallop says, but closer to his description than some of the other responses (IMHO).

My story: Get ktted up with 2lb lump hammer (no room for anything bigger) goggles etc. Take aim. Hit edge of bath as hard as possible. An auditory experience akin to being trapped in the Big Ben bell tower occurs and a tiny flake of enamel comes off. No other damage. Shit. Put on ear defenders. Try again. Nothing. Shit, either I'm stuck with a damaged bath or what I thought was "as hard as possible" wasn't.

10 minutes later, bathed in sweat, tinnitus, headache, had managed to start a crack and propagate it through the cast iron. Eventually two halves of bath with jagged edges. On my own, they are too heavy to lift. Shit again. Start over halving the two bits. end up with 4 quarters I can (just) carry down the stairs pointing the razor sharp jagged bits away from me.

It was some years ago and I haven't forgotten.

[BigWallop]

Hee Hee !!! It's not something you forget in a hurry is it ?

I remember the first attempt I made at breaking a cast bath. I, like you, kitted myself out with all the defensive devices I thought I would need. Prepared the area for flying debris thinking the bath would succumb on the first hit. Boy, was I wrong. I belted the bath clean in middle and all I ended up with was the enamelling looking like a street map of Peking.

It's best to leave them whole and drag, slide or walk them out of the way.

[nightjar]

I cut mine into three with a 9" disc cutter. Just make sure that you protect everything (especially yourself) from the bits that fly off. I have a window at my factory that has debris from a disc cutter (courtesy of a previous occupant) embedded all over the glass. Cutting is less noisy than hitting it, but you will still need ear defenders.

Colin Bignell

[Huge]

I suspect it's far more likely to break.

[Huge]

[14 lines snipped]

Bwahahahahaha. I could barely pick up the larger of the 6 pieces I cut ours into.

Howard - wear ear and eye protection, use a big hammer and hit it *hard*.

[John]

Its hard work but entirely possible. Get a hefty lump hammer and some goggles as the enamel will chip and fly about. Unless you are already hard of hearing some ear defenders might be a good idea also. Draw a pencil line across the bath and beat the shit out of it all the way along and back until a crack appears and runs along your line of impact. then having mastered the art make some more cracks until it falls into pieces. Note that your neighbours will think WW3 has broken out and be not best pleased if they work nights! Alternatively if you have some "horsey" neighbours offer it to them for a horse trough intact on the understanding they remove it for you. Does anyone remember plumbers walking about like turtles with the bath inverted over their backs?

[Owain]

"BigWallop" wrote | A cast bath is so strong that it needs two people hitting it with | sledge hammers to make any sort of effect on it.

Although CI is strong in compression, what's it like in tension or flexion[1]? I was thinking along the lines of wedging a car jack inside and pumping might cause it to spring apart.

Owain

[1] If those aren't the right words, I know what I mean. Pull and twist.

[Ian Stirling]

Should work.

Wear ear and eye protection. I suspect a notch at an edge achieved however (angle-grinder, hacksaw, unloved axe) would cause it to break lots easier at that point.

[The Natural Philosopher]

yes, with a sledge hammer and ear protectors, no, yes.

[Marcus Fox]

A cast iron bath will weigh about the same as a very fat man. If you are going to break it, maybe use an old wet towel over where you're striking with the sledge. If it doesn't partially deaden the noise, it will at least stop flying splinters.

Marcus

[The Natural Philosopher]

Thats what sorts the men out from teh boys.

You have to close your eyes, think of Barney the Dinosaur, or Tony Blair, or Margerate tHatcher, or Posh Spice, and then imagine that everyone who ever really made you life miserable is IN THAT BATH.

Its sopon ends up in pieces.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its more springy than you think.

Could awlas use an angle grinder to get things started..

[Dave Liquorice]

CI is brittle, like you say in compression it's good but not in tension. Having read the comments here about whacking with a hammer repeatedly along the same line I think I'd employ a 1" cold chisel to concentrate the impact and thus the area for crack propergation, similar to cutting a brick.

I don't think I'd like to be in the same room when it went...

[John Stumbles]

I think I'm up to 3 now. I also use sledgehammer, ear defenders and goggles. Some seem to break more easily and cleanly than others. Great fun :-)

I also saw outside someone's house recently 2 halves of a CI bath that had evidently been cut with an angle grinder.

[Andy Hall]

What happened to the one at the lady in Henley's place?

Did you float it down the river in the end?

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[MJ]

Start on one top edge corner, then progress from there. Once the first piece breaks off it's not that hard going. If you try hitting the central areas the hammer will just keep bouncing off.

MJ