No really useful replies to my question of yesterday, so rephrase it...
How risky/ difficult would it be to drill say a 6mm hole through a porcelain wash basin to allow a plug release linkage to pass through it?
I'm thinking of drilling through the wide flat shelf at the back, which has the soap trays at either end.
Harry Bloomfield scribbled...
Same as drilling through glass or tiles.
Be aware that in places, washbasins are hollow sectioned, and you may find that you have to drill through two thicknesses to achieve what you want. You may be OK across the back though, but you may have to drill through 15mm of porcelain. A diamond coring-drill, well lubricated with water and mounted in a bench pillar-drill, cutting slowly, would be the best way to do it.
Risky - not very if you drill it correctly. Difficult - can be quite tricky.
In theory no worse than drilling a tile, but there are tiles and tiles. Washbasins tend to be **very** hard. Hence only a small grit edged hole saw is likely to do the job. Normal drills and tile drills won't touch it, and there is too much risk of breakage with a carbide spear drill.
I'd agree. Porcelain tile are hard enough & a right bugger to drill, let alone a wash basin.
I drilled 8 holes in porcelain tiles last week, took 2 x drill bits & over an hour.
When I have to drill through tiles, I use one of those very hard pins you get on masonry cable clips. Tap that against the tile surface with a hammer to make a hole through the glaze. That also stops the drill from skidding.
Then a very small masonry drill will easily cut through the clay part of the tile, and use larger drill(s) to get the hole to the right size.
I've never drilled a basin before. I might get some practice on one out of a skip first. :)
En el artículo , Harry Bloomfield escribió:
I was going to suggest you replaced the mixer with one that has the requisite hole for the plug release rod to pass through, but on re- reading your earlier post, I think you say you've fitted the mixer to one side of the sink replacing one of two separate taps (since you say you've capped 'the other hole' with a chrome blanking plug), so you would run into the same problem with the pedestal getting in the way of the linkage to the pass-through hole in the mixer.
I think other posters' suggestions of getting one of those press-to- close, press-to-open plugs is the easiest solution. My bathroom sink has one and it works very well. Should think it'll be customised with the waste, so you'll need to fit them as a pair.
Drilling the porcelain is risky and I doubt you would get a clean finish to the hole. You might be able to find a plastic collet of some kind, a smaller version of the collets satellite aerial and phone engineers use when they drill to pass cables through walls.
That's the problem - porcelain tiles have not got a "clay bit" (aka biscuit) - they are hard all the way through.
Mike Tomlinson formulated on Wednesday :
Thanks for the replies, i've drilled tiles often enough before so no problem there. It will need someting to seal it like a collet eventually, but that is not much of a problem.
I had to drill quartzite tiles. diamond faced core drill. It really is infintely better than any twist bit and you wont split the ceramic.
Cost a few quid only.
Those diamond coated 'holesaws' are the way to go. Keep them wet by dipping in water every few seconds.
For tile I've found the Bosch multi-purpose construction drill to be very effective
A few seconds to get through a lesser tile
Or you could practice in the public lavatories. Drill a few holes in the bottom of the urinals.
Bill
Or if drilling a urinal do it after you've had a few pints.
Bill
+1
But a wash basin is not a tile. Most tiles, especially wall tiles, are soft 'earthenware', and are very easy to drill. Sanitaryware such as washbasins (known properly as lavatories in the industry, because they're what you wash in: latin lavo; I wash) and toilets are made of a form of porcelain, fired to a much higher temperature that most tiles, and consequently are much more dense, harder and less porous. The nearest you'll get to them in tile is a porcelain tile, and you would do well to take note of the comments made here by others on the difficulties in drilling such tiles.
If nothing else, get a scrap washbasin from a skip and practice on it first to get a feel for the difficulties, before attempting to drill your good one, otherwise you might find it expensive.
on 11/09/2013, Harry Bloomfield supposed :
Just using ordinary masonary drill bits...
It was extremely tough just under the surface, but got softer as it got deeper. I started with a 4mm bit, then worked gradually up to the size I needed.
To provide the seal between operating rod and the w/b shelf I drilled a stainless steel bolt and reshaped its hex head in the lath, with a fibre washer under it.
I use those for normal tiles, they won't touch porcelain.
Yup I use these normally, and think they are very good - bar far the best normal (i.e. non sds) drills I have used for masonry. They will indeed make a reasonable job on decent tiles, but they won't even touch a really hard porcelain tile.
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