I have a ~1960s Crane cast iron drop-in sink and I'd like to just replace the drain. However, the drain/flange seems completely rusted to the cast iron sink bowl. I'm not sure if I'm missing something, or if there's a trick I haven't tried yet.
The nut and rubber rings came off the bottom drain assembly easy enough, but the pipe itself isn't budging a bit. I expected that, after removing the nut & rubber washers, I'd be able to push the drain assembly up into the sink a bit, enough to be able to grab & unscrew the flange. However, the drain/flange doesn't budge a bit. I've tried spraying dissolvent all over, using heat, and whacking it from the bottom (as well as from side to side to see if anything would loosen), but it doesn't seem to move even a little. And I gave it quite a good whacking. It's almost like the drain pipe is welded to the sink. And I hadn't seen anything about a pipe that threads into a sink, but just in case I also tried to loosen the pipe by "unscrewing" it, but again, not a budge.
Any ideas? Or is this a case where I'm going to have to trash the whole sink and buy a new drop in... which would be unfortunate, because it's a double vanity and the identical sink next to it is just fine.
The drain pipe I'm talking about:
The rust that seems to have the pipe in a death grip:
The flange from the top (this picture makes it look way rustier and messy than the sink actually is; it's all the little rust bits from my attempts to loosen the flange; I tried a little hammer/chisel to see if I could bend it enough to get a pair of vice grips on it, and I did; but couldn't make it unscrew):
All the threads and advice I've seen posted seem to suggest the last resort is to just cut the pipe and pull it through, which I'd do in a heartbeat, but that doesn't seem like it'd help here, since the pipe doesn't move freely through the sink.
The nut and rubber rings came off the bottom drain assembly easy enough, but the pipe itself isn't budging a bit. I expected that, after removing the nut & rubber washers, I'd be able to push the drain assembly up into the sink a bit, enough to be able to grab & unscrew the flange. However, the drain/flange doesn't budge a bit. I've tried spraying dissolvent all over, using heat, and whacking it from the bottom (as well as from side to side to see if anything would loosen), but it doesn't seem to move even a little. And I gave it quite a good whacking. It's almost like the drain pipe is welded to the sink. And I hadn't seen anything about a pipe that threads into a sink, but just in case I also tried to loosen the pipe by "unscrewing" it, but again, not a budge.
Any ideas? Or is this a case where I'm going to have to trash the whole sink and buy a new drop in... which would be unfortunate, because it's a double vanity and the identical sink next to it is just fine.
The drain pipe I'm talking about:
The rust that seems to have the pipe in a death grip:
The flange from the top (this picture makes it look way rustier and messy than the sink actually is; it's all the little rust bits from my attempts to loosen the flange; I tried a little hammer/chisel to see if I could bend it enough to get a pair of vice grips on it, and I did; but couldn't make it unscrew):
All the threads and advice I've seen posted seem to suggest the last resort is to just cut the pipe and pull it through, which I'd do in a heartbeat, but that doesn't seem like it'd help here, since the pipe doesn't move freely through the sink.
