Sink Drain Rusted to Bowl? Trash or salvageable?

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Houser

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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:
drain.jpg


The rust that seems to have the pipe in a death grip:
rust.jpg


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):
flange.jpg


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.
 

Terry

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That's where I would use a hack saw, or sawzall with metal blade, eye protection for sure.
Making some inside cuts, you can collapse it inward.
The top flange has just a few threads there at the top, the bottom has most of the threads where it exists the bowl.

Too bad there are two of them, a nice new china sink isn't very much of an investment.
 

Houser

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Being a complete amature when it comes to plumbing (and handywork in general); I'd only seen forums and recommendations to cut the pipe and pull through, with the assumption that the pipe wasn't rusted in place. No one anywhere mentioned inside cuts to collapse a super rusted pipe -- I had never heard of that. But now I've learned something new!

So I just wanted to follow-up and say thanks for the amazingly quick response and advice. You saved the day! And while it'll take some cleaning to get it ready for a new drain assembly, it's certainly a lot better than having to install a brand new sink and dispose of an old cast iron one.

Horray! No more rusted pipe:
No-Pipe-Bottom.jpg


Again, a super thanks to your forum and appreciation of your knowledge!
 

Jeff H Young

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oh great you got it going! totally salvageable but cosmetically questionable hope its acceptable.
 
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