What can be cooked from squid: quick and tasty

During repairs, builders may face the problem of drilling a cast-iron bath in order to install a mixer, drain, or for other purposes. The cast iron itself is drilled, as a rule, without problems, but how to avoid enamel chips?

Instructions on how to drill a cast iron bath

In order to drill a cast-iron bath, you will need
- drill;
- diamond drill or crown;
- drill for metal;
- rubber nozzle with abrasive rings;
- grinder;
- sealant or epoxy glue;
- water;
- conductor.

Use a marker to mark the drilling point on the enamel layer. To prevent the drill from slipping, scratch the point with an awl or the tip of the drill.

Use a diamond drill to drill through the enamel layer. Drill very slowly, constantly cooling the drilling area with water, not allowing it to heat up. In order to cool the drilling point, stretch a tube supplying water to it, be very careful, do not forget that you are holding a power tool.

After drilling the enamel, change the drill bit to a conventional one for metal. If necessary not big hole, first drill a small hole and then use thicker drills. Do not forget to cool the metal and drill slowly, if it heats up and "bleaching" begins on the surface - the drill will become blunt already at the first millimeter, since cast iron will become harder than hardened steel.

If you need a hole large diameter, make a jig out of a piece of plywood with a center hole. First drill through the jig to remove the enamel layer with a feather drill on glass or tiles. Then remove the jig and drill with a conventional metal drill. Please note that the holes in the jig should be located at a distance of no more than 1 mm, then the disc will be easily removed. Bore the hole from the inside using a rubber nozzle with sandpaper abrasive rings.

If you have a sander, try drilling as follows: grind the enamel along the contour with it, then drill along the contour with a fine drill and finish the edge with the same sander.

If, nevertheless, some of the enamel is chipped, cover the edges of the hole with a decorative chrome cup of the appropriate diameter.

When you drill a hole in cast iron bath, cover the surface of the exposed cast iron with a sealant or epoxy glue, otherwise, after installing the mixer, rusty streaks will begin to appear on the enamel.

Instructions on how to drill a cast iron bath

Use a marker to mark the drilling point on the enamel layer. To prevent the drill from slipping, scratch the point with an awl or the tip of the drill.

After drilling the enamel, change the drill bit to a conventional one for metal. If a small hole is required, first drill a small diameter hole and then re-drill it with thicker drills. Do not forget to cool the metal and drill slowly, if it heats up and "bleaching" begins on the surface - the drill will become blunt already at the first millimeter, since cast iron will become harder than hardened steel.

If you need a large hole, make a jig out of a piece of plywood with a center hole. First drill through the jig to remove the enamel layer with a feather drill on glass or tiles. Then remove the jig and drill with a conventional metal drill. Please note that the holes in the jig should be located at a distance of no more than 1 mm, then the disc will be easily removed. Bore the hole from the inside using a rubber nozzle with sandpaper abrasive rings.

If you have a sander, try drilling as follows: grind the enamel along the contour with it, then drill along the contour with a fine drill and finish the edge with the same sander.

If, nevertheless, some of the enamel is chipped, cover the edges of the hole with a decorative chrome cup of the appropriate diameter.

When you drill a hole in the cast iron bath, cover the surface of the exposed cast iron with sealant or epoxy glue, otherwise, after installing the mixer, rusty streaks will begin to appear on the enamel.

In pursuit of style, the bathroom has evolved from a place for bathing procedures into a full-scale designer project with its own interior. The designer's ideas do not always imply the location of the bathtub near the wall, which means that you have to place it on board. To do this, you need to make a hole, and here sometimes problems arise. Depending on the type of bath, acrylic or iron, the process technology differs. In the article and video, we will analyze in detail the features of each type, but first, we will find out what the flush mixers are good for.

Advantages of flush-mounted mixers on the side of the bath

The purpose of this type of mixer is to provide a good flow of water, which will allow the bath to be filled quickly. The choice of mixer depends on many factors. You need to consider the interior of your bathroom and your needs. Someone dreams of a cascade, but for someone a simple mixer with a shower head is suitable.

There are many types of mortise mixers on the market, but they all have undeniable advantages:

create an interior and optimize the space in the bathroom;
avoid splashing water;
provide comfortable use;
mask hoses and water supply pipes;
fill the bathtub quickly and accurately.

Bath mixer

It doesn't matter which option you choose. Be it a budget option or an expensive exclusive mixer of a famous company, it will have all of the above advantages. The only drawback of such mixers is the need for an opening on the side of the bath.

Attention! In order to make holes, you will need to first decide on the material of the bath.

Types of baths, their features

Not so long ago, there was only one type in our country. Was it old or steel baths certain sizes and shapes. But today on the market more and more this niche is occupied by acrylic analogs with different designs and forms.

Now you can see bathtubs of square, round and even wavy shape. Canoe-shaped baths are not uncommon. Each type and type has its own advantages and structural features:

... Acrylic is a synthetic fiber. Such bathrooms are made by pouring material between two glasses of a certain shape and firing in a special oven. The main advantages are: light weight, chemical resistance to various aggressive media, durability, low heat transfer. Of the minuses, the softness of the material can be distinguished.
Metal baths. We all know what metal is, how it behaves in a humid environment. For this, the metal base is covered with enamel, which turns yellow over the years or is completely erased. The main, perhaps even decisive, is the weight of the bath. It is difficult to transport and install. It will take more than one person to lift it into the apartment.

Plumbing connection

Hole in an acrylic bathtub? Easily

It is in this form that most often you have to make holes for the mixer, because most of these bathtubs have an exclusive shape and the manufacturer does not know exactly where it will be convenient for you to supply water. First, let's figure out which tool we need. The main power tool is a drill. We also need a milling cutter of a suitable size, a tape measure and a marker.

Advice. First, try on the faucet at the intended location and check if the water supply hoses are long enough.

First, place the faucet over the bathtub, and circle the areas for which a hole will be required. Then find the center of the hole with a ruler and pencil. For most standard mixers, a 35mm cutter will work. Such a hole will ensure the passage of the hoses and will prevent the installation washer from falling through, which, by the way, has a diameter of 40-45 mm.

Attention! When drilling, try not to press hard, as acrylic can crack and break.

Everything is the old fashioned way. A hole in a cast iron bath!

The set of tools that you need to make a hole in a cast iron bath will be the same as for an acrylic bath. With the exception of a sander, you will need it to remove the enamel.

The hole in the tub can be made by hand

The first stage, as in the previous section, is markup. Next, we need to remove the enamel in the place where we will make the hole, since the enamel is a fragile material, when drilling, chips and cracks are formed. For experienced craftsmen it is permissible to drill without removing the enamel, but then it is required to constantly maintain the drilling angle. You should start drilling with a small drill, since you will not make a large hole right away, and then increase the diameter of the hole using large drills.

Remember that you are drilling metal, which means that the drill will get very hot, you need to monitor this and give both yourself and the tool a rest when required. Also, you should use only well-sharpened drills, otherwise you doom yourself to stretching the process for a long time.

Summing up, I would like to say that making a hole in the bathroom is not so difficult, for this you do not need to call a specialist - it does not require some wild professionalism. You just need to follow the rules and be careful.

Installing the mixer on the side of the bath: video

Most people who use a cast-iron bath bowl one day come to the idea of introducing some innovations in water procedures. Often, improvements concern the installation of the mixer directly on one of the sides of the product or the installation of hydromassage equipment.

Whatever the owners have in mind, this process can lead to chipped enamel and deterioration of the bathroom in the absence of sufficient experience and knowledge of how to drill a cast iron bath.

The drilling procedure should be carried out without haste, because the base in which the hole will be located has high level fragility.

Drilling process

For the production of such work, the following set of tools and materials will be required:

a permanent felt-tip pen with a thick nib;
a drill designed for drilling metal;
drill;
kerosene solution;
Sander.

To begin with, you should make sure that the work is supposed to be carried out on the surface of the cast-iron bath. Many people face a problem when it is outwardly quite difficult to determine what type of bath needs to be drilled. A steel product differs from a cast iron product primarily in weight. If the bowl can be easily lifted, then it is a steel product. Cast iron bath has a large mass, and to lift it, it will take two, or even three people.

At the first stage of the production of work, you should use a marker to mark the place in which you plan to create a hole. The mark should have a small diameter so that the drill does not move too far to the side while creating the hole.

How to drill a hole in a cast iron bath? You need to do this very carefully. The fact is that the enamel on such a product is very fragile, it is easy to damage it. In order to avoid damage to the fragile layer, you should hold the drill at the same angle both during drilling and after, while lifting the drill from the hole.

Care should also be taken to ensure that a perfectly sharpened drill is used in the work, designed for drilling holes in metal products. It should not scratch the metal, but firmly bite into it. An insufficient level of sharpening of this tool will allow you to drill a hole, but at the same time it will ensure the formation of cracks in the enamel.

In order to drill a layer of cast iron with perfect evenness, you can use a wooden block or a metal plate, in which a hole with the desired diameter will be pre-drilled. Through such a workpiece, it will turn out to perfectly smoothly drill a hole even if the diameters of the drill and the workpiece differ slightly.

Back to the table of contents

One of the most common mistakes people make when doing this job for the first time is neglecting a procedure such as cooling the tool. In order to speed up the cooling process of the drill and thereby increase productivity and reduce the time to implement the plan, a kerosene solution is perfect.

This tool will allow not only to avoid overheating of the tool during work with it, but also to provide much greater wear resistance. Thus, using this kerosene solution, you can increase the service life of the drill and speed up the process of implementing the planned changes in your own bathroom.

If such a solution is not at hand, you can always cool the place of work and the tool with ordinary water. It is impossible not to cool the metal at all, because when heated, the cast iron becomes very hard, which will lead to damage to the drill already at the first stages of work.

Another tip for the inexperienced home master a professional in drilling cast iron, this is a way to avoid damaging the enamel while drilling.

Before drilling a hole, remove the enamel layer at its location with a grinder, as well as 2 mm around.

Thus, it is possible to exclude the possibility of enamel cracking, because during operation the tool will not come into contact with it, which means there will be no risk of damage to the bath itself.

To avoid damage to the enamel layer, some experts advise drilling it with a drill for ceramic tiles, and as soon as the boundary of the layers is crossed, change the tile tool in the drill to a metal drill.

The modern interior of a bathroom of any size not only presupposes a rational arrangement of all the necessary elements, but also places high demands on the combination of their style, comfort and functionality. Therefore, it is becoming more and more popular to install the mixer on the side of the bath. The mixer installed on the side of the bathtub looks elegant and original, which makes the bathroom interior special.

Advantages of flush-mounted mixers on the side of the bath

Operational task of this type mortise faucets is to create a strong, stable flow of water for accurate filling of the bathtub.

The mixer is installed on the side of the bath

Installing a mixer on a bath has the following advantages:

provides quick and accurate bath filling;
prevents splashing water;
optimizes the bathroom space;
provides ease of use;
allows you to disguise the shower head hose.

The cascade mixer creates a jet similar to a waterfall

A bathroom with a flush-mounted mixer becomes stylish and as comfortable as possible. Cascade models that resemble a small waterfall look especially interesting.

Important: Due to the wider diameter of the spout, the load on the mixer structure increases, and the hose placed under the bath will wear out faster than usual. Therefore, when choosing a faucet on the side of the bath, special attention should be paid to its strength and durability.

Shower head with compact shower head, tap, switch, single lever tap

In the previous article, we considered the question - now we will talk about the installation features.

Stages and features of installation

An experienced craftsman will install a flush mixer on the side of the bathtub in a couple of hours. It will take a lot more time for a layperson who decides to do this work on his own. To begin with, you will have to study the device of a mortise-type mixer, since its installation is somewhat different from the installation of a traditional design.

Advice: If possible, then to facilitate the task, it is recommended to immediately purchase a bath with a hole for the mixer.

To complete the work you will need:

an electric drill with a crown cutter attachment of the required diameter;
adjustable wrench, screwdriver;
flexible hoses;
fasteners.

The sequence of work on installing the mixer on the side of the bath:

How to drill a hole in an acrylic bathtub

How to drill a steel tub

Important: The hole in the rim of the tub can only be made by yourself if it is made of acrylic or similar composite materials. Cast iron and steel baths should be processed only in the factory in order to avoid enamel chipping, which will lead to corrosion. But you can take a chance if you do everything very carefully.

Many manufacturers of mixers for installation on the side of the bath, as an addition to them, are special mounting panels. Their use makes it possible to strengthen the attachment point, since when creating a hole, the rigidity of the bath rim is significantly reduced.

In practice, craftsmen prefer to do without these additional panels. They often do not fit and need to be trimmed. They are also difficult to use on a rounded side. At the same time, we must not forget about the functional purpose of the mounting panels. Therefore, if you have any doubts that with a decrease in rigidity, the bath rim will withstand the load, you need to consult with specialists.

Mixer in the side of the bath - to take or not to take?

The main thing is to be smart about both the choice and the installation of the mixer on the side of the bath. And then this decision will be the most correct one.