Garbage disposal install

[Cochese]

After five years of living in this house I finally installed a garbage disposal on Saturday. I nearly bought one 10 months ago, but the deal came back around and I ordered a 1HP Waste King from Amazon after deferring and reading more reviews. Since this was a new install, I had to play around with some different PVC to make it all fit nice.

The unit came prewired with a plug, which is nice because I have an outlet right next to it for the dishwasher. It is, however, slightly annoying to plug in each time I want to use it. Our sink is a traditional 4-hole SS, dual-basin unit, the kind you'd typically see in standard kitchens. At some point I'm going to replace the faucet with a high loop style, with the sprayer in the spigot. That would free up a hole, however it would be nice to have a pump soap dispenser or a hot water/drinking water spigot there, so I need to drill a hole for the push button disposal actuator.

Anyone have any tips for this? I know I'll need some cutting oil. Should I pick up a new hole saw that I don't care about for the job?

[toolguy1000]

what material is the sink made of?

[greenacres2]

Not something I've ever done, but a few thoughts come to mind. One would be to run the switch through the upper panel of the sink base. I'd not want to drill through the outside of the cabinet, and this would run the risk of being activated accidentally.

Another thought is to mount the actuator inside the stile or just above the cabinet door. Concealed, and any marring on the cabinet would be inside 9instead of outside. I just went out to the kitchen felt around--wouldn't be as convenient as an old-fashioned wall switch above, but usable for a few seconds a few times/day.

Just thinking out loud.

earl

[Cochese]

The sink is stainless steel, I assume. I don't have any problem putting it anywhere else, but on the console (where the faucet and sprayer are mounted) seems to be the easier option. Out of little kids hands to boot.

[Mr__Bill]

The sink is stainless steel, I assume. I don't have any problem putting it anywhere else, but on the console (where the faucet and sprayer are mounted) seems to be the easier option. Out of little kids hands to boot.

I'm thinking that I would not want something electrical where water tends to puddle. I also would avoid places where little fingers can reach it. That said, inside the cabinet door as greenacres2 suggested sounds good. The other option is to fish the wall and put in a switch for half the outlet below.

Bill
it's always easy when someone else has to do it...

[Cochese]

I'm thinking that I would not want something electrical where water tends to puddle. I also would avoid places where little fingers can reach it. That said, inside the cabinet door as greenacres2 suggested sounds good. The other option is to fish the wall and put in a switch for half the outlet below.

Bill
it's always easy when someone else has to do it...

The button is air-activated, so no worries there. I could also spring for fiber-optic, but it's a bit more money.

[toolguy1000]

something like this for the hole:

http://www.factoryauthorizedoutlet.com/makita/makita-711497-a-high-speed-steel-step-drill-bit-9-16-to-1-inch

i saw rich tretheway use a similar saw when installing an instant hot water dispenser in a stainless steel sink.

[gerti]

Many many years ago I had to drill into SS and it wasn't fun. Small holes are OK, large holes want to rip the drill out of your hand something fierce. And when that happens, the sink gets bent too. I think I saw Tommy on TOH use a knockout punch once, that looked slick.

[mpc]

Though not cheap, die punches make clean and large holes in thin metal. And they're quite easy and safe to use. You use a regular drill bit to make a pilot hole and then stick a bolt through the hole. The die and punch are on the bolt, sandwiching the material to be cut. Grab a socket wrench and tighten... after a couple minutes you'll have a nice clean hole and a washer-shaped waste piece. A bi-metal hole saw would probably work okay; use cutting oil or other oil and go slowly to minimize heat buildup.

For the pilot hole, a good/sharp bit is essential. As is slow speed drilling. When (not if!) the bit grabs and tries to thread like a screw you don't want a torque-monster drill nor high RPMs trying to rip your wrist part. I have a set of gold colored Dewalt bits (some sort of hard coating, I forget the details) that cut through metal a lot faster, a lot easier, and more cleanly than typical twist bits. The tips of these bits have an odd stepped look, like a stripped Phillips screw driver tip. Use a center punch, nail, whatever to make a divot where you want to drill to keep the drill bit from walking/wandering.

Example punch: Amazon sample punch The Greenlee company has been around for eons... and Greenlee punches last a long time as well.

mpc

[atgcpaul]

Saw this video on another forum. Supposed to prevent regular twist bits from self feeding into materials like plastic and metal. I have not tried it myself, but many of the respondents concurred it was effective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ri6poVpQM8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[capncarl]

I would suggest using a unibit, sometimes called a step bit. I always start off drilling a pilot hole in stainless, and always use Tap Magic for coolant/lubricant when machining and drilling stainless. Nothing to it and you will find plenty of uses for the unibits around the shop. HF sells a 3 pack for about $10 that will get you by, not as good as quality bits that sell for $30 each but they will work. Don't put much pressure on it when drilling, and drill slow.
capncarl

[d_meister]

If you replace the faucet with the single handle type, you won't need to use the trim plate to cover the standard hot / cold faucet handles. You'll have two holes free for a soap dispenser and the pneumatic switch. I assume that your existing 4th hole is occupied by the dishwasher vent. You can shift that to another location, and choose where to put the switch and soap dispenser in consideration of the user's left or right handedness, or the soap dispenser's proximity to which is the "wash" bay, or switch proximity to the disposal.
Incidentally, some SS sinks are fairly thin material, so a backer under the single-hole faucet might be in order.

[vaking]

I have a sink like that - rimmed 2 basin stainless steel with 4 holes. In my opinion - good quality sink of this kind is the best in the kitchen. I had before solid surface piece of countertop with integrated sink - stainless steel is better.
I have a single lever faucet. Spout takes one hole, control lever takes another, spray takes third and soap dispenser is fourth. You can probably find faucets where spout and control lever will take only one hole or spray is integrated with spout.

[Cochese]

I think it would be prudent to have the faucet selected before I drill anything. But if I do have to, I like the die punch method.

[parnelli]

I replaced our sink a few years ago. Went from a flimsy cheap SS one to a much nicer thick gauge SS one.

I stressed for DAYS, possibly weeks on how I was going to cut another hole. I was almost ready to go rent the punch unit at BORG when I figured I'd just try to drill it.

And it went a million times better than I thought it would. With my el cheapo orange HF drill I had a hole drilled in under a minute.

New hole saw- slow speed with liberal amounts of oil and that was it. I cannot remember if I ran the drill forward or backwards though.