Unexpected consequence of a garbage disposal leak

[Curt Harms]

One morning a few days ago we came down stairs into the kitchen to be greeted by water on the floor. Good Morning! A several years old garbage disposal that had been giving us grief about not wanting to start had decided on a new trick and leaked. We got the water cleaned up and I went down to the basement to retrieve a new disposal we had bought to replace this one. Water on the basement floor, water had run to the back of the cabinet where the disposal is and down the holes to the basement. I got that cleaned up as best I could and turned the dehumidifier down. It dried up in a couple days but the table saw top was rusty. The top never got any water on it that I could see but it was about 3' from where the water ran down the basement wall. I sprayed some WD40 on it and first wiped with paper towels then more WD40 and scotch brite type pads. I got it not perfect but I thought I had stopped the rust. I was wrong. I didn't wax the top, figuring the WD 40 would take care of it. This saw has been in its current location for 25+ years and never had a speck of rust on it, neither did other cast iron tops nearby.

I go downstairs today and find this:
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I have no idea why, there hasn't been any evidence of a leak since the initial episode. Same routine, WD 40 and paper towels then more WD40 and scotch brite. This time I tried scotch brite under a sanding disk on a random orbit sander. That worked really well for a few seconds until the pad spun out from under the sanding disk. I found the right kind of hook & loop backed scotch brite like material so that's in my Amazon shopping cart. I got to this but it's still not perfect:

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This time I also applied a thick coat of Johnson's paste wax. I think if I get the disks for the ROS I can get it pretty close to new. If the paste wax doesn't do it I'll go with one of the materials like Boeshield or something like that.

[Jim Becker]

Ouch...sad about the disposal. I had to replace the one here in our new house only a few months after we moved in, but that was, um...expected based on our inspection. No leaks like yours, however, just dead.

You did a nie job cleaning up that table saw. I had similar issues due to condensation in my temporary shop in the garage when the door had to be opened on a humid and warm "winter" day and all the cast iron was stone cold from overnight temps. It was a mess! I cleaned it up with a rust remover and Scotch Brite like you and then applied Boeshield. I've had zero rust since. And like you, that was the first rust I ever had in decades!

[Bill Dufour]

I never understood a disposer. A deep sink strainer basket is much cheaper and quieter.
Bill D

[Wes Grass]

Umm, yeah. I dig a bunch from the disposal here everyday, and toss it in the other side where there's a basket to dump in the trash. And Its not uncommon to find a washcloth in the process ;-) Never mind spoons...

None of them a good idea to run off to a septic system.

[Richard Coers]

Garbage disposals were invented by a plumber for plumbers. Who else would invent a machine that can plug up plumbing like no other process even thought of? All those goodies should be in a compost pile and not plugging up waste lines!!!

[Jack Frederick]

Nice job on the saw rehab. I was in the plumbing trade and simply will not have a disposal. We are on septic and I don’t see any reason to load in more to the system than is…necessary We have bear issues here in the foothills so we keep things clean around the property. For the first 10 yrs here I would take the BH and dig a 3-4’hole in the garden area for organics. With the orchard growing and flower beds expanding I was running out of room for this process. We bought our daughter a Vitamix FC-50 Composter recycler. She kindly returned it to us as she has to little space, so we have been using it for the past 6 mos. It will take a bucket of veggie material and turn it into small dried threads which we store in the old compost bucket. No odor on the bucket which we fill and leave on the kitchen counter. It is pretty amazing how much it cooks the stuff down. We are putting the debris in one of the small flower beds.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...Xg1XcGNI0kGxhl

[Frank Pratt]

All those goodies should be in a compost pile and not plugging up waste lines!!!

They do end up in a compost pile. All solids at the local treatment plant are composted (and very efficiently at that) and sold.

[Ole Anderson]

Disposals are fine if you use them wisely and follow up with a clean water flushing rinse. Plate scrapings and such, things that will stink up your garbage pail. No grease. When we first got ours wifey put corn husks down it and promptly clogged the pipe. That was 45 years ago, Not everybody lives where you want a compost pile.