[Xist]

When my CEL came back after acid-washing my cat the outside was so rusted I didn't want to try again, so I replaced it.

The new one is rusted, too!

I don't know where to find a pot tall which for my cat. I think a turkey fryer would be tall enough, but $50 for a pot that I will use to boil acid sounds excessive.

Today I thought about a 5-gallon metal paint bucket, but supposedly there are zero in-town.

I ordered an aluminum plate for $20, bought gasket material for $10, and spent $8 on M18x1.5 bolts to plug the oxygen sensor holes.

I feel like I could have found a better price, I didn't need ones 30mm long, but that was the best that I could find!

Apparently some drain plugs are that size, but it didn't seem worthwhile going to at least one more store.

So, I used a mending plate as a compass, bought new blades for Dad's old jigsaw, realized that when the blade popped out of Dad's old jigsaw some random piece of metal ran for freedom, and it was now unusable.

Ace now closes at six and they had the same jigsaw that Home Depot sells for $38 for $25--on top of the $5 I already spent on blades.

I clamped the aluminum to the memorial bench I built for the tomato plants Mom murdered, cut something that would fit in the pot, drilled pilot holes, and then used my auger bit, cut one big gasket, drilled pilot holes, and then used the auger, but it broke!

It broke making a gasket!

I needed to use cutting oil to make a gasket?

Huh. Two gaskets would have cost about as much, no assembly required!

I sanded down the edges and deburred the holes. I wasn't sure it made a difference, but it felt right, and all that matters are feelings!

Just not mine.

A quarter-pound of fasteners from CAL Ranch attached the cats to the plate.

What is the torque spec of... whatever this is?

The fasteners are steel, so I think that I could have cranked it down. I tightened until it felt right, but the gasket seemed to leak, so obviously it wasn't tight enough.

Maybe real gaskets would have sealed better. This was metallic on one side, but the back looks like a tiny layer of cork.

I don't know how much of a difference it matters that it leaks a little, once I filled the pot there wasn't much of a pressure differential.

So, then I spent forever looking for Mom's hot plate. I asked where it was and she just started yelling at me. I finally remembered where it was after what seemed like forever--and after finding some of the materials for this project in the garage.

See, Mom is a pack rat. She came home from vacation to a clean and straight house and she immediately put so much junk on the foot rests that you cannot rest your feet on them and so much junk on the couch and loveseat that you need to clear a spot, but when I am trying to fix something for her or one of my cars, which is allegedly important to her, she likes to have my brother put spread it out in different places in different rooms.

Then she says "I didn't move it!"

So, I finally found the hot plate, and all of the stuff that Mom had my brother hide. I cleaned out a small bucket and a funnel, mixed up one gallon of solution, and it filled both cats to the neck--you know, before it slowly leaked out, but I filled up the pot as fast as I could.

The hot plate keeps turning off.

I told Mom that her barbecue is Plan B, so when I grabbed my steel pot with four gallons of water, two catalytic converters, an aluminum plate, and random steel fasteners, she had my brother close the door in my face.

So, here I sit, trying to heat up my catalytic converters like some kind of caveman, dreading removing the grate in order to add wood every hour or so, and then it seemed to die out.

With fire almost as high as the top of the pot, the top of one cat feels slightly warm.

My laser thermometer shows 81° on the neck and it is already 1910, so this may be doomed, too.

How much have I spent trying to extend the life of my C.C?