Is that it?

(Originally posted as <eli$110...@qz.little-neck.ny.us> in alt.hackers,
but reposting in alt.ascii-art for AA content.)

In alt.hackers, Horn  <hor...@panix.com> wrote:
> jde...@gate.net wrote:
> >  Will I be THE LAST person to post to this group????
> No.

You are missing your ObHack.

So I guess I should add one of my own.

Recently I've been rennovating the main bathroom in my house. The
last rennovation was some twenty to thirty years ago, done by my
father-in-law. Neither of us are plumbers. 

So the teenager stripped the room down. Took out the vanity, pulled
out the old toilet, stripped the floor to the sub-floor. Then he
put in new underlayment and tiled and grouted the the room. So far,
so good.

Then I went to put in the new toilet. There was a problem. This is
how the drain is supposed to look:

          ,-,
       ,/' _ '\,
     .'  /'D'\  '.
    +.  /NDRAI\  .+
     | (NDRAIND) |     
    +'  \RAIND/  '+
     '.  \.N./  .'
       '\, ~ ./'
          '-'

The two notches on the side are used to slip the bolts in to attach
the toilet. The drain on the floor is ninety degree rotated from that.
I quized the teenager about how the previous toilet was attached but
didn't get any good answer. I'm suspecting it was to the previous
underlayment, but I'm not sure.

In any case, the new underlayment doesn't extend far enough to use,
and the floor is tiled now, so I can't attach stuff to the subfloor
or underlayment without pulling out tile. 

I went to my local hardware store and looked at what they had for 
this sort of problems. What I found was a plastic "spacer" ring
exactly like the shape of the top of the drain pipe, with four
mounting holes. Cost is $3.50, so I buy it. 

Well, it's not big enough to use screws to attach the spacer ring
to the floor, so I mark where the spacer holes are on the flange of
the cast iron drain pipe. Then I drill those holes out.

First I try to glue the spacer down with epoxy through the mounting
holes on the spacer and the holes I made in the drain. It seems to
work, but as soon as I tighten the nuts on the toilet bolts I feel it
pull free. 

I pull out the toilet, scrape off the wax seal and then the epoxy.
Next I try pop rivets, using ones I have on hand.  It seems to
work, but as soon as I tighten the nuts on the toilet bolts I feel it
pull free.

I pull out the toilet, scrape off the wax seal and cold chisel out
the rivets. The counter-sunk holes in the plastic don't offer enough
grip. Back to the hardware store. I need a new wax seal (they run $2
each, but I have no more on hand). I also get a new spacer ring and
the largest pop rivets they have (3/8" diameter, maybe 1/2" length).
I need to enlarge the holes in the flange to fit these rivets, but
that's easy enough. 

Now I put the rivets in with a washer so they won't pull through the
counter-sunk holes and they grip the cast iron very securely. I check
by really pulling on the spacer before putting the toilet on. Very
solidly attached. 

Of course, I find out that the cast iron pipe itself has some play,
but I'm not about to try to deal with that. Toilet goes in, bolts
get tightened. Life moves on.

Elijah
------
3x wax seal ($6), 2x spacer ($7), 1 pack rivets ($3), DIY priceless