The wonderful thing about these new fuel canisters that we are forced to buy is that they create more of the problem that they were intended to solve: fuel spills and pollution.
The things are horribly designed and even more horribly manufactured.
First off, I do NOT want the spout left exposed so that it can get broken off. That means that I have to put the spout in the canister where it gets fuel inside it. When I pull it out to actually pour some diesel, well, diesel spills off the spout.
Second, I went to pour some diesel and the spout had spontaneously come completely disassembled. The red sleeve, a green piece, a spring, and another random piece were all sitting at the bottom of the can. So much for putting the spout inside the can to keep it from getting broken. I emptied the diesel into Emet’s tank without allowing any of the pieces to go in.
I was able to extract all the miscellaneous pieces from the inside of the can and discarded them as they were now functionally useless. Of course, in all the commotion, I also discarded the flat piece that sealed of the can. That left me with the center piece of the spout and the cap.
Since I don’t like the idea of the diesel can being open to the elements, I needed to figured out some way to seal the top of it.
I let this stew in the dark recesses of my mind for a number of weeks. I kept thinking of making an epoxy disc that would sit on the gasketed end of the spout and seal when the cap was tightened down. But, it would have to be smooth on one side to seal effectively. I put it off until finally, I had to do something.
We keep plastic butter, sour cream, and cottage cheese containers for storage and other miscellaneous uses. I pulled out a lid that I was going to use as the bottom of the disc form. It was at that point that I had an epiphany of epic proportions: cut a disc from the plastic lid. Well, gawly darn shoot fire and spit. What a novel idea. Why didn’t I think of that sooner? I suppose because I was too busy making the project way more complicated than it needed to be.
And there it is. Better than new.
