5¢ escutcheons

       I went up to the house this morning and insulated the piano room.  I also re-positioned the radiator in the hallway where it will permanently reside. Upon sliding the feed and return pipes through the floor and into position, I noticed the need for some escutcheons. You know, those round decorative bits that cover the hole in the floor.  A trip to the local home improvement store resulted in my purchase of exactly what I had feared: Cheesy chinese plastic horse-crap escutcheons with a split in them to fit around the pipes and a horrible simulated chrome finish.
      At two for a buck, I bought a bag. I looked for alternatives, I really did.  For the much smaller 1/2" pipes there was a flimsy one piece chrome one that was made from some type of metal rather than plastic, but also was made in china and looked like crap. For the bigger 1"  -> 1.5" pipes there were these god-awful looking hinged nightmares that I did  not even consider.  So, I took my pair of plastic donuts back to the house and confirmed that they look like crap and then threw them in the garbage.

         A google search revealed that there are nice ornamental bronze/brass ones out there, but they cost around $25 each and are a week away if I order them now.  I have 8 radiators to re-install and plumb, so thats $400 for fancy escutcheons!
       I thought about buying a chunk of bronze and making my own since I have a lathe in my garage.  The cost of bronze was more than I expected, so I considered getting aluminum and using that.  Then it hit me!  It might seem real stupid, but at five cents apiece, I have to try it:  aluminum soda cans!

It took only seconds to make one, so I made ten. Then I ran back to try them out on the radiator.

Truth is they look ok, not great, not amazing, but ok. They look better than the plastic donuts, but I might actually order the nice bronze ones and swap them out.