# Legal vanilla steel-\>aluminum transmutation?

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940>\
**Category:** The Garage\
**Created:** [March 5, 2020, 11:39am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940 "2020-03-05T11:39:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![GiggleGrassGatherer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/gigglegrassgatherer/32/7743_2.png) [@GiggleGrassGatherer](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/GiggleGrassGatherer)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 11:39am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940/1 "2020-03-05T11:39:21Z")

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Not sure if a bug or intended (okay, almost sure not intended but still better check here first).

1. Make an antenna from a chunk of steel
2. Check what it is made of
3. process it in metal compactor
4. get aluminum foil (or ingot if you have many antennas)
5. WTF?

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**Author:** ![Tamior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Tamior](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Tamior)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940/2 "2020-03-05T15:18:23Z")

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Steel into aluminum is rather amateur alchemy as far as CDDA goes.  
You can make a muffler from normal steel, and then disassemble it into a bit of _platinum_.  
[http://cdda-trunk.chezzo.com/muffler](http://cdda-trunk.chezzo.com/muffler)

Philosophers Stone, in my muffler?!  
It’s more likely than you think!

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**Author:** ![GiggleGrassGatherer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/gigglegrassgatherer/32/7743_2.png) [@GiggleGrassGatherer](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/GiggleGrassGatherer)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 5:15pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940/3 "2020-03-05T17:15:56Z")

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> [@Tamior](#):
>
> [Muffler - Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead](http://cdda-trunk.chezzo.com/muffler)

> Materials: [Steel](http://cdda-trunk.chezzo.com/materials/steel)

I don’t see any platinum there…

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**Author:** ![Tamior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Tamior](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Tamior)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940/4 "2020-03-05T17:26:31Z")

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Look under disassemble:  
[http://cdda-trunk.chezzo.com/muffler/disassemble](http://cdda-trunk.chezzo.com/muffler/disassemble)

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**Author:** ![khearn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/khearn/32/7903_2.png) [@khearn](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/khearn)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940/5 "2020-03-05T18:17:30Z")

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Somebody has confused mufflers with catalytic converters.

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**Author:** ![Tamior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Tamior](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Tamior)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940/6 "2020-03-05T19:39:16Z")

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To be fair, since there are no converters in the game at the moment, they just slapped converter’s “functionality” onto the closest part that _does_ exist.  
“functionality” in this case being “to serve as a source of platinum for actual catalytic converter used for chemistry”.

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**Author:** ![khearn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/khearn/32/7903_2.png) [@khearn](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/khearn)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940/7 "2020-03-05T23:38:03Z")

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Heck, what about those platinum dental grills all the little kids are wearing? You could build a platinum golem out of the various jewelry bits and bobs one finds on zombies. Who needs to get it out of mufflers/cats?

Besides, it’s not like your average survivor can extract the platinum from a catalytic converter. It’s not like there’s a chunk of pure platinum in there. It’s spread out along with palladium, rhodium (and maybe others) in a washcoat (often aluminum oxide) over a substrate, typically a ceramic grid. It’s recyclable, but requires an industrial process to do it.

Ok, so it’d be a small platinum golem. But why not, since most of the jewelry seems to be found on small zombies? 😉

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**Author:** ![Valase](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/valase/32/6972_2.png) [@Valase](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Valase)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940/8 "2020-03-06T00:36:39Z")

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> [@khearn](#):
>
> Besides, it’s not like your average survivor can extract the platinum from a catalytic converter.

Well, I’d say it’s the same for getting solder back by desoldering/disassembling PCBs. I mean, it’s totally possible, just not very easy to do - on a survivor scale.  
Especially to reuse it without any flux might be a problem…

I guess the antenna and muffler conversion to other materials is not seen as a big problem, since the gain is very little (as in; why bother to get alumin(i)um that way while it’s plentiful on solar cars and some other sources. Same for platinum (and it doesn’t have much use anyway)). I guess that’s also the reason why nobody took the time to fix it yet.

Also, I consider it as a “fair payback” for having, for example, the steel broadsword in your hand completely disintegrate into thin air if you don’t fix it in time.

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**Author:** ![Tamior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Tamior](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Tamior)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 4:57am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940/9 "2020-03-06T04:57:43Z")

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> [@khearn](#):
>
> Heck, what about those platinum dental grills all the little kids are wearing? You could build a platinum golem out of the various jewelry bits and bobs one finds on zombies. Who needs to get it out of mufflers/cats?

Not everyone is playing with vanilla item spawn rates.  
I always play with 0.01, for one.  
Under these circumstances it’s actually important to know where you can get resources _reliably_.

> [@khearn](#):
>
> Besides, it’s not like your average survivor can extract the platinum from a catalytic converter. It’s not like there’s a chunk of pure platinum in there. It’s spread out along with palladium, rhodium (and maybe others) in a washcoat (often aluminum oxide) over a substrate, typically a ceramic grid. It’s recyclable, but requires an industrial process to do it.

Since most of the time this platinum is going to be used in a catalytic converter for chemistry anyway, I don’t even see why you would try and disassemble this unit in the first place — instead of just using it “as is”.

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**Author:** ![Tad](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/tad/32/7468_2.png) [@Tad](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Tad)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2020, 11:04am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/legal-vanilla-steel-aluminum-transmutation/22940/10 "2020-03-06T11:04:05Z")

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_screams in possum_

I Love you.