Mine , however recently had to fix the valve as it gets hit and bends as not very stable lol . It’s my Mk1 design !Looking at the price of off-the-shelf tanks got me thinking about council alternatives, before arriving at the idea of repurposing a fire extinguisher.
Unsurprisingly the internet had beaten me to it and this very much seems to be a legit and pretty straightforward process. Empty extinguishers seem to be next to worthless, however I'm currently having a job finding one locally.. I'm tempted to contact a local fire safety equipment supplier but am not sure whether they'd typically refurb old examples.
Has anyone else tried this? I'd be interested to know how you got on
Has anyone repurposed an empty fire extinguisher into a tubeless inflater tank?
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Yep I’m all ears !
D
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alex_cycles
Veteran
- Location
- Oxfordshire
D
Deleted member 26715
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He heard it
Through the grapevine?
From the top of the 8l volume tank remove grey nut with the black tube and you will have a clear dipstick tube inside the volume tank
Cut around 150mm from this ,,,,.
Reinstate the grey nut black tube on the volume tank
Cut the black tube off at the green nozzle end as the nozzle valve is a needle valve and will not let the air from the volume tank into the tyre fast enough
At black tube end put 15mm nut over tube
Push in 8mm insert ( steel or metal ) you may need to put tube in hit water to soften
Place crush washer in correct way
Tighten up against valve
Repeat the other side of valve
That's it
Mine has been modified to use as tyre setter and garden spray...but that's a bit more work
Cut around 150mm from this ,,,,.
Reinstate the grey nut black tube on the volume tank
Cut the black tube off at the green nozzle end as the nozzle valve is a needle valve and will not let the air from the volume tank into the tyre fast enough
At black tube end put 15mm nut over tube
Push in 8mm insert ( steel or metal ) you may need to put tube in hit water to soften
Place crush washer in correct way
Tighten up against valve
Repeat the other side of valve
That's it
Mine has been modified to use as tyre setter and garden spray...but that's a bit more work
Attachments
dickyknees
Guru
- Location
- Anglesey
Here is mine I cobbled together.
Fire extinguisher was free, an out of date CO2 extinguisher from a fire management firm with a suitable donation to their tea kitty.
Fire extinguisher was free, an out of date CO2 extinguisher from a fire management firm with a suitable donation to their tea kitty.
dickyknees
Guru
- Location
- Anglesey
Used one of these as in inlet valve.
Cheers all
So.. I've still had no luck in sourcing a fire extinguisher, however did find this discarded on the side of the road earlier:
I assume courtesy of some local yoofs in a Vauxhall Corsa with a farty exhaust; as all the cool kids seem to be interested in aerated dairy-based deserts currently
It's ally, 0.95l, and rated to 30bar working pressure / 165bar test pressure - so should be perfectly adequate for my uses
Irritatingly while the fitting initally looks a lot like the ubiquitous 1/8" BSP, turns out it's M11x1.0 - very odd but probably intentionally so.
The thread in the bottle neck is a more conventional M10x1.0 and male-male adaptors are available to convert this to BSP; they're a bit shorter than I'd like since they're going into ally but at these pressures I think there's still a good factor of safety.
For now the plan is to see if I can lash together something using standard fittings, depending on what I can find on the net..
That looks like a really nice idea (love the versatility they've built in) however I agree that the inlet looks like a bit of a nightmare
Thanks - that looks like a great idea and I have one of these; however it's currently full of woodworm treatment and I'm not sure my tyres would like that
Nice work; although I think I'd prefer to leave the vessel intact and add the valve to the body at the top.
Cheers - I bet 8l takes a while to fill - is it easy enough to control the flow to stop the tyre getting over-inflated once it's on the rim?
So.. I've still had no luck in sourcing a fire extinguisher, however did find this discarded on the side of the road earlier:
I assume courtesy of some local yoofs in a Vauxhall Corsa with a farty exhaust; as all the cool kids seem to be interested in aerated dairy-based deserts currently
It's ally, 0.95l, and rated to 30bar working pressure / 165bar test pressure - so should be perfectly adequate for my uses
Irritatingly while the fitting initally looks a lot like the ubiquitous 1/8" BSP, turns out it's M11x1.0 - very odd but probably intentionally so.
The thread in the bottle neck is a more conventional M10x1.0 and male-male adaptors are available to convert this to BSP; they're a bit shorter than I'd like since they're going into ally but at these pressures I think there's still a good factor of safety.
For now the plan is to see if I can lash together something using standard fittings, depending on what I can find on the net..
Last edited:
Cheers all
That looks like a really nice idea (love the versatility they've built in) however I agree that the inlet looks like a bit of a nightmare
Thanks - that looks like a great idea and I have one of these; however it's currently full of woodworm treatment and I'm not sure my tyres would like that
Nice work; although I think I'd prefer to leave the vessel intact and add the valve to the body at the top.
Cheers - I bet 8l takes a while to fill - is it easy enough to
the flow to stop the tyre getting over-inflated once it's on the rim?
So.. I've still had no luck in sourcing a fire extinguisher, however did find this discarded on the side of the road earlier:
View attachment 652796
View attachment 652797
View attachment 652798
View attachment 652799
I assume courtesy of some local yoofs in a Vauxhall Corsa with a farty exhaust; as all the cool kids seem to be interested in aerated dairy-based deserts currently
It's ally, 0.95l, and rated to 30bar working pressure / 165bar test pressure - so should be perfectly adequate for my uses
Irritatingly while the fitting initally looks a lot like the ubiquitous 1/8" BSP, turns out it's M11x1.0 - very odd but probably intentionally so.
The thread in the bottle neck is a more conventional M10x1.0 and male-male adaptors are available to convert this to BSP; they're a bit shorter than I'd like since they're going into ally but at these pressures I think there's still a good factor of safety.
For now the plan is to see if I can lash together something using standard fittings, depending on what I can find on the net..
Cheers all
That looks like a really nice idea (love the versatility they've built in) however I agree that the inlet looks like a bit of a nightmare
Thanks - that looks like a great idea and I have one of these; however it's currently full of woodworm treatment and I'm not sure my tyres would like that
Nice work; although I think I'd prefer to leave the vessel intact and add the valve to the body at the top.
Cheers - I bet 8l takes a while to fill - is it easy enough to control the flow to stop the tyre getting over-inflated once it's on the rim?
So.. I've still had no luck in sourcing a fire extinguisher, however did find this discarded on the side of the road earlier:
View attachment 652796
View attachment 652797
View attachment 652798
View attachment 652799
I assume courtesy of some local yoofs in a Vauxhall Corsa with a farty exhaust; as all the cool kids seem to be interested in aerated dairy-based deserts currently
It's ally, 0.95l, and rated to 30bar working pressure / 165bar test pressure - so should be perfectly adequate for my uses
Irritatingly while the fitting initally looks a lot like the ubiquitous 1/8" BSP, turns out it's M11x1.0 - very odd but probably intentionally so.
The thread in the bottle neck is a more conventional M10x1.0 and male-male adaptors are available to convert this to BSP; they're a bit shorter than I'd like since they're going into ally but at these pressures I think there's still a good factor of safety.
For now the plan is to see if I can lash together something using standard fittings, depending on what I can find on the net..
The quarter turn valve allows you to control the flow as much as you want
However the idea is to whack it open to get the big blast into the tyres
You do have to pump it up till the relief valve leaks out at top ...not that long to get upto pressure and I've no idea how much it is in comparison to pumping up a fire extinguisher with a track pump
Joey Shabadoo
My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
I have an empty 1kg if you want it. Pop me your address by pm and I'll send it off to you.
Thanks - I just wondered if there was a danger of over-inflating the tyre once it'd sealed given the capacity, however it might be mitigated by a lower pressure compared to other solutions. It'd be interesting to know what sort of pressure they can produce
Thanks - that's very generous of you - will drop you a PM tomorrow
Cheers; hadn't thought of the practicalities of needing something whilst out; although I guess worst-case you can always bang an emergency tube in so all's not lost
figbat
Slippery scientist
- Location
- South Oxfordshire, UK
Don’t underestimate how tricky it can be to “bang an emergency tube in”. Firstly it’s a very messy situation with tubeless sealant everywhere which will coat your hands and anything you touch; have hand cleaning options available. Next, you need a way to remove the tubeless valve - they often don’t just push out and need some pliers or similar to remove them. Finally you’ll need to check the whole tyre carefully for any embedded thorns or flints that would puncture your emergency tube - again remembering that the tyre is covered in gunk as you do this.Cheers; hadn't thought of the practicalities of needing something whilst out; although I guess worst-case you can always bang an emergency tube in so all's not lost
I will always try to fix the problem in situ before attempting to put a tube in; I’ve not yet had a problem that a sticky worm didn’t fix. CO2 canisters are a good option for quick inflation on-the-trail.
chriswoody
Legendary Member
- Location
- Northern Germany
What you need to remember is that all you are doing is seating the bead of the tire into the rim. Weather you use a homemade solution or a commercially bought tank, you are still dumping the best part of 130 psi straight into the tire, most of which will escape during the process. Once the bead has popped on with a reassuring crack, you then deflate the tire again when you remove the connection to the valve. If the whole operation has been successful then the tire will remain fully seated on the wheel. So the danger of over inflating the tire is a completely non existent one.
Cheers; hadn't thought of the practicalities of needing something whilst out; although I guess worst-case you can always bang an emergency tube in so all's not lost
As @figbat mentions above, not only is it a messy affair popping a tube into a tubeless set up, but you are also going to struggle like hell to remove the tire in the first place. My first set of tires that I set up tubeless stayed in place on the rim for their entire two year life span. When I finally came to remove them I had to get pretty medieval to get them off with a bunch of workshop tools that you could never carry on the trail. So I really wouldn't worry about re-seating them whilst out. In over three years of tubeless riding on some pretty full on off-roading, I've yet too have a deflation through a puncture. When I go bikepacking on multi day trips in remote locations, I only take a small Lezyne handpump and some tubeless worms, that all.
