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Fire extinguishers as air tanks?


FridgeFreezer

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After a bit of an incident with a wood-burning stove and some insulation foam :blink: in the workshop this morning (before I arrived) there were a couple of small (2-3kg) powder extinguishers laying round dead. So of course I had to take one apart :D

Basically the business end is cheap plastic nozzle and very tiny rather arbitary "dead/OK/about to explode" pressure gauge. But the bottle itself is very light aluminium, threaded neck and aparrently good for 130psi working / 300psi+ burst pressure.

So, any reason not to use one as an air reservoir?

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Finding the thread for neck would be the trickiest part I believe.

If its something like 1" BSP then you are laughing.

Mount it somewhere - so if it does go bang, you don't get a face full of scrapnel

Have confidence in your regulator - so you don't over pressurise it :o

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Finding the thread for neck would be the trickiest part I believe.

If its something like 1" BSP then you are laughing.

Mount it somewhere - so if it does go bang, you don't get a face full of scrapnel

Have confidence in your regulator - so you don't over pressurise it :o

Another option!

Use a plastic coke bottle or two. They need ovr 300psi to explode - and even when it does, save for the LOUD bang, it's pretty unexciting on the shrapnel death front.

Free, easy to replace, free.

Don't bother about having to match the thread on the bottle the thread, just use a screw in type tyre valve (used on some types of tubeless rims) in the original top. 10mm OD 8mm bore nylon pneumatic hose screws on to tyre valve very securely.

If you want to be even more clever, glue a microswitch to the inside of a big jubilee clip. Tape the clip to the bottle such that when the bottle expands sufficiently, it pushes the microswitch which shuts off the compressor. Adjust pressure by adjusting jubilee clip - it actually works pretty well.

I've seen a manifold made from a block of wood with three bottle tops attached to one face. screw in bottles and you are away.

Glass ones are much more exciting on the death front - and take a surprising pressure (off the end of the scale on my 250psi gauge). Make a nice sound when they blow - but there are still bits of glass embedded in the wall next to where it blew (in a very scientific experiment kind of way). I imagine they might sting a little in the face!

Si

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