CO2 fire extinguisher.

An application that requires compressed gas - a CO2 fire extinguisher is
known to be a suitable source.

Does anyone know how I can obtain a couple of fire extinguishers that have
been taken out of service (but are more or less full)?

Obviously scrap prices would be preferable.

TIA.

 

Its for fitting tubeless tyres - but its definitely a "don't try this at
home" unless you know what you're doing!

 

you can get a tank at ?-mart for 20 bucks

 

you can get a tank at ?-mart for 20 bucks

Tank of what? - Here in the UK, one trader showed me a compressed air
canister for seating tubeless, he said getting it charged is only about £4
but the initial outlay is over £80 - not a lot I know, but a bit steep for
only once or twice/year use the scrap fire extinguisher is a better deal.

 

Not if you turn it upside down - it really is that simple.

 

o k tire pump 20 bucks no 10 bucks.
sheeeeeeesh!!!!

 

o k tire pump 20 bucks no 10 bucks.
sheeeeeeesh!!!!

That can seat a tubeless tyre?............tell me more.

 

Not quite the $10 - $20 mentioned by the poster I was replying to. And
neither claim to seat tubeless tyres.

 

Yes, you *can* seat the beads of many tubeless tires with an ordinary
car tire pump.

But you have to get the beads out of the drop center of the rim and
into the area where they will normally seat.

Automotive tire changing shops have an inflatable cloth section of air
hose that wraps around a car tire and hooks to itself. When inflated,
it squeezes the tire bead against the rim so it can be more easily
inflated.

I didn't have one of those gizmos, but I did have a come-along (coffin
hoist).

I wrapped the cable spirally around the tire which I had previously
placed on the rim.

Then I hooked the end of the cable back to itself near the ratchet
frame and cranked the cable tight with the ratchet handle.

The cable provided enough mechanical pressure on the beads to make a
seal
and I used my tire pump to seat the beads.

I learned to do this trick when the local gas stations started
installing those silly
low volume compressors that I need to put coins in to get air for my
car tires.

 

It is quite possible to seat tubeless motorbike tyres with only a mini
12volt tyre inflator.
For Trailer tyres I carry a 2.5Kg color gas bottle on the breakdown van,
pressurise this to 80psi and then dump it quick into the tyre.



-

 

Operating the extinguisher upside down avoids filling the tyre with liquid
CO2, a quick jab on the lever works perfectly - using a bottle with a rotary
valve would be much more dangerous. It goes without saying that this is done
with no valve core fitted in case there's a need to let the pressure out in
a hurry.

 

I've bought 2 different 12V pumps - one turned out to be an expensive
ornament, the other is roll a cigarette and sit down and have a smoke while
it rattles away making a lot of noise and not doing much very fast.

A few years ago I saw a documentary on an Arctic expedition, they were using
4WD trucks with large balloon tyres which turned out to be prone to knocking
off the rims, they demonstrated a trick of squirting lighter butane into the
tyre and lighting it so the explosion blew the tyre back onto the rims,
although its pretty unlikely there are enough square inches on the inside of
a motorcycle tyre for this to work.

 

That was in a Top Gear episode where J & J in a car were racing
R in a sled to the "North Pole" (actually the geomagnetic[1] pole, quite some
distance from the geographic pole), with a group of Icelanders(IIRC) as the
backup crew for the car. The Icelanders showed Jeremy the trick.

[1] Somehow that word was never said, but the sat-nav display showing
78-degrees when they were looking for the "exact" spot rather gave it away.

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Pancake style pumps sometimes get crud between the
rubber "pancake" flap and the surface that it's intended
to seal
to.

Deep down in the plastic housing is a little single
cylinder pump with the rubber flap under the cylinder
head.

The cylinder head can be removed and replaced to
clean the pancake. The pump then starts working better.

I saw something about this too. You might still find a
use for that fire extinguisher.

 

I think the original was TG in Iceland aabout 5 years ago, up mountains
with a group of mad Icelandics (they all are)

I have tried that trick with a 145 13 tyre that had been stored for a while
and there was no way it was going yo seat on the rim! The resulting bang ,
mechanics exiting the workshop, I had no hair on the back of my arm and the
tyre was perfectly seated on the rim!! Next time a bit less lighter gas....
So a bike tyre no problem.

I would have used the same method again last weekend putting winter tyres on
Saab rims but someone hid the gas

Des

 

We do the same, ex 19Kg gas cylinders filled to compressor pressure 120psi,
they have been invaluable on breakdowns and have reseated bike and car
tyres at the roadside, enough to get them back to the garage.

Des

 

My little obsession is how much I can do with minimal tools. The biggest tire I have set the bead for was something like 130mm wide on 13 or 14 inch rim (scooter), using a $60 compressor that had a 1.5-gallon tank. Might have taken three or four short blasts to set but if I had wrapped a tie-down around it first, I'll bet it could have been done with exactly two blasts of about two or three seconds each (I've never seen anybody set both beads with one blast). Now what I wonder is whether a similar-sized tank sans compressor, the kind some husbands I know put in the trunk so that their wives won't 'phone them when they get a flat, would suffice. I presume one could get 70-90 pounds into those with about five minutes of pumping using one of those cheap foot pumps. Those little tanks usually already have the valve hose and attachment and a pressure gauge. I guess they're made in China, but I often see them on sale for about twenty bucks.

If I may drift the topic a bit, I quite agree that a small compressor is almost essential at home if one likes to do one's own maintenance and repairs, not for air tools per se, but for cleaning carbs, drying parts, removing brake pistons and a few other things I forget. However, it seems to me that a group of people going on a trip or even a short rally might find it makes sense for one of the riders carry a small tank and foot pump with them. Much less weight than even a small compressor. What do the people here think about this, eg., what is the biggest tire a 1.5 gallon tank could set the beads on? (Of course, there is always foam for getting home, I always carry it and the stuff I've used is remarkable, have given it twice to people who got home without problem. Note I'm not talking about the "Slime" et al that some people insert in anticipation of a flat.)

 

like i said 20 bucks. if you don't have a pump, your closest mechanic
does. go see him 2 times a year if that's all you need. hell bring it
over to my house and i'll fill it

 

Pancake style pumps sometimes get crud between the
rubber "pancake" flap and the surface that it's intended
to seal
to.

Deep down in the plastic housing is a little single
cylinder pump with the rubber flap under the cylinder
head.

The cylinder head can be removed and replaced to
clean the pancake. The pump then starts working better.

I saw something about this too. You might still find a
use for that fire extinguisher.

 

Somewhere I have a Camping Gaz cylinder which I don't use anymore, the
clever bit would be making my own fittings to pump it up and then coupling
it to a tyre valve.