I
got hold of a 2.5 gal stainless steel fire extinguisher that was used with
compressed water and I decided this would make a perfect air tank for my
onboard air setup.
In
the picture to the left you can see approx. how large this tank
is. It's pretty much your standard size for public or commercial
buildings. The kind you normally see hanging on the wall. The
tank is rated at 220 psi which is much more than I'll ever be
putting in it so that's perfect. I paid about $15 for this used
tank. It was all charged and full of water and was ready to go.
It was decommissioned by it's former owner and I picked it up
from a Fire Extinguisher shop.
First
thing you'll need to do is discharge your extinguisher if it's
full. The gauge on the side should tell you what the status is. Don't
try to disassemble the tank with pressure inside!!
To
begin the disassembly use channel-lock pliers or some other tool
to loosen the hex cap nut on that holds the valve to the tank.
Pull out the suction tube and the valve assembly. You'll see the
magenta arrow is pointing at the threads where the valve was
secured to the tank.
Above
you can see the different parts threaded into the valve fitting.
The red arrow is pointing to the schrader valve used to put
pressure in the tank when used as an extinguisher. The green
arrow is pointing to the ready gauge and the blue to the suction
tube that goes into the tank.
Remove
the suction tube and after that you'll be able to pull the
plunger pin out.
One
way to complete this conversion would be to chase a 1/2 NPT
tap through this hole where the discharge hose used to go, but
I couldn't find one cheap enough or anyone that I knew that
had one. So I tightened the hose back into the valve body and
then as you'll see in the lower images used a barbed brass
fitting in the hose.
In
the above pictures you can see the finished product. While it
may not look pretty it is VERY functional and I'm considering
getting another one to add to it to get a total of 5gal
capacity. The best part of this setup is that I can leave the
tank at home when I don't need it. It's not permanently mounted
in the Jeep.
Below
is a description of what the arrows are pointing at:
cyan - a tank pressure gauge. I drilled out and used a 1/8" NPT
tap where the original plunger came up through the valve body to
contact the squeeze handle. As and extinguisher this is a none
threaded hole that the plunger pin diverts the water out of the
discharge hose. With the pin removed this hole has to be plugged
for the tank to hold air.
white
- is a 1/8"NPT plug that I used to replace the extinguisher
gauge. It's not useful for accurate pressure readings. There is
only a very small hole to this port in the valve body so it
wouldn't use useful for quantity air flow. I could have put the
gauge here instead of on top but I like it on top better.
(Easier to read)
purple - this is where the original discharge hose was and I cut it
off, and hose clamped in a brass barbed fitting then used a T
fitting and to get to my input/output to the tank.
red - this is a female quick disconnect that connects to the coil
hose which then connects to my pump
setup. This allows for the portability of the tank.
green - this is a small regulator that I could use if I were running
air tools. At the moment I don't have any air tools so I run it
wide open when filling my tires.
blue - this is a second female quick disconnect that connects to my
bulk hose that I use to put air in the tires. I bought a 50'
hose at Home Depot and then built and clip on air chuck/hose
piece so that I don't have to hold the hose on the tire valve
stem. Having a female disconnect on both the input and the
output allows me to fill up the tank and then disconnect it from
the system and have it still hold air. A Male disconnect
anywhere in the tank setup and the tank would empty right away.
That's
all there is to it. All of the fittings and quick disconnects
etc. I purchased at Home Depot between the plumbing section and
the tool section. 2.5 gal isn't enough to fill one 33" tire
back up after airing down but it is a big help. Having a tank
allows the compressor to shut off every once in a while so that
it's not running the entire time I'm trying to fill 4 tires.
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