I had an old co2 extinguisher I’d be using to gas up my home bar. Once it was finished I thought I’d make it into a tubeless inflator.
I got a Topeak replacement hose and chuck kit for a tenner off someone on here.
I basically just attached that to the end where the funnel bit would have been. None of the fittings I had fitted exactly, so I used one of the barbs, a bit of silicone hose and a couple of jubilee clips.
The next bit was how to get air into it. There is a little hex headed bit that I guess was used for recharging it. I drilled it out to 6 mm, cut a presta valve out of an old inner tube and slotted it in. This was the most difficult bit as the drill had to be quite accurate – not a huge amount of material if you get it wrong. I used a pillar drill at uni.
Have pumped it up to 100 psi and nothing leaks and nothing flies off when you squeeze the handle.
Annoyingly (not really) the last tubeless tyres I fitted went on with a track pump so I’ve not had a chance to test it out. Seems like it will work well though.
Wrap some heavy cloth or tape around those jubilee clips, if it does decide to detach then jubilee clips are famous for taking chunks out of flesh when whipping around on hoses etc.
If you still have the plastic bung that goes into the hose at the pump end it fits perfectly inside the brass nut, removing the blowing possibility of your silicone adaptor. I’ll be wirewheeling mine at some point and covering it in stickers as it looks a bit too much like a real extinguisher for my liking. Had it up to 160psi with absolutely no issues, makes an awesome reservoir for bottle-rockets too 😀
Looks nicer than mine and I have accesss to every kind of fitting/cylinder you can think of. For those worried about the fill valve, just fill it via the outlet. That’s how it’s filled normally.
if you get a water extinguisher it already has a valve fitted
No new extinguishers have valves fitted, the last manufacturer to include these on their extinguishers phased them out many years ago, they are still out there to be found occasionally, usually polished stainless steel units.
It was only last night that I was screaming the C word at some ice spiker pros that refused to go up tubeless with a floorpump. I really must sort a proper compressor
Northwind has a properly big one, I’d make one of those if I had the space. My little orange one is the size of an airshot. I put 120 psi in before hitting discharge and that’s generally not quite eno
Mine has been up to 200psi with no deaths! Did 4 tyres with that.
I have a compressor as well now which means I only need it for trips away, but I can fill it from the compressor before sticking it in the van which is a bonus