Portable Air Tank

Intro: Portable Air Tank

My tractor has a slow leak and I hate bringing out an air hose to fill it. Someday I'll pull the tires and fix them or just slime them. for now I made a simple air tank I can use to fill the tire with my regular tire chuck.

I had this empty helium tank from a party balloon kit. I used a saw to slice off the valve and tapped the hole for a standard 1/4 pipe fitting. I installed a tee using a close nipple. then added a gauge and quick disconnect fitting. I had all the parts laying around so it really only cost me 30 minutes time. with some resourceful digging you could do the same.

to  make filling easy I connected two quick change fittings to a ball valve. You could add a blowoff instead of or in addition to the gauge but the tank i used already had a safety device. these tanks come from the factory at 260 psi. they are leak tested at the factory at 325 psi to keep from blowing the safety. most home air compressors cant go over 150 but some tiny ones will go 220 if you wait a while. if you do something stupid like use an hvac pump you will blow the safety popoff. so don't push it

A quick coat of John Deere green to match the tractor and that's it........

Comments

[danielandersen2]

You may want to fill it with some lacquer(or paint or whatever) first as the tanks are not protected internally from rust... That's where the biggest safety concern is. A tank rupturing from even 40 psi is quite devastating.

[Waxball]

What's the helium tank rupture pressure? I was raised by an A/C tech and heard horror stories of the converted tanks exploding and injuring people. Is the $40 you saved worth risking serous injury?

[rjkorn]

that's what the safety blowoff is for. please read before you post.....

[Waxball]

I did read your right up. It isn't safe, you're betting injury on a 1" metal blowoff.

[joeterrier]

I read the write up.... what are you talking about? the safety device is named that for a reason.

he's running it at half to one third the pressure it was originally designed for so there's little chance of failure.

I've seen freon 22 tanks with that same thin wall design and blowoff and they operate under higher pressure that the helium has.

I've personally used the same freon tank as an air tank for 25 years with no issues. I just bought one f those screw on conversion kits. its an old and proven idea.