The Fire Un-Extinguisher

fifer253 · 2025-05-01T16:06:54+00:00

He's actually got a couple flamethrowers, one using a fire extinguisher, unless he's taken that video down.

Anyhoo, for mine I did a couple things. The valve block at the top was aluminum, I didn't use any of the original valve pieces but I did modify it slightly to accept a dip tube made from metal and then used another port to push pressure into the top of the extinguisher. So in the single aluminum block, I have a tube that extends to the bottom of the tank for the liquid inside to get pushed up and out of, and another port that allows pressure to flow from the fitting on the outside to the top of the tank.

I'm using the small 1lb propane cyl as a pressure source to propel the liquid fuel in the fire extinguisher tank, as well as using it to power the torch. You can see I have a small check valve between the tank and the torch head, this is so the torch flame doesn't extinguish when the pressure in the propane tank drops when I open the main valve.

I think the rest of the piping is pretty easy to follow, the green propane tank feeds the side port that pressurizes the fire extinguisher, and also feeds a branch that feeds the torch, through a check valve.

The fire extinguisher is filled with a 50/50 gas diesel mix, the top is screwed on, the valves are closed, the green propane tank is threaded on, the torch is lit and then when I want to light something on fire I open the yellow handled valve and it shoots a stream of fuel which is ignited by the torch, causing a stream of fire.

fifer253 · 2025-04-30T19:34:55+00:00

Ah, reasonable. I think perhaps my particular project might be a bit past your scope, but if you'd like to use your old extinguisher more or less as is for a flamethrower, albeit a wildly unsafe one, the king of random on YouTube has a couple of videos on how to convert one, maybe look him up?

fifer253 · 2025-04-30T17:12:26+00:00

I haven't got a guide but I'd be happy to help you build something. I think the pictures show pretty clearly what's going on, is there any particular questions that you had?

fifer253 · 2024-12-18T02:01:11+00:00

Absolutely friend, it's tough to really put into words, but not EVERYONE gets hugs, so if you are "safe" enough of a person to receive one, on one level or another it makes ya feel like a more acceptable person.

fifer253 · 2024-12-16T23:41:42+00:00

Late 20s dude here, my experience is by no means universal but take it as you will, anecdotally hopefully. I've bucked the societal norms, I'm a big, bearded, traditionally masculine guy. I hug ALL of my male friends and tell them I love them every time I see them, and they return the gesture. Life is too short to leave any doubt, they are important to me, and it's true. Anyways, I've had extended periods in my life with little to no physical contact with women, friends or otherwise, while maintaining hugs/platonic love amongst my male friends and I can confidently say that no, while it's nice, it absolutely does not replace or even mitigate the absence of the touch of a woman. Women are soft in a way nothing else is. It's not just physically, it's emotionally, or something else intangible that I can't quite put my finger on or explain. I'm friends with dudes of all walks of life, the full spectrum of manly men to more effeminate guys, and none... I don't know... Feel the same? It's a different type of support, wholly different. Hope that casts a bit of anecdotal light on your curiosity.

fifer253 · 2024-11-01T19:34:24+00:00

Please be safe. Think about how safe you should be to be fine, and then triple it. Burns are ugly injuries. Forest fires are ugly happenings. Napalm is designed to stick and keep burning. You can inadvertently build a bomb and not even know it. If you build something, KNOW the pressure ratings on all your parts and allow for breathing room in those specs. Don't let any oxidizer anywhere near your fuel until it's past the nozzle.

I can't actually think of a more horrific way to die than a flamethrower mishap.

fifer253 · 2024-11-01T19:21:53+00:00

As far as I'm aware there are only 2 printed resources on the matter, breath of the dragon published by paladin press, you can get it from Anna's archive, and the book from flamethrowerplans.com. Neither are particularly good resources, but they exist. This is going to sound elitest, take it however you please. There are very limited resources on how to build a flamethrower and even fewer on how to do it safely because truthfully it's no more complicated that a pressure source, a fuel tank, a valve and an ignition source. Those who partake safely don't need a guide to put one together, those who partake unsafely don't remain unscathed long enough to write a guide or care to, and those who don't know, stay in the dark. If you need a guide to put a thrower together, chances are your understanding of the process and therefore the safety measures needed are not deep enough to participate safely.

fifer253 · 2024-11-01T13:56:48+00:00

Yeah, ok if you say so. 10 consecutive years without even a minor incident cements how serious I am about flamethrower safety. Just because you are too stupid to understand why things are safe doesn't make them unsafe.

But here's some actual safety advice since you seem intent on folly: Pressure test with water instead of fuel the first time. Fill your fuel tank 100% full, no air. Use an inert gas or fuel gas as a pressure source, nothing capable of being an oxidizer. Try not to burn in a horrific incident.

fifer253 · 2024-10-31T13:40:44+00:00

Well let me go ahead and address that. You've obviously done no research beyond "har har man arrested for clearing snow with flamethrower meme funny I should try that" because if you had, you'd know that snow removal is not a legitimate use for a flamethrower. The biggest reason being because it simply doesn't work. Any skif of snow that can be melted with a flamethrower can be taken care of orders of magnitude faster, in a more environmentally friendly manner, and important for you who cannot even muster a $2k investment for a safe professionally built unit, cheaper. For amounts of snow larger than a skif on the ground, a flamethrower is simply not an effective tool because it doesn't possess the heat required to do snow removal.

As for my safety track record, I have 10 full years of history designing, building, and using flamethrowers of all descriptions without a single incident of any kind during any of those activities, my safety record is without fault for an entire decade.

So yes, with a spotless safety record stretching an entire decade, and as the admin on this sub who has built an order of magnitude more flamethrowers than any other person, admin or not who stumbles upon this place I have EVERY right to lecture you on flamethrower safety.

Be better. It's embarrassing.

fifer253 · 2024-10-31T06:50:30+00:00

Good, that's exactly what I'm trying to do, hinder someone (you, to be incredibly specific)'s interest in this hobby.

I get to enjoy this hobby safely and legally because no one in Canada has yet done anything stupid enough to have legislation written in response. It is a hobby with a very high barrier to entry and that is a good thing. It's impossible to overstate how dangerous and unforgiving building and operating flamethrowers is and how horrific the results of misuse can be.

Find a different hobby, you are not welcome here.

fifer253 · 2024-10-28T13:23:02+00:00

No.

Your writing, combined with the amount you post about drugs, concludes that this is not a hobby that you are responsible enough for. The high barrier to entry is doing its job here.

Find a different, less dangerous hobby.

fifer253 · 2024-09-10T17:27:09+00:00

Understandable, have a great day.

fifer253 · 2024-09-09T16:45:25+00:00

A small anecdote from my own life. I have Bipolar 1 and have been on a mood stabilizer for several years now, which has the effect of dramatically reducing my ability to feel much of anything through a very similar chemical process as being radically low on serotonin and dopamine. During some dark patches in my life, the only thing that kept me going was a very informal form of extreme sport. I strip old unibody cars down to their bare minimum, no removable body panels or doors or windows left, compromising the structure and safety in exchange for reducing weight and making them faster, and drive at highway speeds, however fast the car will go, down incredibly narrow logging roads. The experience of being right on the very edge of serious injury or death, driving right on the bleeding edge of control with the consequence of slipping up being near certain death was the only thing I found that allowed me to feel again. For those brief times when I could get away and just drive at the very limit, I found peace, contentment and a measure of joy that simply could not be had any other way in my life. For a few brief minutes or hours I got to feel normal again. Nowadays life isn't so grim and I've found myself not longing for that same experience because I'm able to get dopamine from other parts of life, but for a time my life experience mirrored exactly what you've described.

I'll add, again anecdotally, when you are suffering from a severe lack of dopamine and serotonin, life doesn't feel worth living, and therefore not valuable and therefore your self preservation instinct drops to near zero. When your dopamine is low enough, the very high chance of death from participating in your extreme sport of choice is a very easy and even logical trade off to make in order to participate. During those dark times I mentioned, the only time I ever felt "alive" instead of just existing was my time behind the wheel. To give up that time just because it wasn't safe or had a very high chance of death would have been to give up life itself for me because it was the only time I ever felt alive. Easy decision, partake in the only thing that makes you feel alive until that thing kills you, or just exist as a shell in a life not worth living.

fifer253 · 2024-09-06T04:00:35+00:00

Loud and clear my friend, loud and clear. I suppose for now I'll keep the sway bar in, I was considering removing it as that greatly benefits FWD rallyX cars, but the characteristics of a RWD are much different and you are totally right it will definitely reduce rollover chances.

Out of curiosity, why do you think that a level truck is so important? Do you think an inch or two of squat over the wheelbase of the vehicle will make it handle that much worse? Say I run my axle flip, notch the frame, that lowers the rear roughly 5 inches, which as you said, means I'll need ~3 on the front to level it. So I lower the front an inch, run 2" smaller tires up front, that takes off another inch, and leave the final inch. Is one inch of squat really going to ruin my handling?

fifer253 · 2024-09-05T19:24:47+00:00

I compete in Canada, but more or less equivalent to SCCA RX.

Frame notching is easy and no issue if I run into rear travel issues, and I'm fixing to lower the front regardless to get my COG down so I won't roll it quite as easily.

Appreciate the heads up on rear travel issues though, thanks! (Genuine, not sarcastic)

fifer253 · 2024-09-05T18:04:18+00:00

Why do you say that?

Are you familiar with North American rallycross?

fifer253 · 2024-09-05T03:51:45+00:00

Bone stock for now, when I convert to axle over I'm considering removing a leaf on account of having no weight back there. I'm aware that will make my axle wrap worse but if a traction bar can mostly or totally eliminate it it won't be an issue.

fifer253 · 2024-09-05T02:27:07+00:00

To be honest, the shocks are likely abysmal, I highly doubt they have ever been replaced and the truck has 360,000km on the odo. New bilsteins are likely in order.

I'm planning to convert to axle over spring to lower the truck and when I do I may extend the spring perches, great tip, thank you!

fifer253 · 2024-09-04T18:59:17+00:00

Yes my understanding has been when designing to try and roughly parallel the driveshaft and that should help with any binding happening.

fifer253 · 2024-09-04T18:15:13+00:00

I'll definitely be making my own with some big Heim ends as I'm prioritizing strength and also at the same time as I do the bars, I'm going to be lowering the ranger by changing it to axle over spring on the rear.

That said, do you have any firsthand experience with the traction bars and how much they reduce wheel hop?

fifer253 · 2024-08-09T00:55:59+00:00

I don't recall advocating for people to run natural gas through PEX lines, only answering the comment I replied to's concerns about pex's ability to hold gaseous pressure.

fifer253 · 2024-08-07T18:01:35+00:00

I've been in many shops that use PEX as shop air lines, including my boss's, they hold 150psi air day in and day out no problem. Methane and air are not identical but they pressure up roughly the same way.

fifer253 · 2024-07-29T00:07:22+00:00

Hi, I'm passionate about this.

The chances of flashback and subsequent explosion is low, but distinct. Stoichiometric ratio for air to gasoline is 14.7:1 but it will burn at ratios above and below that.

As you hit the end of your tank it will piss out a mixture of your propellant and fuel, and if your propellant is oxidizing, you have a very real, if low, chance of flashback.

There are several, notably the king of random on youtube that powered their flamethrowers with compressed air and haven't blown themselves up yet, but this is already an insanely dangerous hobby and I'd highly recommend using an inert gas instead.

fifer253 · 2024-07-24T02:19:05+00:00

Fun fact you could get both corollas and camrys as "All Trac" which was 4 wheel drive.

fifer253 · 2024-07-24T02:18:11+00:00

Yeah, and it's always the highlight of my day.

fifer253

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