tok-tokkie
Race Dog
I am busy setting up my Dakar to tour the gramadoelas of this country. I need to be able to fix a flat so bought a decent compressor but it was too big to fit into the toolbox I have on my bike. I took the actual compressor out of the plastic box it comes in and disconnected the hose and electrical wire and then it would fit in but now my problem was how to store it safely in there.
Here is what I made:
Basically what I did was make a wooden box the size I wanted and squirted builders filler foam into two plastic bags. The foam expanded to fill the box and enclose the compressor.
Here is the box with bits of the plastic bags sticking out:
This is what it looked like when I opened the box. I had wrapped the compressor in workshop paper towels and then wrapped it in cling-wrap. This was so that there would be a little extra space for the compressor so it would be easy to fit in. In the first photo there is a little stainless steel thimble thing. That was a piece of pipe I had lying about which I shaped to fit over the electrical connector to protect it from the pressure of the foam as it expanded.
Here it is trimmed and closed:
Some notes:
1. The polyurethane foam needs water for the foaming & setting reaction. I poured a little water into the bags before squirting the un-foamed foam in. I then blew into the bags to open them up & shook them to really get the water onto the un-foamed juice and then squirted some more of the juice in and shook it some more.
2. The box was all screwed together except for the lid so I placed the first bag in the bottom then put the compressor on top of that and then placed the second bag in and screwed the lid on. In fact I did the whole of the bottom bag filling & placement before starting the top bag so the bottom bag expanded before the top one & the two foam blocks are not the same size.
3. Although there were a lot of screws the box burst. I stuck it in a carpenters vice & screwed it back closed & fitted G-clamps to the other long sides.
4. I left it for a day before taking it out of the vice & then left the box on my under carpet heated office floor for a couple of days to be sure that the reaction was absolutely completed before opening the box.
5. I was very surprised to find the foam has not stuck to the polyethelene bags.
Here is what I made:
Basically what I did was make a wooden box the size I wanted and squirted builders filler foam into two plastic bags. The foam expanded to fill the box and enclose the compressor.
Here is the box with bits of the plastic bags sticking out:
This is what it looked like when I opened the box. I had wrapped the compressor in workshop paper towels and then wrapped it in cling-wrap. This was so that there would be a little extra space for the compressor so it would be easy to fit in. In the first photo there is a little stainless steel thimble thing. That was a piece of pipe I had lying about which I shaped to fit over the electrical connector to protect it from the pressure of the foam as it expanded.
Here it is trimmed and closed:
Some notes:
1. The polyurethane foam needs water for the foaming & setting reaction. I poured a little water into the bags before squirting the un-foamed foam in. I then blew into the bags to open them up & shook them to really get the water onto the un-foamed juice and then squirted some more of the juice in and shook it some more.
2. The box was all screwed together except for the lid so I placed the first bag in the bottom then put the compressor on top of that and then placed the second bag in and screwed the lid on. In fact I did the whole of the bottom bag filling & placement before starting the top bag so the bottom bag expanded before the top one & the two foam blocks are not the same size.
3. Although there were a lot of screws the box burst. I stuck it in a carpenters vice & screwed it back closed & fitted G-clamps to the other long sides.
4. I left it for a day before taking it out of the vice & then left the box on my under carpet heated office floor for a couple of days to be sure that the reaction was absolutely completed before opening the box.
5. I was very surprised to find the foam has not stuck to the polyethelene bags.
