Custom Fire Fighting Equipment

[Tim_w]

Hello  All

Here are a few pictures of some custom fire equipment I have been working on recently. All of the pieces that you can see here have been specially made to go with my Major Rescue Unit.
This first picture shows a Playmobil hydraulic cutting tool connected up to my own customised air compressor.
The second picture shows a custom 4-stroke petrol generator, which provides the necessary electrical power to run my portable air compressor. The generator can also be hooked up to a set of floodlights if needed.
This third picture is of my air compressor, which is used to power my Playmobil hydraulic cutting tools.
The fourth picture shows a cutting tool, which has been slightly modified to allow the airlines to be connected to them. Tools of this nature would be used to free people trapped in crashed cars amongst other things.

[Tim_w]

Here is a small picture showing the modification made to one end of the airline, which allows several lengths to be connected to each other.

[Tim_w]

This next piece of equipment is called a Thermal Imaging Camera. This piece of equipment can be used to detect hot spots or areas of intense burning in a fire.

[Tim_w]

In this set of pictures you will see some jacks that I made for lifting various objects. The first picture shows the complete set up comprising of jack, air lines and hand pump.
The second picture shows the hand pump, which is used to raise or lower my customised jacks, which are also in the picture. The advantage of a hand pump is that you can carefully control the rate at which you raise or lower the jack. This is very useful when you need to lift something that is likely to fall or slip.

The third picture shows the two types of jack that I made. The large one will be adapted soon to allow it to be raised higher than it can at the moment.

[Tim_w]

Finally here is a small cutter, which is good for cutting in confined spaces. In conjunction with the hand pump one of its uses is for cutting pedals out of motor vehicles when a persons feet are trapped.

[Tim_w]

Hello  All 

Thank you for taking the time to look at these pictures. I am planning on sharing more of my custom equipment soon so please keep an eye out for any updates.

Kindest regards  Tim 

[Little Jo]

  Wow! These are cool tools. And so well executed. I must say, that for some pieces I can not decided where the customizing starts and what are parts arleady provided by Playmobil. Very cool I must say. (BTW, I most like your generator  )

[playmofire]

Great work, Tim.  How you "see" the alternative uses for many Playmobil bits I don't know.

I like the refinements you've made for connecting your cutting gear to the compressor, and the redesign of the compessor itself. 

The hand pumps I especially like because, as well as being realistic, they also are low-tech, something which is often neglected nowadays in favour of the all-singing, all-dancing approach.  Low-tech is cheaper, more compact and in many/most cases does all high-tech will do.

[Tim_w]

Hello  Little Jo, Gordon

Thank you both very much indeed for the kind feedback.

Little Jo. The generator was a prototype which i made a while back. At the time i did not know how i was going to make the electrical leads or that it could be used with an air compressor. It was originally going to be used with the 'pretend' Playmobil floodlights but has fitted in quite well.

Gordon. Its hard to say where the ideas come from for my different uses of Playmobil parts. It usually comes from looking at the real thing and then thinking about what Playmobil parts could be used. An example of this is with the air compressor. I decided that it would need an intake to draw air in and so i started thinking about what could be used. I had a few parts off an old Playmo radio lying about and started looking at the speaker. I decided that if i cut the speaker out it would do just the trick.
I also like the low-tech approach  aswell. I think this is why i went for an electric powered air compressor over making an 'all singing all dancing' Holmatro unit. There is just something more interesting about seeing pictures showing lots of different peices of equipment lying around and connected together. I have a few pictures from the early 90's which show the different array of tools before the more modern stuff came out.

Kindest Regards  Tim 

[FireChief]

Hey Tim,

That is some really cool looking equipment you have there. One question though. How did you make the thermal imaging camera? I really like that.


Ben