Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Disclaimer: This video is intended purely for informational purposes only, and does in no way encourage or condone any illegal activity.
Fire extinguishers filled with paint have been useful to anarchists in Montreal fighting gentrification, surveillance, and most recently, colonial advertising.
1. Steal the extinguisher
Find a water-pressurized fire extinguisher. They are metallic silver and come in two sizes.
Both sizes have removable tops, which are often attached with a nut.
The larger size is 9 L and has a schrader valve, like your bike tire, so that they can be easily repressurized. It is often found in universities, apartments and office buildings.
The smaller size is 6 L and needs to be repressurized with an air compressor. It is only found in restaurants because they are for grease fires, and are sometimes conveniently placed near the back exit!
2. Empty the water
Wear cotton gloves to avoid getting your prints all over the thing. Spray the water out of the fire-extinguisher, ensuring that the pressure gauge reaches 0 psi. We usually do this in an alleyway, but it can be done in your bathtub.
3. Fill with paint
Remove the nut and top section.
Fill the extinguisher about half way with a mixture of equal parts latex paint and water.
4. Pressurize
Reattach the top section, and make sure it’s tight.
For the 9 L, pressurize with a bike pump until the gauge reads 100 psi.
For the 6 L, there is no schrader valve, so you will need an air compressor, found at hardware stores or most pawn-shops. Remove the hose, and connect the air compressor tubing, using a 3/8” male adapter.
Set the air compressor to 115 psi. You may not even need to depress the handle of the extinguisher for the pressure to slowly raise to 100 psi. If you need to depress the handle, remove the safety pin and depress it gradually. Stop as soon as it reaches 100 psi, to avoid paint going into the tubing.
Return the safety pin and secure it with duct-tape.
5. Clean
Wipe down with a cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol to remove any fingerprints!
Check out the how-to page at Montreal Counter-info for more direct action guides: blocking trains, shutting down pipelines, demonstrations, riots and more!
“The only reason why we should reach to the higher class is to create disorder and disturb, but certainly not to corrupt graffiti like some people do. My goal is to install the insolence and violence of graffiti where it has no reason to be. Graffiti is a whole, and one cannot only take the parts he is interested in. The remaining parts can be found on your storefronts.”