Re: Pics of my cooler incubator
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mdfreak2
what kind of heating and thermostat are you using i need to get one ready for next season and that looks like the easiest way to go for a beginner thank you:gj:
Here's a quick list of what you'll need:
1. Cooler. I bought a 52 qt cooler at Target for under $30 on sale (make sure you get one with a drain plug).
2. Heat source. I picked up a Zoo Med Repti Heat Cable (the 50W 23 ft one) from Petsmart (under $20 I believe). You can also use flexwatt.
3. Thermostat. I used a Herp Power Proportional Thermostat from Big Apple Herpetological (got it used but it's a good tstat..new will run around $102+tax and shipping but don't go cheap on the tstat as you'll prob regret it). Also check out Helix and Spyder Robotics tstats.
4. PVC Pipe. I used PVC pipe (cut to size to fit the inside of the incubator with four 90 degree elbows to make the rectangle shape). You can pick this up at Lowes or HD cheap.
5 Egg Crate. I found it in the lighting section of HD. Lowes may have it in the same section but I'm not sure. My inc only needed 1 sheet and I used a jig saw to cut it to size and make two shelves.
6. PC Fan. I just went to Best Buy and bought one for about $10. I used this link as a basis for wiring it (pretty easy). http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-Incubator-Fan
7. 12V power supply (I used an old cell phone charger) to wire to the PC fan
8. digital Thermometer/hygrometer (I bought an Accurite at Wal-Mart for about $12)
9. 20 oz water bottles (enough to make one row deep on the bottom shelf)
10. Egg Boxes. I used Sterilite 5.5qt Modular Latch Box's (found at Wal-Mart).
11. Power strip with surge protection.
12. Hacksaw, jigsaw, electrical tape and or velcro, wire cutters/strippers. It's late and I'm tired so if I missed anything, I apologize. lol.
Setup is not to hard. Unfortunately mine has eggs cooking right now so I can't take it apart til after July lol. Here is a how to I found (uses flexwatt though) http://www.reptileradio.net/reptiler...ad.php?t=18384 .
My advice, just measure the inside length and width of your cooler. Cut your PVC to fit (not tight but with a little wiggle room). Assemble the PVC. Take your Heat cable and thread it through the drain of your cooler so that the plug is out side the cooler and not inside (In the instructions for the heat cable I believe it tells you how far from the plug the cable starts to heat up. leave the part that doesn't heat up outside the cooler to allow connection to your tstat. Wrap the heat cable around the PVC in a diagonal pattern (leave about an inch to 2 inches between each wrap). I used velcro to secure the Heat cable to the PVC but you can use electric tape also. Put the PVC assembly back into the cooler. Cut your egg crate shelf roughly the same dimentions as your PVC (again a little wiggle room will not hurt). Measure your PC Fan and cut out a square in the middle of your Egg Crate shelf that will fit the fan. Wire your Fan using the directions I supplied. You don't have to worry about the plug end not fitting through the drain plug of the cooler because you only need to unplug the little connector from the fan to the power supply and the plug it back in once everything is in place. Use twist ties or zip ties to secure the fan to the Egg Crate (make sure you have the fan blowing down towards the heat cable). Insert the shelf and connect the fan to the other end of it's power supply. Take your tstat and Thermometer probes and feed them through the drain plug (I fed them through the bottom egg crate shelf to the right side of the cooler. The Thermostat probe I stuck the the side wall of the cooler) Lay the water bottles flat on the shelf all around the fan but not on top of it (position your probes so that they are not under the bottles either. Just get as many bottles in there as you can). Lay the second shelf over top of the water bottles. Your Egg boxes will sit on this shelf. Plug everything in and test it out. My temps hold steady around 89-90 degrees.
Re: Pics of my cooler incubator
Re: Pics of my cooler incubator
Re: Pics of my cooler incubator
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mdfreak2
also can you put a diy up on how you made it and what all you used to build it
x2
Ups You posted it already silly me :rofl::rofl::rofl:
That's really nice Incubator... And I'm Getting really fascinate by African house snakes lately(really think about breeding colony of this little worms) so that gonna more than perfect for that purpose :taz:
