Finished Incubator

I completed my incubator over the weekend. It's a converted wine cooler with 4 shelves and 2 - 5' sections of 4" flexwatt controlled by a Herpstat. The cooler has a built in fan, lock and an L.E.D. light, and has room for 1 liter of water per shelf, behind the boxes. When I finished it I realized that I'm hoping for 5-6 clutches this year, so I have to build another one unless I can squeeze 2 mojave clutches onto one shelf. I think I saw my 2,000g female from a pastel breeding ovulate yesterday, so it should be in use soon.

http://a981.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...16b7430de4.jpg

http://a445.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...3552e1a994.jpg

http://a729.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...eb83e9bc40.jpg

BRAVO!! :gj:

I WANT ONE NOW! :banana:

Right on Jake! ... Strong work.

-adam

Very nice Jake! :gj:

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Originally Posted by Jerhart

I WANT ONE NOW! :banana:

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Me too :cool:

Thanks guys and girls! I originally used 11" flexwatt and it actually caught on fire, or at least started smouldering, against the plastic inside the incubator. I switched to the lower wattage 4" and it's safe now, but I had to scrape up the burned flexwatt and melted plastic and scrape the soot/resin off the inside of the glass. I was at work when it happened, so I'm lucky it didn't torch my condo. You have to be careful with flexwatt.

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Originally Posted by PythonWallace

Thanks guys and girls! I originally used 11" flexwatt and it actually caught on fire, or at least started smouldering, against the plastic inside the incubator. I switched to the lower wattage 4" and it's safe now, but I had to scrape up the burned flexwatt and melted plastic and scrape the soot/resin off the inside of the glass. I was at work when it happened, so I'm lucky it didn't torch my condo. You have to be careful with flexwatt.

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This is a good post, for those of you who have built an incubator using a cooler or fridge, how do you avoid melting the plastic inside? Can you put something beneath the heat tape to cut down the chances of it melting the plastic?

If the inside is thin plastic I would stick with lower watt tape or use Reflectix tape between the tape and the walls. Or both. That 3" and 11" flexwatt can get really hot.

i like it...i work at an appliance store ( im the kitchen designer here) and we have old appliances in all the time and some that are OLD in the back that the boss still wants to sell for top dollar...im waiting until he is ready to just give it away so i can make myself a good large size incubator...i think im going to need a glass door unit because the one i currently have does not have one and i can see myself going crazy LOL

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Originally Posted by NickMyers03

i like it...i work at an appliance store ( im the kitchen designer here) and we have old appliances in all the time and some that are OLD in the back that the boss still wants to sell for top dollar...im waiting until he is ready to just give it away so i can make myself a good large size incubator...i think im going to need a glass door unit because the one i currently have does not have one and i can see myself going crazy LOL

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I think the glass front is a must, for me at least. I would be opening the door daily to check on the eggs, and probably every 20 minutes toward the end. Mine has vacuum insulated double pane glass on the door, which is cool. I forgot where I bought it, but I've mentioned it on here before. It was a refurb for $130 delivered. Good luck getting one from your work. That would be a nice benefit.

Wow, excellent work! Amazing, that's exactly what I'm thinking of doing!

I'm not american so I'm unfamiliar with flexwatts, could you post a pic showing the heating system a little better?

Did you have to modify the cooler itself (drill holes etc) or can you still use the cooler, as a wine cooler when not incubating? Or what I'm planning, as a winter cooling "hotel" for corns for winters. :)

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Originally Posted by RogueStar

Wow, excellent work! Amazing, that's exactly what I'm thinking of doing!

I'm not american so I'm unfamiliar with flexwatts, could you post a pic showing the heating system a little better?

Did you have to modify the cooler itself (drill holes etc) or can you still use the cooler, as a wine cooler when not incubating? Or what I'm planning, as a winter cooling "hotel" for corns for winters. :)

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Thanks! Here is a link to flexwatt. It's thin, plastic coated heat tape.
http://www.beanfarm.com/store/agora....user4=Flexwatt

I'll try to get detailed pictures tonight, but I basically drilled a hole in the back of the cooler and ran the power cord through the hole. I wired together 2 - 5' strips of the heat tape and soldered one side to the power cord. I ran the heat tape from the top of one side, down across the bottom and up the other side, then ran the other strip next to it, back down and up so it ends where the first piece starts (if that makes sense). Then I just plug it into my thermostat and set the temperature.

I cut one of the wires from the circuit board to the thermo electric cooling unit and added a switch. I leave that switch off so the fan and light that are built into the cooler work, but the cooler doesn't turn on. When I'm not using it for eggs I can flip the switch and put 28 bottles of Pilsner, booze or wine inside. :D

Here is the cooler if anyone's interested. The list price new is $269, but this site has open box models for $138 shipped to your door. They also have a 188 bottle cooler that goes for $2k open box for $699.

http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/J...TWR282S_OB.htm

Looking good Jake:gj:

Are you using the fan it came with?
I disconected mine and use a computer fan from radioshack, I found the fridge fans cool down the incubator too much, but then again I used a coke fridge and not a wine fridge. You might wanna make sure that isn't an issue before you put your precious cargo in there.

Best of luck bro!:banana:

Thanks Jake, I'll have to consider something similar. I'll have to use heating cables or heat mats, they don't sell flexwatts here. But I guess I can manage with a cable and a thermostat. :)

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

Looking good Jake:gj:

Are you using the fan it came with?
I disconected mine and use a computer fan from radioshack, I found the fridge fans cool down the incubator too much, but then again I used a coke fridge and not a wine fridge. You might wanna make sure that isn't an issue before you put your precious cargo in there.

Best of luck bro!:banana:

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Thanks! Yeah, I'm using the internal fan right now. It seems to do the job, but I haven't tested it with full boxes. I set it up over night set at 89.0 with the fan going and this morning my low-high said 88.7-89.2, but I saw that those fluctuations were happening at the beginning when it was getting up to temperature. Once it was going for a couple of hours it seemed to stay right at 88.9-89.1. I have some extra 12v fans wired up in case, but I should be ok.

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Originally Posted by RogueStar

Thanks Jake, I'll have to consider something similar. I'll have to use heating cables or heat mats, they don't sell flexwatts here. But I guess I can manage with a cable and a thermostat. :)

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You can use any heating element you want as long as it can get hot enough without burning anything. Cable would probably be best so the heat is spread out around the eggs, and not just coming up from the bottom of the unit.

looks great, i think im gonna have a trip round some of the pubs/bars here and try and beg one from them, we also dont have flexwatt in the uk we just have heat mats or UTHs which are the same sort of thing i think, i want one of them helix stats but you cant get them here either only habistat or microclimate ones which are a bit pants to say the least

Nice! It is somewhat similar to mine, but maybe a bit larger. I am likin' it!

that came out real nice. now all you have to do is mass produce them and you can have another profitable hobby, hehe :D

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Originally Posted by FL0OD

that came out real nice. now all you have to do is mass produce them and you can have another profitable hobby, hehe :D

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Haha, I'm all over it.