My Incubator

[SatanicIntention]

Here is my incubator wire-up, step-by-step. I bought a glass-front Pepsi cooler from a local place that sells and rents them out. This one was broken and they were going to recycle it, so I got it for $25. It's about 6ft tall and 2.5ft wide.

When I first got it, with the door off(the door is about 75lbs by itself as it is double paned glass). You can also see the panel in the top of the cooler. It housed a fan(which blew my circuit breaker, thank you..), a fluorescent light housing and a condenser for the refrigerator(I think).


This is after I completely ripped everything out. Took the condenser out by sheer willpower and girly force(ie a screwdriver and some wirecutters, LOL). Then I cut out the wiring for the fan/light, which came up the right side. The condensor tubing came up the left side. I had to lay it on it's front to get everything out.


The bottom that had who knows what attached to it, some drainage tubing, and the power box. All of that came out and I shivered at the thought of spiders lurking. ICK.


How I ran the wires up through the existing holes. The middle hole held the drainage tubing for runoff from the condenser.


I wired up a 4" computer fan I bought at Radio Shack. They run about $15 I think. I just wired it to a regular extension cord, and it works well.




Installing the flexwatt. I used 6ft of 11" flexwatt, 3ft on each side. I wired them to 12' extension cords I got at Home Depot. I soldered the connections using resin core solder and then used electrical tape to prevent me from shocking myself. It's fun though! (always tape exposed ends, and not with foil tape, k?)










All taped up:




Putting shelves in. I just used regular 8" zip ties. I have 2 more shelves to use if I need them.


Door on(wow, it's heavy.. *keels over*)


Where the thermostat probe is. I am using a Johnson Controls thermostat and the temperatures stabilized within about 15-20 minutes. They remain stable at 88-89, which is what I set the tstat too.


Drain hole I used to get the probe in the incubator:


Good thing I finished it, as I got a clutch from my 100% het Pied Classic Jungle x Normal today. I'm using the substrateless method.

[West Coast Jungle]

Very cool, I have a coke fridge and I love it. Now we gotta see which one is better Coke or Pepsi?

[SatanicIntention]

I'm biased Raul, I love me some Coke. This cannot be helped though.. I'm not dragging that cooler down the stairs again! It's HEAVY!

Not too bad for a girl, eh?

[frankykeno]

Absolutely excellent job Becky! This one is going in my BPNet Favorite Threads list.

[mmchoppers]

A moderator should put this in the DIY area. Very informative!

[ADEE]

holy crap!! well done!!! ((Claps))

i cant wait to see it full of eggs good luck

[Laooda]

*GIRL POWER* !!! Great job Becky!

Awesome thread too!!!!!!

[Ginevive]

Sweet work! Nice large size.. room for lotsa of eggs.. = cool