Breaking Balls DIY Upright Cooler Incubator

[Simple Man]

Hey there ladies and gents!

Finally finished my DIY incubator project Here's the promised DIY thread with lots of pics. I'll be happy to help anyone that needs any questions answered. I think it turned out rather well. I have about a degree of variance from top to bottom. I might install a second fan up top but I am waiting for the temps to stabilize since I just added the water jugs.

And then there were two. One worked so I sold it and actually made some profit assembling my incubator!


Dropped the cover to expose the nasty wiring mess.


Removing the condenser and fan unit (Recycle!)


Pulling the drain tube/wire/coolant line channel cover


Removing the compressor (make sure the refrigerant has been recovered)


Retaining the stock junction box and spare outlet to power the inverter




Cleaning up the wiring so stock lighting functionality can be retained


Removing the vinyl beverage wrap too forever! (Hint: Use a heat gun!)


Soldering the 11" Flexwatt


Always use electric tape on the connections


A 3' piece of 11" Flexwatt on each side


Wires running through grommets from the junction box to the interior of the incubator


Silicon on all the interior edges










Hardware for the fan mounting




200mm Rifle Bearing computer fan (Large size, low noise, low rpm, high cfm)


Rewired inverter to power the rheostat and fans


Rheostat powered up


Rheostat controls fan speed as well as allows on/off of each fan


The rheostat and fans


Installing the lower fan


Fan mounted


Stealth mounted in the stock cooler grill to allow external adjustment




Top wiring cleaned up and mounted


Top fan and cleaned up wiring


Cleaned up wiring running into the channel


All finished except one thing
]

Vinyl is being cut for a new piece of plexiglass for the lighted sign on top. The black will block light and the blue will shine through the Breaking Balls logo. Coca-Cola font


Hope you enjoyed! Please feel free to message or ask questions on the thread if you need anything.

Regards,

B

[Royal Hijinx]

Awesome.

I need to find me one of those coolers. Still checking Craigslist every few days. Reminds me I need to go check now....

[Simple Man]

Awesome.

I need to find me one of those coolers. Still checking Craigslist every few days. Reminds me I need to go check now....

The original one I grabbed ended up working! So my $40 purchased turned into a $400 sale netting $360 in profit. I see them from time to time on there but sometimes people want ludicrous amounts for broken ones. A fellow ball python enthusiast hooked me up with the one I have now. It actually didn't work... lol. Good luck!

Regards,

B

[cdavidson9]

Really impressed B. I love a good clean product at the end of assembly. Way to go bro

[cmack91]

Looks good Brian how many man hours did you put into it?

[Simple Man]

Looks good Brian how many man hours did you put into it?

Too many but scattered around quite a few weeks with a few hours here and there. We probably could have whipped it out in a weekend of non-stop work but my brother and I have conflicting schedules. This meant we worked on it a bit here and a bit there. The longest task was actually removing the vinyl wrap... lol. The small detail stuff added up though. I still have a can of spray paint to finish the lower grill and handle. They both could use it

Regards,

B

[shorty54]

Looks good Bro!!!!

[Royal Hijinx]

Did you just measure and order the new vinyl/plexi from some place online or local?

[Simple Man]

Did you just measure and order the new vinyl/plexi from some place online or local?

The plexi can be had at a local Home Depot / Lowes. The vinyl is being cut by a friend. It is super easy to set up your own logo.

Regards,

B

[EverEvolvingExotics]

Wow, Brian!

This has to be one of the best DIY incubators I've ever seen. If this isn't sticky material, I don't know what is. I love the Breaking Balls logo idea, very cool! Keep up the good work, I can't wait for you to fill that puppy up.

-Lee