How to make an Awesme Incubator Under 20 Bucks!

[quintinp]

It needs a bit more ventilation. Also the secret to getting constant temps isn't drilling holes in the WH thermostat, it's the placement of it. Take a look at the last link in my signature.
I've made and tinkered with exactly this same type of incubator and mine works great. But not until after I got the back (metal part) of the thermostat the right distance from the light and drilled some ventilation holes in the sides that I can regulate by putting corks in them if I need to. Also the fan is mounted so that there's a bit of space between the back of the fan and the side of the cooler. It does blow right over the light bulbs like yours does. Overall, great job!

If you are talking to me about ventilation, it has a 1 1/2" hole in the front bottom left corner.

As for drilling holes into the water heater thermostat, it is necessary if you don't have a powerful fan. If your fan is positioned in a certain area where the air flow can cool the thermostat quickly, then there isn't much need for holes being drilled into the thermostat.

And I know what you are saying about placement, I just didn't note that in my post above, but you can see that I did position the thermostat, with the back facing the light bulb about 2 inches away.

I always recommend modifying the thermostats.

 

[quintinp]

Hey quintinp, I wanna know how do you cut you window in, and what do you use to seal the window? And what did u use to cut it?

I used a jigsaw, and a box knife. The jigsaw was to cut the hole out, the box knife was to trim the excess bits of plastic.

I used caulk to seal/secure the window to the top of the incubator.

 

[galanie]

If you are talking to me about ventilation, it has a 1 1/2" hole in the front bottom left corner.

As for drilling holes into the water heater thermostat, it is necessary if you don't have a powerful fan. If your fan is positioned in a certain area where the air flow can cool the thermostat quickly, then there isn't much need for holes being drilled into the thermostat.

And I know what you are saying about placement, I just didn't note that in my post above, but you can see that I did position the thermostat, with the back facing the light bulb about 2 inches away.

I always recommend modifying the thermostats.

I saw that you had it positioned correctly, I just wanted to be sure others knew the secret was the placement and not some holes drilled in it. The holes may or may not help, I myself did this and saw no real difference. The "magic" for me was in placement.

 

[kellyn]

Oopsie! lol y'all miss me? Ah yes well i apologise for my rather delayed reply. but anyways, i took out the incubator that was successful with a single PC fan, lightbulb and thermostat and important thinking about once again tinkering, as people call it. i was going to tear it apart but decided not to. its cute, really and with enough patience and monitoring could actually work quite well. I'll continue it another day bc my fingers are kinda rubbed raw from wiring up the system for my woodshop project incubator. I think I'll go on the computers at school when its finished and upload something most people don't do; step-by-step picures as well as a picture of my blueprints and a detailed explanation ot everything onto BYC.

(I apologise for any unorthodox spelling, grammatical, punctuation and such that is a bit wonky.)