DIY CABINET COOLER INCUBATOR How we did it and TEST RUN Ready Set GO!

[sonderah]

Well. Started my 1st cabinet cooler bator hatch with 45, pulled 15 by day 14 which, like I said, I expected due to old eggs & some shipped. 26 made it to lockdown, 18 hatched. 1 of the 18 took about 48 hrs to hatch and didn't do well, had green slimy stuff leaking from something, culled it. 17 doing great. Re candled the remaining 8 last night & didn't see any movement. They didn't even start pipping til day 21, & most hatched on day 22, so I will watch today, day 24, before I pull them.

This was also my 1st ever "dry" hatch. Coolerbator ran around 27% through the 18 days, without adding any water. Then the hatcher, when I filled its reservoirs, ran about 65%. I figure too many "newness" factors going on at once to make any judgement.

Skipped a hatch this week, so next week will be hatch #2, which has even MORE shipped eggs, so idk. Lol #3 the following week will be all my chickens eggs, but its the 1st time I've hatched them, as it is a new flock. So I'm not going to get in any hurry to make any judgements, or change anything up.

I do have I think 6 turkey eggs due to go to the hatcher on the 17th, which r all from my flock, & not new, so we will see how that goes. Either way, I think I LOVE my new bator!!!!! Thanks Sally!!

 

[BobDBirdDog]

Cool Incubator. I am in the process of building one out of a 48 quart when I stumbled on to this.

 

[scottcaddy]

I just found this,Thanks, and marking it for later

Scott

 

[izardx]

hello,

thank you for yhis fantastic useful thread



just wondered were u put your thermostat senser? im using a stc-10000

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Hi everyone! thanks! I hope your summer is great! I have been very busy as usual during the summer! popped in to send a hello and see if everyone is still hatching, I never stopped, we hatch every Sunday/Monday for shipping out Mondays! Besides chickens we have hatched quail, ducks, and we even have a friendly peachick running around in the brooder! Boy are those chicks LOUD!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Cool Incubator. I am in the process of building one out of a 48 quart when I stumbled on to this.

how did it go in the makings? gonna share it with us!!!!!! pics or it didnt happen!!

I just found this,Thanks, and marking it for later

Scott

 

[Sally Sunshine]

hello,

thank you for yhis fantastic useful thread



just wondered were u put your thermostat senser? im using a stc-10000

We have a wafer in ours, see location images below.... also I am hoping @ozexpat can let you know the best place for one of those stc thermostats






I forgot dimensions so here they are after installation

 

[izardx]

Hello

Sorry for the miss spelling and straight to the point-ness of my previous message, i was half asleep and throught i had put more lol..

@Sally Sunshine your thread has proved great informational point and made me start and complete my design which without your thread i would still be iffing and areing., i just need to figure out were to put my sensor..

Im using a old under the counter freezer with all the freezer bits removed, so its basically a shell. it seems stable enough atm but i am willing to rip any part out and re do it - (Will post pictures if this is OK)

at the moment it consists of 3 60watt bulbs, 4 fans, 2 placed under the lights blowing air up, one at the top and one underneth the top one blowing into the other side of the incubator

the thermostat im using is a STC-1000 digital - the same one people have put links up on here for

thank you


Noidea why it put it on the main forum page, i have requested that title? be removed, sorry
Craig

 

[mattman1978]

First of all, heat rises, so you probably don't need to blow the air up off the bulbs, but that's up to you and your design. I typically take the heat and force it down toward the bottom of the bator and then let it rise on the opposite side of the bator. I shield the heatsource from the eggs by placing my heat into a metal downspout. Fan mounts on top blowing down. Downspout 90 directs it back toward the middle of the bator. I use 80's curlers heating element for my heater. Slipped just the heating element with the aluminum block and aluminum "fingers" up into the downspout. Wire a diode in series and you go from 300W to 150W and then I added a dimmer switch for finer control of heat output. I run mine using a controller and solid state relay. The solid state relay is MUCH more reliable as it's designed for orders of magnitude more cycles than a mechanical relay. Also, the solid state relay fails in the OPEN position as opposed to a mechanical relay that can easily fail by welding the contacts together and so it fails closed (destroying your eggs and possibly burning the house down).

Placement of my sensor. Since the air is heated and then blown DOWN, I put my sensor on the return side near the inlet to the fan. I use a false wall in the back of my bator and so my RTD is placed just above the false wall. Fan and heating element is behind the false wall. Small air-gap at the top is the return and the downspout 90 goes just through the false wall at the bottom.

I use a platinum-100 RTD because they last much longer and are more reliable than a thermocouple. We use RTD's almost exclusively at my plant. If you are checking the temp with a pharmacy thermometer on a regular basis and correcting it as needed, then a thermocouple should be sufficient. Just realize it's not as reliable.

 

[scottcaddy]

First of all, heat rises, so you probably don't need to blow the air up off the bulbs, but that's up to you and your design. I typically take the heat and force it down toward the bottom of the bator and then let it rise on the opposite side of the bator. I shield the heatsource from the eggs by placing my heat into a metal downspout. Fan mounts on top blowing down. Downspout 90 directs it back toward the middle of the bator. I use 80's curlers heating element for my heater. Slipped just the heating element with the aluminum block and aluminum "fingers" up into the downspout. Wire a diode in series and you go from 300W to 150W and then I added a dimmer switch for finer control of heat output. I run mine using a controller and solid state relay. The solid state relay is MUCH more reliable as it's designed for orders of magnitude more cycles than a mechanical relay. Also, the solid state relay fails in the OPEN position as opposed to a mechanical relay that can easily fail by welding the contacts together and so it fails closed (destroying your eggs and possibly burning the house down).

Placement of my sensor. Since the air is heated and then blown DOWN, I put my sensor on the return side near the inlet to the fan. I use a false wall in the back of my bator and so my RTD is placed just above the false wall. Fan and heating element is behind the false wall. Small air-gap at the top is the return and the downspout 90 goes just through the false wall at the bottom.

I use a platinum-100 RTD because they last much longer and are more reliable than a thermocouple. We use RTD's almost exclusively at my plant. If you are checking the temp with a pharmacy thermometer on a regular basis and correcting it as needed, then a thermocouple should be sufficient. Just realize it's not as reliable.

I do understand what you are talking about, but then again I am an just retired aircraft avionics tech. most of us don't have that kind of money for a D.I.Y. 'batter.
All are very good ideas, I will use some of them in my build.
Thanks
Scott