quintinp knows his stuff about the homemade incubators. He and I collaborated a while back on incubator stuff. I know he is like me in wanting you to have a great incubator.
When saying the thermostat needs to be close to the bulbs, that does not mean 10 inches or even 1 inch. Someone may get it within a couple inches and think, "Boy, that is close." But it isn't!
Heck, touching probably won't hurt any, but you need to get that thing within a fraction of an inch at least. Sometimes people get lucky and get theirs to work further away, but they got some unusual dynamics going on and that is not typical. The distance between the thermostat and the bulb is the number one problem people have with getting temps to regulate. My incubator is made from a small fridge and the temps stay within .3 degrees.
I'm always trying to come up with different ways to do stuff, so I installed a receptacle inside the 'bator to plug the fans and light into so I'd just have one cord running out instead of several. I had wired a computer fan to a 12 volt adapter and had it plugged inside too. Well, that incubator got to where it would keep raising in temperature even if the light wasn't coming on. Finally figured out the big 12 volt plug end was generating heat. After plugging it in outside the box, the thing settled right into where it is now. I also have a second fridge incubator that I'm going to use as a hatcher. I got the thing holding temps pretty good, but it kept turning off and on every minute or so. I had a fan blowing across the light/thermostat, but it was blowing across the front of the thermostat. Turned the thermostat around so the air would blow into the holes and no more problem.
I'm just trying to show you that the littlest things can effect how good your bator regulates.
