Homemade Peafowl Hatcher (Pics galore)

[frenchblackcopper]

Next is the dividing wall to be installed. This will be a space 12" wide and 24" tall that will hold my electronics and humidity pump and controller.Here you see the lines that outline where the plywodd will be,and the center line between them showing me where to drill the holes so they are in the middle of the plywood. Click on pic to enlarge so you can see it better

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Here the dividing wall is attached.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

So far I have $11.95 each for 4 pieces of plywood.I need one more to complete.The Elmers Carpenters glue was $3.94 and the 2lb box of 2" drywall screws was $2.95. I have not yet split the plywood anywhere because of marking a center line first,then drilling pilot holes and having a variable speed drill. Once the head of the drywall screw touches the plywood I only tighten until the head of the screw is flush or slightly below the plywood level surface.When you keep pulling the screw into the wood and it gets deeper the head of the screw starts pushing wood away making room for the added width of the head. Something has to give soon and if the board is soft pine and the screw is close to the end of the board it almost always will split the board if the screw goes in any deeper than the head.
Tomorrow I hope to get a cit piece of thermal glass measuring 16"x24" to be installed on The top cover board.the top will not be removable. I plan to have a 12"x24" door covering the area shown above where the dividing wall is.this door will have the humidity pump and other electronics inside. the only area that will be heated is inside the 24"x36" area to the right of the dividing wall which is a toal of 12 cubic feet. At this point in my planning I want to have two pull out drawers. The top tray will have 12 seperate compartments for diffrent colored peachicks to be in while hatching.I plan on 6" high sides with 2" of space above these divider boards for air to circulate above. Another tray below the top one will either hold the eggs before pipping,or peachicks after they have been zip tied for identification. Underneath this tray will be a fan,and heating element only. There will not be a water tray in this area to mess with. I plan to install 2 small florescent lights under the top board that cannot be removed. With a piece of glass installed above the top tray with lights I can see progress in all compartments--hopefully. I have considered putting ceramic tiles inside the box as heat sinks since the box isn't insulated at all. I don't know how well they would stay attached with all the humidity or if they would add any benefits.I probably could only add them on the floor portion anyway,about 6 sq ft. More to follow

 

[kuntrygirl]

WOW!! You have been busy. Looking good. Thanks for sharing your project.

 

[mclark]

Keep us posted as to how it's working for ya. Sounds great. I could not be so inventive.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I've worked in it again the past two evenings.I lined the bottom with a leftover sheet of aluminum to aid in cleanup. I decided not to use any ceramic tile for heatsinks because of using the aluminum sheet on the bottom. I bought (several months ago) off e-bay 10 computer fans for a grand total of $24.95.they are all 4" square and are brand new but are 12 volts DC.I've been thinking what to use to power them and today while internet searching found that within your PC,there is a 110v AC power converter that changes volts to DC in 12,and 5 and 3.3 volts. I messed around with this tonight and I did find out that these little fans do move a lot of air,,they are advertized at over 110 cubic ft per minute and with my cabinet only being 12 cubic feet total,if I use 3-4 of these fans it should be like a wind tunnel inside.
I started tonight by making rails for my top tray.Now I must build the tray. Instead of using hardware cloth or window screen for the bottom I lucked out several weeks ago when a local lumber yard was closing and had a 50% off sale. I cabbaged on to the grates that are used under florescent lights.They measure 2'x4' square and the openings are about 3/8" square so tons of air can get thru them,plus they will clean up nicely with hot water. Tomorrow is a planned trip to saving(spending) huge money at Menards again. I need another piece of plywood and 2-3 nice boards for the front of the trays.I also want to get some new LED light strings.I seen them there last time and now these LED lights are like rope lights used for camping. Each section is about 1' long and you can hook as many together as you want. I'd like to see how brite they are first and may opt for under the countertop florescent lights each being about 12" long. I also want a friend of mine to custom cut me a 16"x24" piece of tempered glass for the top so I can see whats going on. I'll get some pics to update and show progress but once again I think my first egg is due in about another 8-9 days and so far it looks like it will be a single Taupe alone for a week until the next group hatches.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Okay so I spent more money today to get more done on this. My daughters going to shoot me next week when she graduates cause I can't give her any money cause I blew it again on peafowl projects.This first one is of the floor which I put a piece of aluminum sheeting over.It will be easy to wipe down that way and somewhat reflective.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

These next two pics shows my find from e-bay several months ago when this was just a "passing thought" which now is another project. Theese are the 12v computer fans that will be inside the hatcher.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I'm no Bob Villa here by no means but this is my rack for my top hatching compartmentized tray. I put a top and bottom board on the side walls of this so when I pull the tray out it won't fall.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

This is the florsescent lite guards I bought all for 10$ from a closing lumber yard several months ago when once again,this was just a passing thought. I bought 3 of them. Each is 2'x4' in dimension. But two are chrome coated (looks shiny silver like chrome) and one is white. All three of them have diffrent sized squares,no wonder they were cheep cause there wasn't a pair.One has 3/4" by 3/4" squares,other two seems to be about 1/2" squares. this is before my modifications.