I MUST keep costs down on my incubator build. Please help w ideas

[muddstopper]

Rebel, I have done about everything I can think of to slow down that fogger, I havent be able to find one any smaller, which is what I really need. I had the fogger in that big 6qt plastic tray with a lid, and I kept tapeing up the vent hole in the lid to make it smaller and smaller and almost had it working until I shorted out the humidstat. Once i disconnected the fogger and opened up the water tray, i found the Humidity seemed to take care of itself, so i just quit tinkering with the fogger. Its still in the bator, its just not hooked up.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

If I build another one it will be two stacked containers. The top will have holes to drain back in to the bottom an have the humidistat turn a pump on to pump water from the bottom to the top. No fogger just two different amounts of water/air contact..

 

[bigoledude]

Hey Mudd

I read at another thread where you started with a fan that developed 198cfm and, you thought it was too much air. Was it this one?

http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?item=16-1367&catname=electric

With those holes evenly placed the way you have drilled them, it just seems that fan would have worked perfectly? I wonder if I drilled the holes on varying angles that "pointed", so-to-speak, splayed-out like a fan across the inside, if it would eliminate the cold spots? If I had to use thicker wall material to create more of a "nozzle" effect, OK.


rebelcowboysnb: I wanted a fogger but, they are just another expense at this point. Then, you brought up their tendency to fail. Opinion needed for this.

I figured I'd buy the humidistat and use it with a solenoid or something that could raise and lower a cloth down into my water container. My initial thought was to rig it as though you had a rag clipped onto a very small T-shaped wire coat-hanger. Having the original fan already blowing across the water's surface, I would situate the hanger where the air-flow would blow across the cloth edgewise, not blowing into the cloth broadside like a sail. I don't want the cloth to restrict my airflow too much.

Here is another BRIEF description. The humidity drops. The humidistat activates a device that lifts a cloth out of the water, but not all of the way out. We want it to act as a wick. Once the humidity climbs to our desired set-point, our device lowers the cloth back down into the water. No fooling with a failed frazzling, fogger!


Would it work?
Or, the rag could hang permanently and the humidistat could start-n-stop a fan.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I dont know how practical that is to build but it should work.

 

[muddstopper]

Bigdude, that is the exact fan I started with, but I kept going down in fan size. The 198cfm fan ended up in a greenhouse/brooder.

I dont know what holes you are referring to so cant comment.

The reptile fogger connected to a humistat should work in theory, except that thing dumps so much moisture in the air, so fast, that my humistat couldnt keep up with it. Now in a bigger incubator, refridgerator size or so. I think the fogger/humistat ideal would work pretty well. I did have mine working pretty close to what I wanted it to do by restricting the opening the fog was blowing thru, but gave up when I discoverd that my water tray worked just fine without adding a bunch of other electronics. I had a bunch of other ideals using a spray mister, a small selenoid to let water drip on a sponge, and a few other ideals I wont mention, but man, its hard to beat a properly sized water tray , not to mention the money you can save by not fooling with a bunch of electronics. sometimes the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) method is the best method.

 

[bigoledude]

Hey Mudd

The holes in your Plexiglas is what I meant. Rather than have them drilled at 90-degrees to the sheet, I figured if I drilled them at angles that would be similar to a fan pattern of air coming out of the holes in the Plexiglas, might-would reduce the possibility of cool spots. Because the Plexiglas is so thin, the air might not have spent enough residence-time passing through the holes to create tight little streams of air. So this is what I meant when I mentioned the thickness of the material the holes were drilled in.

I'm gonna stop here before I wind up revealing how goofy I get with these things sometimes.

 

[muddstopper]

I see what you mean now, but do you realize just how many holes I hand drilled in that lexan. I dont even want to think about trying to drill them at odd angles. Besides, if you where to set and watch the air flow inside the cabinet, all you need is a little smoke, you would see that as the egg trays turn, the direction of the air flow moves as well. With the tilting trays in mind, the holes in the plexiglass are linedup so that if the tray is tilted to the right, the row of air holes on the right side wall blows across the top of the egg with that air being deflected toward the top of the cabinet. The Holes on the left side of the cabinet blows at the bottom of the tray, with the air being deflected downward, and across the top of the next tray below the top tray. If the tray is tilted toward the left, the holes on the left blow across the top and the holes on the right across the bottom. If the trays are level, holes line up to blow both across the top and across the bottom of each tray. No weird directional drilling needed.

By the way, nothing wrong with being goofy. Only a true idiot would spend all their spare time trying to design a incubator that will out do a broody chicken. Dont even think about asking me how many different incubator designs I have comeup with in the last couple of years.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:

I have no idea what you are talking about... lol

 

[muddstopper]

Quote:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/style_emoticons/default/whistle.gif I have no idea what you are talking about... lol

I have read a lot of your post and I believe you do know what I am talking about!!!

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[rebelcowboysnb]

I plead the 5th.