Marsh Turn X incubator - old model questions

[KelloggKid]

I've tried the basic styro-type incubators a few times with minimal success so I was excited when I saw this Turn X listed on Craigslist.
As you can see from the pics, it's a very basic model. No fan, no humidity bottle, no auto-turner.
I can't find much info on these older models and I'm curious how these work.
Does the light bulb provide the heat? Shouldn't eggs be incubated without light? Will the bulb turn off automatically when the temp is correct? Do I control the temp by adjusting the tilt of the mercury bulb that has the electric wires attached to it?

If you feel this old thing isn't worth the effort, please be honest & say so. I didn't pay too much for it.

Thanks!

 

[HatchCraft]

You have me curious about the thermostat. Maybe someone owns one can explain how it works. The mercury type thermostats I use are preset and not adjustable The light bulb is the heat source. I can't tell you the wattage ,but I remember the bulbs being red. Marsh farm products had a good reputation back in the day. Looks to be in good condition.

 

[KelloggKid]

Ahh....so the bulb should be red? A clear bulb came with it, but red makes much more sense. The clear one seems to be struggling to get the incubator up to temp too. I'll see if I can find an online website that sell the red bulbs.

Anyone have any experience with these old types?

 

[Bill 101]

That's actually pretty cool!!! I've had Turn-X's since the mid 80's, didn't think there was anything older. You might want to check with Lyon Electric, they manufactured them. Just do a search on Google

BTW, March Farms or Lyon Electric STILL makes incubators that are as good or better than most

 

[KelloggKid]

I called Lyon today. They weren't even familiar with models this old. :-(

 

[Bill 101]

Well, I guess that's what happens when these companies get rid of all us "old Folks"

It kind of appears your on your own If you can get pictures of the Thermostat (turn the light off) so we can see it better & take the dome off so we can see the base, looking for water cavities, we ;might be able to figure this out. If people can build incubators using light bulbs, surely we can get this thing going.

 

[RoseMarie1]

now that is pretty cool. Never seen anything like that before. Does it have a thing on the side that holds the water or something?

 

[KelloggKid]

Well, I actually have the old thing up & running. I added a higher wattage bulb as suggested by dbcooper02 and it appears to be holding the temp just about perfectly. The water compartments are in the base of it. It's really a simple design and the crazy old mercury thermostat just turns the bulb on & off as needed to keep the temp right.
I was given some old english eggs with the incubator so I have them in there now. I should probably have run it a few days longer to make sure I had it all figured out but the eggs were getting old and as a relative incubator newbie, the excitement of hatching eggs still sometimes overrides common sense.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Well, I actually have the old thing up & running. I added a higher wattage bulb as suggested by dbcooper02 and it appears to be holding the temp just about perfectly. The water compartments are in the base of it. It's really a simple design and the crazy old mercury thermostat just turns the bulb on & off as needed to keep the temp right.
I was given some old english eggs with the incubator so I have them in there now. I should probably have run it a few days longer to make sure I had it all figured out but the eggs were getting old and as a relative incubator newbie, the excitement of hatching eggs still sometimes overrides common sense.

oh wow I can't wait to hear how it's turned out. That's just too cool!

 

[horsebear 3]

This is way after the fact but I saw your post on here and made an account to communicate with you. How I would love to find one of those original Marsh Turn X incubators like you have! Many years ago I worked for Marsh Farms and one of my jobs was building those very incubators. They actually worked quite well. I would far rather have one of those than the more modern ones. If you are going to use that I would STRONGLY S suggest that you try to obtain the blue 40 watt bulbs we used in them. They seemed to work well with thermostat to keep the temperature stable. Also when chicks hatch the blue is much better for the chicks eyes, regular lights bulbs are too harsh.

Once in a while we had problems with the thermostats but they weren't hard to replace. Just don't know about the availability of that particular theremostat. It may the that Stromberg may have them.

Don't know which "turning ring" you have but the dome should have 2 knobs with bolt head protruding inside to fit into slots in the turning ring for turning the eggs and there should be a small cup in the center of the base to put water in for humidity.

If I were able to locate one of these old Turn X incubators with the dome and base plate intact, I would sure pounce on it as I am sure I could probably get it working, if the incubator was actually in operational shape that would be fudge icing on the cake.