oldclucks cabinet incubator build.

[oldcluck]

I have been debating purchasing a sportsman or building my own incubator for a while I have finally decided to build my own. So I will document that effort here. I am building a cabinet with interior mesurements of 16" wide, 31" tall and 30" front to back. I wanted it wide and tall enough to hold 3 egg turners plus a hatching tray. I will be using egg turners from my genesis and little giant incubators instead of building an egg turner. Material is 1/2" plywood (13/32").
Here is a picture of the bare cabinet.

I used simpson strong ties to attach the top and bottom to the sides. Top and bottom is also glued. These are what the strong ties look like.

For the back I ran out of simpson ties and not wanting to make a trip back to town i used glue and some metal edging used to trim drywall corners. They are a bit thin but worked well for this purpose.

There will be a false back installed about 10" in front of the back it will have 2 fan holes at top and will not reach all the way to the bottom to make a barrier for air flow. i am using an incukit for heating and air flow. more to come later

 

[Sally Sunshine]

GREAT work, DH and Daughter made a coolerbator!! I LOVE IT!! no more bought bators for me!!!

 

[oldcluck]

I will be installing the false back and other items next weekend. Until then Here is a link to a sketchup file of the design with plywood cutout diagram.

http://computx.us/files/incubator-cab.skp

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I will be installing the false back and other items next weekend. Until then Here is a link to a sketchup file of the design with plywood cutout diagram.

http://computx.us/files/incubator-cab.skp

I dont have sketchup on my laptop only on my pc.... can u snip or pdf a link

 

[oldcluck]

sketchup 8 can be downloaded from http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/download/index.html . You want sketchup 8 not sketchup pro.

 

[oldcluck]

The incukit has arrived and so has the weekend. Tonight I worked on the baffle or false back. The incukit is meant to be installed against the top of the incubator but I feel I can get a better airflow and more even temps top to bottom if I install it in the baffle so that air is constantly being circulated throughout the cabinet. See this diagram. excuse my poor art skills.


Its not really hard to do this. just remove the plastic screws holding the grill onto the intake side of the fan and use some bolts going through the baffle and through the fan housing to a nut. Tomorrow I get the bolts but tonight I used a drill and jigsaw to make the mounting holes. I used the fan's metal grill as a marking guide. Here is what the baffle looks like before mounting the fans. I purchased an extra 80mm AC fan for additional airflow hence their are two different sized holes. More tomorrow after a trip to the hardware store.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

here is the sketch up image

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

could you give the dimensions of the cuts since you have it laid out to use 1 sheet of plywood? Do you plan a solid or door ot one with a window?

 

[Quyen Le]

With material that thin, heat escape is spmething you should consider. I put my incubator (same thickness as yours) in a room and my room get really warm. I have to use foam to put around my incubator to keep the heat in. What thermostat are you using? What do you use for heat? Where do you put water? I think you need to add more fan power since the cabinet is quite large for those 2 fans. Hope you get everything figured out.

 

[oldcluck]

Ok got a bit more done today. Mounted the fans to the baffle.

Then I insulated the rear ducting area. I havent talked about insulation yet because I wasn't quite sure of what I was going to insulate with. I considered polystyrene board, and reflectex. Then I discovered this duct insulation. It is self adesive and foil backed. listed as r3 and is only 1/8" thick. I picked 2 rolls of this up at the local home depot.


Here it is applied at the back of the incubator. I then put some on the back of the baffle and put the baffle in.


Then I started putting the shelf brackets in and installed casters on the bottom so it can be rolled around.


Tomorrow I will finish insulating, wire the heater and fan and add the door.