OVA-Easy Cabinet Vs. GQF Sportsman

Turning mechanisms are easy. All you need are a couple of microswitches, a clock motor and a gear motor. When I started making them I actually machined the swing arm from solid stock because I was converting old incubators to auto turning and the tray width varied so the arm length varied, and I coud machine in the cam on a rotary table with a single set up. Now I would just get a swing arm from Dickey, or GQF and keep the tray dimensions the same as those incubators. pictured below is an incubator I made in 1964. I made quite a number of these in the early sixties. Take note that all the controls are front mounted and readable at a glance. These were three quarter inch Marine Ply sealed with a boat sealer. The primary thermostat is mounted on the back wall because the tempature could be controlled more precisely when mounted thusly with the wafer thermostats availabe at the time.

Incubator001.jpg
 
You keep showing the incubator and telling us how easy it is....could you show us in a picture what you did? When I'm feeling better to travel, I might come knocking on your door.....have a great day!

HappyHatch'en
 
HappyHatch'en :

You keep showing the incubator and telling us how easy it is....could you show us in a picture what you did? When I'm feeling better to travel, I might come knocking on your door.....have a great day!

HappyHatch'en

I don't know how to post drawings on the forum. The wiring is exactly the same as GQF, and Dickey . Their wiring diagrams are on line. The problem I guess with making the turners would be making the cams that control the microswitches, most people do not have a vertical mill or a rotary table. If I ever break this thing down I'll post pictures of the setup.​
 
Gary nice bator design i like,,

now with the Ova turner rod, it is a long threaded rod the spins in either direction for the up down of the trays..

for anyone not having never seen the inside of one these
this is basically how it works..

its like a super long screw and a bolt,, the motor spins the long screw and the bolt is basically fastened to the tray mechanism which in turn moves the trays up or down depending on the cycle it is in...

Charlie
 
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That sounds much easier to fabricate than a cam-action mech.

Does the rod, or tray, close a micro switch at each end of it's travel?
 
Twigg no switch at the very end(bottom) of the rod, just two nuts & a washer..I don't have ours anymore, or id take pic's of it for you..

totally different than a gqf..

however like i said we had alot of trouble with the bolt mechanism on the trays binding up at the bottom of travel of the rod(bottom end of rod), never when the bolt mechanism went to the top of the bator were the motor was did it ever give trouble.

Its hard to describe it with not being able to show picture it for you, but if you seen the inside you'd see what i was talking about, id like to see the inside of a newer one and see if they changed the rod set up on it differently as ours was one of the first ever out..

Charlie
 
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I imagine that would be called and acme thread.. quite similar to the threads on a bench vise ? I have one of those somewhere around here.. I was going to make a wine press with it.. another project left by the wayside..
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