Second homemade incubator attempt......pics

[Floridachicken1958]

Quote:
Sounds to me that your airflow isn't circulating from top to bottom.

 

[Phantom_Rooster]

I'm thinking that the temps might be more even if you had a false back and false top. In other words, if the fan were mounted at the top near the front looking down and was drawing from an air space that was pulling from the back and across the top. I hope you understand what I am saying here. I guess that you would have the same effect if your divider at the top went all the way to front door and the fan was mounted through it. It seems to me that the fan facing the front door is weakening the air flow. It's like it's pushing against it's self. It's not sending the air down as well as it could. I really like the false back idea, but I think a false top would help tremendously. Another idea (if even needed) is to put a 45° break at the corner where the air needs to make a 90° turn at the top over the eggs on the back side. Actually though, if it were me, I would ditch the divider at the top and the false back. Mount the fan at the top center near the front door looking down with some stand-offs and let her circulate full circle. Think about it.

I would highly recommend that you have 2 light bulbs instead of one, so the in the event that one blows you still have a heat source for your precious eggs. I would guess that (2) 75 watt or (2) 100 watt bulbs would do you. There cheap, so experiment. Here's a few pics of my Cooler/Bator. I got the design from rushlanepoultry.com. I ended up going with a wafer thermostat from old (free) Sears and Roebuck incubator. I think insulation is the least of your worries. If you have an adequate or even excessive heat source, good air flow, and your thermostat knows when to cut off, then insulation is only going to save you a few pennies on your light bill. That's up to you. But, it's better to be excessive then inadequate with the heat and air flow. The thermostat is designed to limit the excess heat. If the bulbs are high wattage, they will stay on for shorter periods of time. If they low wattage, they will stay on for longer periods of time. But, do have 2 of them. They're cheap.

I would like to say that your "Bator" does look nice. I like your egg turning setup. I like the large view window. I think that the thermostat is in the perfect place. Nice Job!!! It looks like quality craftsmanship.

Here's mine. It's not as nice as you cabinet model. But, it holds 99.5° ±0.1°, consistently.

And if your interested, see my thread on these neat wireless thermometers. I'm not selling them. They're made by CVS Pharmacy. I bought one from Ebay and I think it is awesome. The monitor stays by my bed in case something goes wrong with the temps. No one replied to my thread. I think everyone thought I was selling these. I don't care. I like it.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=600768

This is so weird. I could have sworn that the temp on the monitor was 99.5° when I posted this.

 

[barkerbeau]

There is a false back. The fan pulls air from the top and forces it to the bottom through the false back. The problems I was having with temp swing was due to thermometers reading different. I put them side by side and they were 4 off from each other. They were able to be recalibrate (digital). ALL problems completely solved. Temp swings from 99.3 to 100.2. The digital thermometers I'm using record high and low.. The false back idea I picked up here on the forum. Time to let the kids name it and paint their names on it. I was getting frustrated that I couldn't see when the light went off so I did install a backup light. A 60 watt bulb that stays on all the time. The 60 watt only gets the cabinet to 92 by itself, so it takes alot of work off of the heat lamp that connected to the t-stat. It holds temp amazing. Those pics were taken with fresh stain. The stain has dried and settled down.....much softer color. This was all done for my 2 year old son....he gets so excited picking eggs and watching them hatch. If only I could convince him to leave the white eggs from the fridge alone. He tries to hatch EVERYTHING

 

[quintinp]

Quote:
You have a very old looking wafer thermostat, did you make it, or did you get it from an old incubator.

 

[Phantom_Rooster]

quintinp wrote:
You have a very old looking wafer thermostat, did you make it, or did you get it from an old incubator.

I took it out of an old Sears and Roebuck incubator, model 213.57. I found out that they were made in the early 1950's. The wafer is still good, believe it or not. My temps are holding ±0.03°. I have never used the GQF thermostat with the snap action switch. But, I think mine is probably more accurate, because it uses a simple contact switch. It is very sensitive. I like it so much that I plan to replicate it for my next cooler bator build. I found a cheap and similar contact switch on Ebay that is made for rice cookers. It will take a little modifying, but I think I can make it work the same way. I've used snap action limit switches before. I can see how they may not be so accurate for thermostats. I have read that some that are using the GQF wafer thermostats with a snap action switch are getting 1.5° temp swings. Mine is way more accurate than that. I will post something on my modification when I get it done.

The contacts on mine appear to be brass. The rice cooker contacts are copper. From what I have read, the reason for the snap action is to reduce the chances for contacts arcing or sticking. I'm not having that problem with the old brass contacts. Copper should only be better.

I like the old method of design. It's called the K.I.S.S. method. That means "keep it simple stupid".

You'll have to forgive me, I tend to be long winded in my posts.​

 

[9Catsz]

Everyone's incubators look great. A friend of mine has a fridge that he converted to incubate his snake eggs. Works fantastic.

 

[Kenneth Flippen]

Quote:
Where did you get your egg racks? I have an older cabinet incubator I would like a turner for or atleast something other than one at a time LOL

Kenneth

 

[barkerbeau]

Egg racks are easily found on eBay. I got all 3 shipped for $15.

 

[cmom]

Nice!!!