Fridge to Incubator Conversion

[Snake_Whisperer]

Spent this past weekend on this project, all up, took me about 18 hours to do. Picked up a daggy old, non-functioning fridge from Salvos for 10 bucks. That plus a lot of grinding, sanding, gluing, modding, and painting equals 1 fully functional incubator. Made almost entirely from scraps I had in the racks in the shop, apart from the thermostat, I would have spent less than $120.

Key features are:

• Double glazed viewing window.
• 80 watt heat cable woven into a gal. wire shelf above the floor.
• Timber accents, including custom door pull.
• Ceiling mounted, low profile LED puck lights, controlled by remote control.
• Floor mounted, blue LED lit, 3 fan air circulation system (a laptop cooling unit placed on the floor )
• Door mounted ATC-210 dimming thermostat.
• 4+1 shelves, each a perfect fit for 2 Systema 7L incubation tubs.

Still waiting on the fan unit to arrive by post, and a new arbor for my tablesaw (arghh!) so I can finish trimming that ugly *** channel above the top shelf. Other than that, I've run it already and it hits temp without a problem with ambient at 20 degrees so I'm stoked.

Cheers,
Aaron

 

[abnrmal91]

Looks great, good work. So what eggs are going to fill it.

 

[dangles]

looks great, the cooling fan is that just a laptop cooling setup?

 

[FAY]

Great job.
With what do you cut the hole in the door with?

 

[tankslapt]

I wish I was as good as you.

 

[Wild~Touch]

Show off

 

[Snake_Whisperer]

Yep, off the shelf laptop cooler. USB powered with a USB to AC adaptor outside the unit.

After disassembling the door, cut out the window with a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade in it. Needed earmuffs for that procedure!

 

[zeke]

Wow u can seriously turn anything into something awsome

 

[jinjajoe]

Nice Azza !!!!!

 

[maddog-1979]

could be a new addition to your product range Aaron

most readily available incubators are only good for a couple of clutches , and there's alot people who like the proffesional look but are not that handy.

 

[Snake_Whisperer]

WxHxD 57cm x 120cm x 52cm

Show off

Lol, just doin' my thang Sandee!

I've been batting around the idea of doing specialised wine cooler conversions, I suppose if enough people express an interest I'd give it a red hot go. If I could turn a banged up rusty ants nest like that and make it useable, somethinglike this would be a snap! I'm sure I could do a unit like this, WxHxD 57cm x 120cm x 52cm, ready to go with heat and dimming thermo for around $1000.

 

[Red-Ink]

Fantastic work mate...

 

[porkosta]

Top effort, very nice.

 

[Fuscus]

Very, very impressive Aaron - above your normal high standards.
You may have been able to save yourself some work by buying a non-working fridge from the tip, they have hundreds there, and some look in good nick (guess what I'll be doing this week)

 

[Snake_Whisperer]

Very, very impressive Aaron - above your normal high standards.
You may have been able to save yourself some work by buying a non-working fridge from the tip, they have hundreds there, and some look in good nick (guess what I'll be doing this week)

Lol, I did a tip run 2 days after picking that one up. Guess what I saw... D'OH!

 

[Chris1]

that looks awesome!!
it took me 2 mins to convert my ebay bargain, lol, no cutting, no gluiing, no sanding no hassles!!

wish i could see the eggs without opening the door tho, hehehehe

 

[liney]

Love the conversion job mate, wanting to cut a hole in my fridge/incubator as well but thinking do I need 2 pieces of glass seeing as most fridge doors have an outer and inner shell/thickness. What do you reckon? Is yours 1 piece of glass or 2?

cheers
Steve

 

[J-A-X]

If you look closely at pic 6 it looks like he's removed the inside shell of the door, put some timber in its place so it helps insulate and gives somewhere solid to put the glass.
It's a fantastic job as always, you would guess how bad it was to start with, amazing what a good rub back and a coat of paint can achieve