Reptile & Amphibian Forums

here is a slide show I made of how to make an easy incubator with minimum amount of skill/work. No drilling or cutting required, you just need a screwdriver and a ratchet/socket

This is an Avanti 17 bottle wine refrigerator
I purchased one "new" on ebay for about $90 with shipping

Its nice because it has a window already built in and only minor mods are needed to turn into an incubator

I THINK I could probably even plug the holes with insulating foam and use it as a wine cooler again later if I really wanted to.

I have NOT tested this out yet, I will probably end up having to move cables around and add a fan but the whole point of this is to show how you can get the cables into it without having to go digging around in it like I did.

Theres 2 existing holes already in it that COULD be used but were not big enough to fit the end of my heat cable through so for me they wont work. If you are interested, they are located in 2 places, one is on the back under the thermostat and the other is right next to the hole I put in the shelf in the back and comes out above the tank assembly.

in the process of removing the platic cap to expose the insulation I chewed up the plastic cap pretty bad because I had a hard time getting it out just a fyi if you are wanting to save it to put back together.

Ill post results after water bottles are added and thermostat hooked up.

I dont have or expect to have any eggs but I would rather be prepared and I like to build things.

very nice concept. what are the dimensions on that as I don't know how to convert wine bottles to eggs, hahaha.
even if you don't get eggs try to run it for the length of an incubation cycle. See if it keeps the temps and humidity that you want it to and report back.

here is a picture of my diy incubator 4'x2'x2'. It was pseudo modified from the plans john hollister has on his web site. I got the plywood precut at the hardware store because at the time I couldn't find my saw. the only thing I had to cut was the shelving. this thing can hold a ton of eggs and it can hold a temperature too.

cheers,
daveb

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vote in '08
chris cornell for van halen lead singer...

daveb, thats a great lil incubator ya built their
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Education is Everything.......

thanks!

at the time I built it needed the space fast without spending $750 or more. I don't have pythons but it has hatched everything else I have put in there. as long as I am breeding snakes, this old thing will keep going. If it is ever retired, I will have to frame a little piece of it.

daveb
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vote in '08
chris cornell for van halen lead singer...

yea thats pretty much my plan, want to do a dry run without eggs to see if its stable, I tried doing a super cheap styro ice chest one and it was horrible but didn't have water bottles

Im going to add water bottles and test this one
then probably add a spare pc fan and test again

I plan on only using middle for eggs as I only have one breedable size female now and I expect to have 2 by this time next year

basically this was my alternative to a hova, after outgrowing this Ill be looking into either building one like you did or doing the same thing I did with this one but with a drink display case.

exterior is about
18" wide 20" deep and 20" high

not including shelves,
bottom section interior usable space is (bottom to middle shelf)
15.25" wide x 9.5" deep 7.25" high

top section interior usable space(middle shelf up to the top)
15.25" wide 14" deep and 9.25" high

Love your idea (don't know if it was yours, good info to have) of using the wine refrigerator for an incubator. I checked out the slideshow on how you altered it, I just might have to try it. Also I checked out your photobucket. Love the double decker cage. Is this your idea? Would you share your plans? If not can you send me in the direction to help me out? I'm a teacher and have zero table space. A double decker would be my answer for saving space. I have a male ball (approx. 4 feet) that needs a new place.

Thanks for your help.

The cage was converted from an old "reptile" cage I had picked up for $100
so I don't really have any plans for it,

If i did it again I would make them 2 separate cages and use screen for the top to allow for a heat lamp or use tile or glass in the bottom to allow for heat cable or heat pads, I do not like having the heat come from the back like I have it now(it wasn't the original plan either) I want to redo it so the heat comes from the floor if I can find a safe way to do it.

by making it in 2 sections you could add a cubby between cages for heating and make it easy to move, you could also just do one at a time and make sure you are happy with one before making the 2nd etc etc

I'm sure I have forgot some of it but This is a rough description of what I did,
it evolved as we built it There are many areas for improvement.
Personally I would build it as 2 cages and stack them
instead of one like I did, I think it would simplify it a lot.
but this will give you the general idea, please don't just start building following this like directions as I am sure you will end up going WTF? at some point if i forgot something

don't forget that if you plan on staining and sealing the wood you have to cut everything and put it together to be sure it fits, then take it back apart to stain and seal then put it all together again otherwise you end up with stain and stuff on the nice clear plexi and white spots where the plexi was in the way of getting to the wood

the basic shape is made of pairs of 1x2s screwed together to form L shapes
so theres one L for each corner that goes from top to bottom
for the top make horizontal Ls to give you a nice flat top to put the plywood/screen on(depending on if you want to have heat from top or not)
add Ls again a foot or two(however high you want the legs to be) from bottom to form the lip to hold the floor of the bottom section

then in the middle put a horizontal 1x2 all around the cage with the 2"side being on the sides and the 1" side on top and bottom giving you this general shape on all sides

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ok it cut off about half of the description and changed the formatting,

Ill just try to msg it to you
hopefully I can msg more then I can post

That looks great. If space is not a problem you can take that same concept and apply it to a Coca-Cola cooler. I found a bunch of them on Craigslist for about $50 and it is three times that size. It can hold about 18 egg containers. I put the heat tape on the bottom, put two open tubs of water on the very first shelf and loaded the rest with egg containers. It already has a fan built in to circulate the air when the heater comes on so you don't dry out the eggs too much. The humidity in the cooler is about 93% and of course even higher in the egg containers. The temps from top to bottom are only off by about .2 degrees.

Same concept only bigger.
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Ryan Sherman
Scottsdale, Arizona
www.ThePaintedPython.com

I did the wine cooler thing seems to be working fine. I can see the need for somthing bigger(walk in)someday.