4 replies to this topic

[PaxxMantid]

Heating cables are great, and versatile, and flexible - but it seems like I was constantly adjusting and moving them, trying to get nice gradients for the ants.

 

Finally I got out some cardboard, glue, and tape and put together this thing.  A sort of trench runs the cable in a pattern that makes it easy to move the mini hearths around, exposing heat however much or little as is needed. I just thought I'd share it because I love a simple solution made of things I find around the house

 

 

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Edited by PaxxMantid, September 3 2024 - 10:50 AM.

[AntsGodzilla]

Nice! what species live in the hearths?

[Mushu]

That’s what I do but with fake legos to build a base. I didn’t want anything permanent. This is simple and elegant. I add one of those reptile mats as a cover.

I moved to using a themostat to control the temperature since the cables can get hotter at times.

[Voidley]

Very cool idea — I should probably make one of those myself. A quick note is that you can’t really tape down your heat cable because the heat from the cable tends to weaken the adhesive on tape causing it to eventually fall off. I would instead recommend using staples to hold the cable down (not into the cable itself, obviously, but into the cardboard across the cable). I have an insulated foam box I use as a makeshift incubator with a heat cable coiled around inside it and I’ve found that tape (at least in my experience) never seems to work. Anyways, you may not even have run into this problem because your cable is resting on a surface, but just wanted to put it out there in case it might help.

Edited by Voidley, September 5 2024 - 5:52 PM.

[PaxxMantid]

Very cool idea — I should probably make one of those myself. A quick note is that you can’t really tape down your heat cable because the heat from the cable tends to weaken the adhesive on tape causing it to eventually fall off. I would instead recommend using staples to hold the cable down (not into the cable itself, obviously, but into the cardboard across the cable). I have an insulated foam box I use as a makeshift incubator with a heat cable coiled around inside it and I’ve found that tape (at least in my experience) never seems to work. Anyways, you may not even have run into this problem because your cable is resting on a surface, but just wanted to put it out there in case it might help.

 

Actually it works well because of that. I don't need the adhesive to stick to the cable, because the tape just needs to hold it in that little crack. No need to gum up the cable. So, after it's been hot for a while the adhesive doesn't really work where the cable is, but it's still stuck very tightly on the surrounding cardboard. Easy to slide the cable around if needed.