Ant Queen Tube Incubator - 18mm Test Tube

thingiverse

Edit: 5/12/2021 - The cable tube has been resized to 10mm for an 8mm heat cable. There shouldn't be any further issues with heat cables fitting. Additionally, a photo of the finished product has been added. 5/5/2021 - Re-uploaded the lids. There are two versions of each lid. One with a threshold of 1mm smaller than the insert listed as 'Tight Fit' and one with a 1.5mm smaller listed as 'Loose Fit'. There is also a test print for both versions so you can test on your printer. The 'Tight Fit' lids will most likely need edges sanded more significantly, especially at the corners. This is why I'm providing an additional version that shouldn't require much, if any sanding. A very drastic remix of the Ant Queen Tube Holder (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3590244) by homeideasnetwork. I say drastic because I cut his model in half and used the top half to make this, mostly because I didn't want to take the time to cut the holes for the tubes myself, though that wouldn't have been too hard. You know what they say, work smart not hard and this saved me a few steps. The preliminary idea here is a one off ant incubator where you can shield your ant queens from light, provide a heat cable if you desire, and easily check on the water levels of the test tube. The three lid system allows you to check on the water or queen chamber easily without much disturbance. This is designed with 18.96 mm holes for test tubes so it should fit anything 18mm or smaller though I don't recommend going much smaller than say, 17mm. It is designed to lay flat with 5 tubes. I don't recommend standing it vertical as the lids nor test tubes have no kind of sideways locking mechanism (yet anyway). I will create a vertical standing version if there is request for it however and I am considering a stacking version as well, where you could stack multiple 5 tube holders on top of one another if you have lots of queens. There are 2 versions, one which allows a 8mm heat cable (and one that doesn't) to be inserted about 15mm from the open end of a test tube. I placed it here based on the typical amount of cotton that will be used to seal the test tube. I am additionally designing my own test tube insert caps that will also be shorter than 15mm in length to allow heat cable contact. There are 2 lids, one small and one large. The large can be printed twice to fill both of the larger holes. There is a 1mm clearance between the size of the lid and the insert in which the lid fits. This should allow for a nice flush fit of less than a mm on all sides of the lid. Minor sanding may be required. I have provided a small 'Test Insert' to test print the lid and insert threshold first if preferred. IMPORTANT NOTE: This is currently listed as a WIP because I have not printed it yet. Once I have printed this, the WIP tag will be removed and the photos of the finished product, with my current incubating queens will be provided. Update should be about 1-2 weeks from now.