I need to keep a small area warm, at a steady temperature of around 80-82 degrees. The area is approx 2sq feet. I am pretty damn broke, and need to go ghetto on this one. I can scrounge up some parts, but still need a little direction on where to go with this one. So far, my idea is using the heating element from my soldering iron, but I am worried about fire.

Any ideas?

Wal-mart sells very cheap aquarium heaters. To heat the area (if it is not filled with water), you'll need to put the aquarium heater in a container of water to make it not break.

You could DIY one if you have a bimetallic strip and a heating element. You'll just need a thermometer to help you calibrate it.

Yea, making your own wall-current heaters is dumb.

Go to a pet store and buy a reptile-tank heater. It will work properly (within the output wattage range it's intended for) and it won't burn your house down.
~

First, smack a sticky thermometer on there so you know the temp. I have turtles and what I do is just keep the top of the tank covered. I don't know about your tank but mine uses very hot lights, so keeping the top covered kept the heat in and the water nice and warm.

Btw, I tried propping one of my tanks up one time and heating it with a reptile rock from below...bad idea. The glass cracked and seeped water all over my floor, but I've seen worse. I knew that would happen if the heater touched the glass, so I made very sure it didn't, but apparently I wasn't careful enough and it got bumped against the glass, and bye bye aquarium. So overall not worth the risk, although very cheap.

The whole purpose of this heater is for the incubation of all sorts of mushrooms. I guess buying one would be better, but I like to do thing smyself when I can. I am thinking of using an old toaster.

I totally understand the desire to DIY. I do it too. But now that I'm old enough to work, and have a job, I think to myself: Is it worth saving the 10-15 dollars to spend 2 hours building something less good than what I'd get from the store?

I could just spend the two hours at work and earn my 10-15 dollars and buy whatever it is. I'm pretty sure Wal-mart aquarium heaters or reptile heaters cost under $15 if not $20 for a 50w, which would be enough with limited ventilation.

True, but its the thought that counts. I have fixed my problem though. The defrost strips from car windshields wrapped around what needs to keep warm works quite well.

+1 for an awesome DIY solution. I never would have thought of that.

Mind explaining how you did it? Seems pretty interesting.

A lightbulb is a heater with 95% efficiency. But if you needed to control the light in your box for some reason a hairdryer would work. You just need to rig up some kind of thermostat. A timer could work if you didn't need to be very precise and had time to exsperiment.