Part 3- That’s going to hold a bunch of cigars!

 

It was time to start on the actual humidor. At first glance, it seemed like just building a standard cabinet with a door and a drawer. Humidors, however, should maintain a constant internal humidity level. The design needed to have a seal around the door and drawer. In addition, all of the cabinet joinery needed to be sealed. The customer’s specifications were to use solid Walnut for the entire humidor. This presented a problem with the cabinet back having a cross grain glue-up situation. And, finally, there are the glass inserts to deal with. All in all, not the typical cabinet I had originally envisioned in my mind’s eye.

 

 

Giving credit, where credit is due, an acquaintance from another forum directed me to an Internet article addressing most of my concerns with this build- http://archive.cigarweekly.com/magazine/cigarticles/02-12-2009/building-a-cabinet-humidor-from-scratch . The author’s content provided the answers to the cross grain glue up as well as sealing the door, drawer and glass.

 

 

The humidor is made from ¾†Walnut. The sides, bottom and back set in rabbets. I used TiteBond III throughout. For the back, I used ½†MDF and veneered it with 1/8†Walnut pieces. Vacuum clamping would have been ideal for applying the veneer; unfortunately I don’t have that set up. Clamps and weights did the trick.

 

 

 

 

The cabinet begins to take shape. The drawer/door divider is connected to the sides using a sliding dovetail connection.

 

 

 

 

The door, drawer front and top are made with a rail and stile, raised panel bit set. To permit installation/removal of the glass inserts I removed the back portion of the raised panel slots on the door and drawer. Holding strips will be added after the glass is in place. For the top, I removed the “fancy†front portion of the raised panel slot. My thoughts were that this would provide better support for the ¼†glass top. After the glass is installed the “fancy†strip will be installed. all glass pieces will set in a bed of clear silicon. The door and drawer is assembled “cope and stick†the top is mitered at 45° and the joint reinforced with biscuits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sealing the door/drawer information came from the above mentioned article. The seal is made by having the Spanish cedar lining extend about 3/16†proud of the cabinet openings. The liner will fit into a foam lined dado on the back side of the door and drawer. I made the dado 3/8†wide and about 5/16†deep. The foam liner for the dados is ¼†thick door weather stripping with a sticky back. I fastened the top with using 3 screws. One in the front, through a slotted hole, in the drawer's top support rail. Then one screw on each side using a pocket hole type fastening. The top is sealed with a clear silicon bead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The drawer front required additional modifications. Because the drawer front has a glass face, I couldn’t really make a 4 sided drawer box and then attach the drawer front. I decided on a 3 sided drawer box and attach it to the front with sliding dovetails. This method also needed a slot to support the drawer bottom.

 

 

 

After the drawer box was installed, I filled the sliding dovetail slots with a matching plug- Thanks Steven Newman!! http://thepatriotwoodworker.com/user/3502-steven-newman/

 

 

 

 

The door box and three storage shelves are all made from Spanish cedar. The sides are 3/8†thick and bottoms ¼†thick. The bottoms of all of these had slots for circulation/ventilation. On the drawer bottom, I made the slots run diagonally. I quickly discovered this was a real pain to setup and run. A hand held trim router and guide needed to be setup for each cut. When I made the shelves, I used the router table, fence and stops. This worked much better. Even though the slots were not angled, I don’t feel the overall look was compromised.

 

 

 

 

 

Box and drawer sides are all hand cut dovetails

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hardware is pretty straight forward. Brass hinges morticed into the side/door. Single under drawer slide mount. Morticed door lock and key. Ball catches to hold the drawer closed/sealed. The drawer/door exterior hardware design selected by the customer. Humidity gauge is installed in a hole with access from the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the next part- finishing up.

Beautiful work as always Lew

Lew, I don't know about you but this is actually one of the best part of a build is when things start coming together, the dry fitting, the clamp ups, the tweaks, it all starts sliding in place, and it's just plain fun to have it all work at this point. I bet you could taste the finish line at this point.

Seems like the fact the humidor had to be environmentally controlled like this presented some challenges that were not expected, thus more unexpected time. I never would have figured out in advance (if never doing something like this before) the configuration for sealing the door to the case with the foam and other techniques. Wow! Nice dovetails too!

Thanks, guys! Your kind words are always appreciated.

 

John, I'd still be scratching my head if it wasn't for the article mentioned in the link. A lot of the images, for commercially made units, didn't even show a seal. I was originally going to make an inset door/drawer and use a bead weather seal. However, I think the overlay construction allowed for a little more "flexibility" when there would be humidity changes.