A bunch of guys have asked me to write about building your own humidor (wooden, not Edison-a-dor), so I figure Ill just put it in one big post for future reference. Hopefully some of the other guys on here (MattK, Gordon, Im talking to you) will chime in with some of their hints and suggestions.
First, safety. I like getting bombed, but I don’t want to receive your cigar collection because you no longer have fingers to smoke with. Read up and learn to use a splitter, blade guard, push stick, stop block, etc. Wear your damn safety glasses too. Oh, and also wear a dust mask. I know, I know, youre tough and you don’t need it. Well, neither do I, except when Im working with Spanish cedar. The dust is less than enjoyable to inhale.
Everyone knows the table saw can cut through your hand as well as wood, but it can also launch wood through you very easily. Watch where you are standing and be sure your lumber wont get pinched or fall onto the blade after cutting.
Before you build:
Go through all of your steps before you start. I shoot from the hip a lot, but its helpful to have some dimensioned drawings of what you want to accomplish. Think about your cuts, especially your joints, before you cut. Imagine how things will fit together and don’t forget to take into account the thickness of the board when youre designing your humidor. Also, when you buy your lumber, it will often be called ¾” when its actually 7/8ths or greater. Its assumed you will be planing the lumber down to get a good surface, so factor this in as well.
Basic box humidor:
This is your basic box humidor. Size it according to your needs. Generally, the best way to do it is just to build the box. Don’t worry about the lid just yet. Just make yourself a wooden box with all six sides. Ill get into joints later. Once you have this done, then you cut your box apart to allow access to the inside. A large bandsaw is best, but if you have one, you don’t need this basic how-to. You can use your table saw to make these 4 cuts, one on each side of the box. Use your fence as a guide and be careful. Remember though, that you will be losing the wood that gets cut out by the blade (this is called the kerf). So if you are making your box with finger joints, you will have one finger that will not be the same thickness as the others. You can figure this into your design or you can cut in the joint between two fingers to minimize the appearance. Using a bandsaw (which has a much smaller kerf, maybe 1/32” compared to 1/8” for table saw blade), the difference will not be nearly as noticeable.
You now have your box and your lid. It’s a good time to finish. I like tung oil because you don’t need to worry about dust or fumes, Ive never noticed it giving off any flavors or odors when Im done, and I like the warm glow. Another populat choice is lacquer. Lacquer will give you the nice gloss finish. If I get around to it, Ill post more about finishing later, but I am far from a finishing guru.
Take a break, a long break after you are satisfied with your finish…especially if you use lacquer. Let everything air out for a week or so to make sure your cigars don’t taste like spray paint.
Now, line with Spanish cedar. Cut it, glue it, miter in the inside corners (Ill define that in the joints section). I use 3/8” thick cedar, and I promised MM2(SW)S I would come up with a definitive answer as to the minimum thickness, but Im lazy and didn’t get around to that yet. I haven’t had a problem with 3/8”, so I think youre safe. Sp cedar will give you that nice aroma, supposedly keeps the beetles and boogie men away, but most importantly it isn’t bothered as much as your case material by humidity (meaning it wont swell like the maple, walnut, cherry, oak you use for the outside of the box). This is the only difference between a humidor and a jewelry box…the difference in humidity. If youre generally around 50% RH outside, youre OK, but when youre above fiber saturation point inside and below outside, it can cause problems with creep as part of your lumber swells and the other part does not. For this reason, it is always best to store your lumber for a while in the same climate it will be living in once you build your humidor.
I usually have my Spanish cedar rise about ¼” above the bottom case (Ill illustrate later) and leave it ¼” short on the lid to provide a good seal. If you do this, you will need to round the edges so the lid can close. For 3/8” thick cedar, you can do this by hand with sandpaper…it doesn’t take long and you don’t need to set up a router.
Install your pretty brass hinges and other hardware, and youre done.
Cabinet humidor:
Same concept, a box within a box. The main question I got concerned the door, especially for those who want glass. An illustration is the best way to describe this. There are 2 ways, one using a dado cut, and the other a rabbet cut. See below. A rabbet cut can be made by making two perpendicular cuts on your table saw. A dado cut can be made using a dado blade (theyre pricey) or making multiple passes with your regular table saw blade and then cleaning out the cut with a chisel. Ill also show door design in an illustration below.
For a cabinet humidor, you will most likely need to edge join 2 or more boards together to get a piece large enough. YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS PERFECTLY SQUARE. This is always important, but very important in this case. If you mess this up, it will look like poo (unless you go back and do a lot of hand planing and sanding). If you are the anal type, you can get a good square board using your table saw…assuming you set it up perfectly. Jack the blade up to its full height and use a square. Make several cuts and keep adjusting. If you have access to a jointer, use it. If you have a local shop that will joint the boards for you, explain what you want and have them do it. There is nothing worse than a gap in your joint. You also need to make sure your boards are the same thickness. This can only be done with a planer (or with a hand plane, some skill, and patience). Boards of different thicknesses can be edge joined together, just make sure the good side is outside, the bad will be covered by the cedar lining. But to keep things simple, just plane the damn things. I don’t think Rockler will do this, but a lot private woodworking stores will and any regular woodworking shop will as well.
When youre putting your boards together to edge join…take a look at the coloring and grain. Try to match them up to make them look purty.
Line everything up, glue the edges, and then use furniture clamps to clamp in place. Use waxed paper (especially if youre using iron clamps) to cover the clamps because the iron will react with the glue and will leave a blue/black stain. Trust me on this. Also use pads (scrap wood will do) on your clamps so their imprint doesn’t become a part of your humidor. Let glue that seeps out (it will, and that’s good…it should be a nice continuous line of glue oozing out, not too much though) dry. Some say wipe it with a wet rag, but that will raise the grain of your wood even more and make the glue you will surely miss difficult to see. Let it dry, and invest in a $2 glue scraper (or a real cabinet scraper if your really into woodworking). Scrape it off and sand down. If you leave glue, even if its tough to see, you WILL see it when you go to finish.
Now, glue your box together, finish, and line. Again, Ill explain more on joints below.
And remember, the worst thing that you can create is the most precise and expensive firewood on the block.
First, safety. I like getting bombed, but I don’t want to receive your cigar collection because you no longer have fingers to smoke with. Read up and learn to use a splitter, blade guard, push stick, stop block, etc. Wear your damn safety glasses too. Oh, and also wear a dust mask. I know, I know, youre tough and you don’t need it. Well, neither do I, except when Im working with Spanish cedar. The dust is less than enjoyable to inhale.
Everyone knows the table saw can cut through your hand as well as wood, but it can also launch wood through you very easily. Watch where you are standing and be sure your lumber wont get pinched or fall onto the blade after cutting.
Before you build:
Go through all of your steps before you start. I shoot from the hip a lot, but its helpful to have some dimensioned drawings of what you want to accomplish. Think about your cuts, especially your joints, before you cut. Imagine how things will fit together and don’t forget to take into account the thickness of the board when youre designing your humidor. Also, when you buy your lumber, it will often be called ¾” when its actually 7/8ths or greater. Its assumed you will be planing the lumber down to get a good surface, so factor this in as well.
Basic box humidor:
This is your basic box humidor. Size it according to your needs. Generally, the best way to do it is just to build the box. Don’t worry about the lid just yet. Just make yourself a wooden box with all six sides. Ill get into joints later. Once you have this done, then you cut your box apart to allow access to the inside. A large bandsaw is best, but if you have one, you don’t need this basic how-to. You can use your table saw to make these 4 cuts, one on each side of the box. Use your fence as a guide and be careful. Remember though, that you will be losing the wood that gets cut out by the blade (this is called the kerf). So if you are making your box with finger joints, you will have one finger that will not be the same thickness as the others. You can figure this into your design or you can cut in the joint between two fingers to minimize the appearance. Using a bandsaw (which has a much smaller kerf, maybe 1/32” compared to 1/8” for table saw blade), the difference will not be nearly as noticeable.
You now have your box and your lid. It’s a good time to finish. I like tung oil because you don’t need to worry about dust or fumes, Ive never noticed it giving off any flavors or odors when Im done, and I like the warm glow. Another populat choice is lacquer. Lacquer will give you the nice gloss finish. If I get around to it, Ill post more about finishing later, but I am far from a finishing guru.
Take a break, a long break after you are satisfied with your finish…especially if you use lacquer. Let everything air out for a week or so to make sure your cigars don’t taste like spray paint.
Now, line with Spanish cedar. Cut it, glue it, miter in the inside corners (Ill define that in the joints section). I use 3/8” thick cedar, and I promised MM2(SW)S I would come up with a definitive answer as to the minimum thickness, but Im lazy and didn’t get around to that yet. I haven’t had a problem with 3/8”, so I think youre safe. Sp cedar will give you that nice aroma, supposedly keeps the beetles and boogie men away, but most importantly it isn’t bothered as much as your case material by humidity (meaning it wont swell like the maple, walnut, cherry, oak you use for the outside of the box). This is the only difference between a humidor and a jewelry box…the difference in humidity. If youre generally around 50% RH outside, youre OK, but when youre above fiber saturation point inside and below outside, it can cause problems with creep as part of your lumber swells and the other part does not. For this reason, it is always best to store your lumber for a while in the same climate it will be living in once you build your humidor.
I usually have my Spanish cedar rise about ¼” above the bottom case (Ill illustrate later) and leave it ¼” short on the lid to provide a good seal. If you do this, you will need to round the edges so the lid can close. For 3/8” thick cedar, you can do this by hand with sandpaper…it doesn’t take long and you don’t need to set up a router.
Install your pretty brass hinges and other hardware, and youre done.
Cabinet humidor:
Same concept, a box within a box. The main question I got concerned the door, especially for those who want glass. An illustration is the best way to describe this. There are 2 ways, one using a dado cut, and the other a rabbet cut. See below. A rabbet cut can be made by making two perpendicular cuts on your table saw. A dado cut can be made using a dado blade (theyre pricey) or making multiple passes with your regular table saw blade and then cleaning out the cut with a chisel. Ill also show door design in an illustration below.
For a cabinet humidor, you will most likely need to edge join 2 or more boards together to get a piece large enough. YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS PERFECTLY SQUARE. This is always important, but very important in this case. If you mess this up, it will look like poo (unless you go back and do a lot of hand planing and sanding). If you are the anal type, you can get a good square board using your table saw…assuming you set it up perfectly. Jack the blade up to its full height and use a square. Make several cuts and keep adjusting. If you have access to a jointer, use it. If you have a local shop that will joint the boards for you, explain what you want and have them do it. There is nothing worse than a gap in your joint. You also need to make sure your boards are the same thickness. This can only be done with a planer (or with a hand plane, some skill, and patience). Boards of different thicknesses can be edge joined together, just make sure the good side is outside, the bad will be covered by the cedar lining. But to keep things simple, just plane the damn things. I don’t think Rockler will do this, but a lot private woodworking stores will and any regular woodworking shop will as well.
When youre putting your boards together to edge join…take a look at the coloring and grain. Try to match them up to make them look purty.
Line everything up, glue the edges, and then use furniture clamps to clamp in place. Use waxed paper (especially if youre using iron clamps) to cover the clamps because the iron will react with the glue and will leave a blue/black stain. Trust me on this. Also use pads (scrap wood will do) on your clamps so their imprint doesn’t become a part of your humidor. Let glue that seeps out (it will, and that’s good…it should be a nice continuous line of glue oozing out, not too much though) dry. Some say wipe it with a wet rag, but that will raise the grain of your wood even more and make the glue you will surely miss difficult to see. Let it dry, and invest in a $2 glue scraper (or a real cabinet scraper if your really into woodworking). Scrape it off and sand down. If you leave glue, even if its tough to see, you WILL see it when you go to finish.
Now, glue your box together, finish, and line. Again, Ill explain more on joints below.
And remember, the worst thing that you can create is the most precise and expensive firewood on the block.