Thread: Finished my new humidor

Wow, that is sweet - great job!

Finished with lunch, time for a Montecristo and stroll by the river.

I envy this statement

Wow, very nice job! I see you have CAD (Cigar Aquisition Disorder)

Originally Posted by Alembic

Wow, very nice job! I see you have CAD (Cigar Aquisition Disorder)

I am actually a closet pyromaniac, I like to set small slow burning fires a couple times a day.

I saw you mentioned in the Daily Banter over on CI today as the "Go to guy for building your own humidors." I was proud to know of you from here, and I have to agree that your humidors are just lovely. I'm going to try to make my own this summer... would you be willing to chat tips and tricks sometime? I understand, of course, if your methods are proprietary.

Again... lovely work!

Beautiful job on that humi, very nice work. I have a Staebell M+ and was smoking Cuban cigars when they were legal in the US.

That's a set of great pics (all the way back on page 1). I just bought a new humi (100+ ct) and I'm priming it now. My first one (a 50ct) is too small, even for my tiny collection. It's growing though, steadily, by the week.

I would like to make my own Humi this summer. So, as with BKratchmer, can we talk tips and hints? If so, that would be just awesome.

Maxi

There are not many tricks to it. It is quite simply a box. I rabbit cut the ends so the everything is recessed. Short of a dovetail, which I almost did, it is about as strong of a joint as you will get. It also helps to create a tighter joint so it seals up better. I also recess the top and bottom for a good seal. I actually used a hunk of scrap oak for the bottom since you will never see it.

Make a solid box, no lid. Once it is finished, set your table saw fence for the height you want your lid, put in a high tooth carbide thin kerf cabinet blade and run the box through the saw to cut the lid off. Then it is just making the Spanish ceder liner. I use 3/8 thick Spanish ceder, it is thick enough to absorb the humidity and hold a stable level. Some of those budget ebay special humidors do not have any ceder liner in them at all, or use a very thin 1/8 or less liner. I have even seen them with something as small as divider partition just so they can say it has Spanish ceder.

They do get expensive to make, in relative terms. Wood has gotten expensive over the past year. They cost more in materials than some of those 'budget' humi's and you still have to make it. But in the end, you will end up with a much better product.

When you use the technique Cannonfodder described for cutting off the lid, set your blade height to 1/64th less than the thickness of the boards, then when you cut the whole way around the thin material left will keep the lid separated from the box without having to use shims or anything to prevent binding on the blade as you flip it over and over. Then use a nice sharp utility knife to cut the thin material and a plane or flush cut saw to clean up the bits.

thats a really nice humidor!