roll your own humidor 1

[SmokinAl]

Gday Folks,

As promised here begins my tale entitled “roll your own humidor” (or , how I learned to stop sneezing and love Spanish Cedar dust).

For our exercise, I’m going to build a large desktop humidor that you can easily scale down to fit your needs out of Spanish Cedar. This one will be big enough to fit a few boxes as well as have a tray to hold single sticks.

(This is not my ideal humidor. One day, I hope to be able to convince a client to build a replica of the Ark of the Covenant (a la Indiana Jones). Now that would be an appropriate way to store cigars! ;-) )

For those of you who have enough humidors to start your own cigar shop, I beg your indulgence and hope if you persist and read along, you’ll at least get a laugh when I screw something up (which happens far more frequently than I’d care to admit).

For the rest of you, let me know if you’d like dimensioned plans. I generally draw my stuff up on big sheets of MDF at 1:1 scale but I’ll try to figure out my CAD Software if someone really needs it...or I can just post you the sheet of MDF when I’m finished...

I guess a good place to start is a brief explanation of function and follow with form (design).

Many of you will know all of this, of course, but for those who are new to wet cigars, it may be worth setting a few things straight.

ENTREE:

A humidor simply is a box that maintains cigars at given moisture level, about 14% if I recall correctly. For air to have the same amount of moisture in it you would have a Relative Humidity of about 70%. To achieve this, a humidor uses a humidifier, mechanical or chemical, to act as humectants to continuously provide an environment with this degree of airborne moisture. Because cigars can absorb or expunge their moisture into the air, they will stabilise their moisture content to the surrounding air. (Always keep in mind that Relative Humidity is relative to TEMPERATURE. An increase in temperature in a closed environment can bring it to dewpoint which means soggy, rather than wet cigars). The best humectants will also work as a desiccant, removing excessive moisture from the air. Mechanical humidifiers, for the main part, do not do this. For this reason, I’ve always been more inclined towards chemical humidification. There’s also less to go wrong and they’re easier to maintain and waaaaay cheaper.

Using Relative humidity is an accurate way to gauge cigars moisture content as long as the cigar has been within that environment for a reasonable period of time and much more practical than stabbing your sticks with a moisture meter.

For years, the common chemical approach was a mixture of distilled water and Propylene Glycol in a 50/50 solution poured onto a piece of florists foam. More recently there have been some great products to surface all of which do basically the same thing as the PG mixture. I’m using beads in my lounge room humidor and I’m very happy with the results. Remember though, PG or beads or any variation on the theme will expel airborne moisture much faster than it will absorb it. Also remember that airborne moisture is LIGHTER than air. Every time you open your humidor, you refresh the environment. With a good humidor this isn’t a problem. A cigar will not dry faster than the environment can equalise. (In my humidors I use a little data logger to measure this response time when I first build them and aim for a five minute refresh, but an hour or three won’t cause any problems in a normal humidor opened a few times a day).

Modern humidors are all primarily made of Spanish Cedar (Cedrela Odorata). There’s a lot of different opinions about why and in truth, I’m not so sure I believe any of them.

What I can tell you for fact is that:

1. Spanish Cedar won’t contaminate the cigars (some woods can stink them up real bad, normal cedar for example, other woods are poisonous, etc).

2. It’s nicely absorbent so helps safeguard against dewpoint and will slow the drying of your cigars if you forget to check your humidifier for a while (but I know you won’t).

3. It’s very stable so will be less inclined to warp ( a big deal if your only veneering wood on one side...and you will be)

4. It smells nice.

5. It tastes like crap!

Another popular choice that is going out of vogue due to price and scarcity is Honduran Mahogany (Swietenia). Davidoff used to use nothing but in their humidors and it doesn’t need to be veneered. It’s a really nice furniture grade wood.

If you look at some of the antique humidors around the place you’ll find the inside lined with copper or lead. This, again, works fine...especially if you want to hide your cigars from Superman.

Remember, another perfectly acceptable option is an esky with a chunk of oasis foam and PG solution in a saucer.

I really don’t think it matters all that much what material your humidor is made out of, as long as it works! How can you tell it works? Smoke a cigar. If you like it, you’re probably on the money. If it goes up like the Wicker Man, your humidor needs work.

DESIGN:

I’ve dreamed up about 5 designs for this article but I have to settle on one and it’s going to be a serious humidor; a man’s humidor; a humidor that will create feelings of inadequacy in all other desktop humidors. In short, it’s going to be bloody big! So big, in fact, it will have its own table.

When you start designing a humidor, the best way to do it is to think of capacity. Once you know how many sticks are involved, it’s much easier to figure out how big the inside is. The inside, strangely enough, dictates the size of the outside. How much humectant do you need for the humidor to be self sustaining for a month? Will the sticks be French Fitted? Do you want to mount a cutter inside? A digital hygrometer? A analogue (only ever use natural hair or hair hybrid) hygrometer? A lighter or tapers?

Once you’ve got all that, draw it.

I find that 1:1 scale is always easiest and draw it as though it was cut through the middle. For a desktop humidor, always put the humidifier on the bottom. Look at the cut through drawing and determine how much dead space there is and figure out how to minimise it.

You want as little air cavity at the top as you possibly can. Consider giving up form over function in this matter.

I’ll post just such a drawing in the next edition (once I’ve figured out my CAD software).

My only question left is, “what the heck is it going to look like on the outside?”

So what do you guys think? Modern design? Sheraton? Chippendale? Precious Metal Inlays? Carving? Marquetry or Intarsia? Quadrant hinges? (oh hell, what else...I’m sick of bloody quadrant hinges). If you guys give me a style, I’ll see if I can’t accommodate you.

At this point, I’d like to suggest that you take a break. Make a coffee and find a Siglo II somewhere, ‘cause that’s what I’m going to do! Stay tuned for the next instalment where I start chopping up wood, walking it through the house and getting slapped around by the fiancée for getting more sawdust in the carpet.

Oh, and don’t forget to let me know what you’d like as a “style” for the humidor.

Cheers Al.

[ColtM1911A1]

Thanks, Al. I certainly going to begin this project as soon as I finish a coffee table and corner bookcase I'm doing for a neighbor. As always, I promised a time that is slowly ticking away. Had a few problems getting the proper inlays to match the ironwood I'm using. Yup, ironwood and I can say will never be tackled by me again. But as always, the customer is always right even though in this case he was wrong ;-). And since this is a hobby and not a profession, I'm learning as I go...

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time posting. Effort appreciated...

Jack

Minnesota -- USA

[MaltPointer]

Al,

Many thanks for taking the effort to share your learnings and your skill with us. I'm looking forward to seeing this series unfold.

Charles

[Colt45]

» Oh, and don’t forget to let me know what you’d like as a “style” for the

» humidor.

Good stuff Al. Though it may not be suitable for this particular project, I'd love to see something carved -

something along the lines of the Cuban Colonial style.

[SmokinAl]

Gday guys, thanks for the response.

Jack, did you mean Nth Australian Ironwood? The Cooktown variety? With all respect, you may not be a professional cabinet maker but you've gotta be a frickin genius at sharpening tools. What the hell are you using, Cold Chisels? If I was wearing a hat, I'd take it off to you.

I look forward to the chance of giving something back to you guys. I've been getting more and more irritated at the rising cost, declining quality and in particular the sales B.S. that come with some of these things...

Colt45, whilst I'll be happy to do a hand carved humi in the future if FOH is interested, my goal in this instance is to try and show how you can make a good (as in not crap) humidor yourself without having a lot of tools or past experience and getting a result you can feel proud of. Relief carving is one of those skills you've either got or..well, try bushwalking, it'll be less irksome. My plan is to do something rectangular (round and oval bits are more work) with reasonably easy to do layout, joinery and polishing.

MaltPointer, it's my pleasure, I enjoyed writing the first installment and I'm sure I'll get a kick out pontificating on the rest of the story. :-D

I'll wait a few more days for you Colt, or any others to throw in their opinions about style.

Thanks again for your feedback.

[zuma]

Though I am tempted to suggest a box about the size of my gramma's manchester cedar chest... I will be better off just paying attention with hope of learning something...

Thanx a lot... I am looking forward to your future postings on the subject.

Cheers!

[Colt45]

» I'll wait a few more days for any others to throw in their

» opinions about style.

»

I for one will surely be grateful for anything you're willing to share, Al. And while I'd love to see a

carved case, and short ball and claw feet, I fully understand and appreciate the concept of this project.

[El Presidente]

Well done Al.

I will start a new "Humidor Turorial" forum for you to play in :-)

[CIGARHead]

Al,

I'm very much looking forward to this. Your craftsmanship is astonishing mate!

[Taino]

Very nice post, I'll be following this one.

Thanks for sharing part of your knowledge, this is very generous of you.

As far as style, I’ve always thought less is more in terms of humidors. I like them to be simple but exquisitely made, where cigars are the protagonists. Maybe a little carving but not much.

[SmokinAl]

» Very nice post, I'll be following this one.

»

» Thanks for sharing part of your knowledge, this is very generous of you.

»

»

» As far as style, I’ve always thought less is more in terms of humidors. I

» like them to be simple but exquisitely made, where cigars are the

» protagonists. Maybe a little carving but not much.

G'day Taino,

Man, I'm with you! I think that less is generally more. I like lids that close so cleanly they can amputate fingers and when you drop the lid, it should be dropping on a cushion of air.

The only time I go the other way is when it's a big collection of cigars and it's a "hidey humidor", say the top of a dining room table lifts up on gas struts (haven't done one of these, but what a s**t hot idea). I think you're better served to go with a beautiful and elegant piece of furniture, it's going to cost you anyway so why not!

GoodOnYa Taino, we're cut from the same cloth!

Al.

[BMWBen]

Just read through this whole series, awesome! Funny this is the thread that started the whole "humidor tutorial" section of the forum way back. What ever happened to Al? Who bought the humidor?

[Colt45]

42 minutes ago, BMWBen said:

Just read through this whole series, awesome! Funny this is the thread that started the whole "humidor tutorial" section of the forum way back. What ever happened to Al? Who bought the humidor?

I'm not sure where Alain is off to, but the humidor was won by Yossie. If I recall correctly, Yoss transferred ownership to another member.

[Fuzz]

I believe Trevor is currently in possession of the humidor.