Building my humi

Okay BOTL's, I need some good criticism and outside thinking from some of you guys who might know something about woodworking and humidors.

So a little backstory. I decided to build a cabinet humidor for my dad while he is deployed to Iraq. He is the one who got me into smoking and he really wants a nice furniture style humidor so I decided to make a small end table sized humi to save some cash on it for my mom.

Dimensions: 18" Wide x 12" deep x 30" high

So I did all my research and started joining some pieces to get the dimensions I wanted. While doing a little more research tonight i came across this thread, http://www.cigarsmokers.com/threads/...=spanish+cedar. As I was reading that I saw that he used red cedar as the wood instead of the traditional spanish cedar, and as it turns out that is the wood that I had purchased, with the intention of lining with luan or spanish cedar depending on how much left over cash I had (sometimes wood working projects don't go as planned and more supplies are needed with me :smiley9:)

So my question is would it be alright to not line the cabinet with luan or spanish cedar and just rely on the boxes of smokes that I buy with the left over cash to provide the smell?

Also for joining the corners what would you guys recommend? I am deciding between busting out the miter saw and glueing it up or cutting some rabbets and glueing (I don't want to just nail it together and leave the end grain exposed.)

Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

You need to line your humi with something non aromatic. From what I understand red cedar is aromatic and will impart a flavor into your cigars.

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Originally Posted by prophetic_joe

You need to line your humi with something non aromatic. From what I understand red cedar is aromatic and will impart a flavor into your cigars.

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Thats what I thought too, until I saw DeeDubya's thread where he said that is what he used exclusively, unless I misunderstood him. Perhaps I should shoot him a pm and see what the deal is.

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Originally Posted by dr. cox

(snip)

Also for joining the corners what would you guys recommend? I am deciding between busting out the miter saw and glueing it up or cutting some rabbets and glueing (I don't want to just nail it together and leave the end grain exposed.)

Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

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How thick is the wood you're using for the carcass? I'd be worried about a glued miter joint not being strong enough to keep it from racking. Also, what's wrong with finished end grain?

Might want to bump those joints up to a full or blind mortise, or a dovetail joint for strength. I guess you could use dowels to make the joint too.

Will

My understanding was that all red cedar was aromatic but perhaps not. The red cedar I've worked with made my shop smell like a hamster cage :smiley36: I just built a cabinet from oak plywood and went with end grain butt joints. The wood sat in my obscenely humid shop for a couple weeks and had cupped slightly. Without long enough clamps and my coolers overflowing I just screwed it in with a seperation of about 1.5-2 in b/t screws. I lined the inner joints with silicone aquarium caulk and it's been holding steady @ 65% for a couple weeks. I'm lining it with luan this weekend. I would have gone with spanish cedar but the dimensions, 4ft tall X 3ft wide X 2ft deep, made that rather pricey. Mine is hiding in a closet so aesthetics were rather low on the list. If you have the skill and tools, I'd go with dovetails or mortise and tenon of some sort if you stick with the mitered joints.

I just re-read my post...meant to say red oak, not cedar. I ended up lining with luan. I went with a basic set up like you did, aesthetics don't matter much to me either. Mine is somewhat smaller than yours, roughly 3' high x 1.5' w x 1' deep but it should do nicely. Glue is drying on the luan right now, will be working on the door and shelves this weekend. Pics will be put up later.