On building humidors (part II)
My humidor is finished, but it’s taking a while to get all the information up–unfortunately, the computer with all my blueprints on it went to that big server farm in the sky. Until my new hard drive arrives, I don’t have the dimensions or blueprints. That’s OK–today’s post is going to focus on humidor design. Don’t miss the previous article on the subject, which mostly covered the ins and outs of spanish cedar and how not to make your humidor smell like a habitrail.
So, humidor design. Basically, a humidor is a box within a box. The exterior box is something pretty, structurally sound, and moisture-proof. The interior box is made of spanish cedar, and is designed to keep water vapor from escaping through the gap between the lid and the box.
The most important consideration is that when the lid closes, the outer box should overlap the inner box. That is, you need a lip of spanish cedar that slides against your exterior wood, making a basically-moistureproof seal. You don’t actually want the thing hard-sealed, by the way; sure, it’d hold its humidity better, but cigars release a tiny bit of ammonia as they age, so a little air exchange is necessary or your cigars will pick up that distinctive eau de micturation. If you are using a Tupperdor, for example, you need to open it every week or two for this reason. But I digress.
One good plan has you make the box with all six sides intact, then cut off the top. I wanted something different, so instead I made the box, then made the lid, then lined the box with cedar, then put cedar on the underside of the lid such that it snugly fit into the box underneath.
It’s important to get the sizing right. Remember that no matter how big you make this, it’s still not very much wood, so you might as well make it big. For length, look at various cigar sizes and decide what you’re likely to buy (remembering that you can place the occasional monster oddball sideways). I went for 8″, which means I can fit nearly anything, but most of my cigars have some slop-room at the top. Next figure out the height. 4″ will hold many cigar boxes whole. If you’re going to build trays, this is a good time to design them. Also remember that the humidifier and hygrometer will portrude downward, so account for them in your height count. Finally, consider the width. This is mostly a judgement based on aesthetics and desired volume. If in doubt, use the golden rule, and make it as wide as someone else would want it to be. Er, use the golden ratio, and make it 1.61803399 times as wide as it is long. Since the golden ratio is for aesthetic purposes, make the exterior dimensions conform to the golden ratio, not the internal–that means taking the thickness of the humidor walls into account.
Ah yes, wall thickness. I’d recommend at least 1/2 inch of exterior wood, and 1/8 inch of spanish cedar, minimum. You can go much higher–my buddy made his out of 3/4″ of spalted maple (see the warning here!) and 1/2 inch of spanish cedar. This makes his humidor excellent for storing cigars, and for protecting fragile objects from a direct nuclear strike.
Coming shortly: joinery techniques needed to contain a lush cuban tobacco field in a box.
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