‘On building humidors (part III)
When we last left our intrepid humidor, he was about to discuss issues of joinery. This is even more important than in a regular box, because as our brighter readers will have already gleaned, the whole purpose of a humidor is to be humid. And as any reader paying even the slightest bit of attention will now realize, humidity and wood are a trecherous combination.
Basically, when wood gets humid it swells up. This is the reason for kiln drying–if you don’t, it will dry out naturally over a period of years, and the resulting size changes will cause the wood to split. Well, you should still dry your humidor wood thoroughly before use, but the difficulty isn’t done yet. The interior of your humidor will hopefully always be at 70% relative humidity, even as the outside approaches the humidity of the room (which is often closer to 50% or lower). This means that there is going to be incredible stress on the parts of your box, and you have to design for parts of the box to move.
From a practical standpoint, that means you want strong, well-glued joints on the sides (dovetails or fingerjoints are a good idea), and you don’t want the top and bottom to be glued in–better to slot them in, raised panel-style. That way the box can grow or shrink slightly, and the top and bottom will grow and shrink along with it.
As for actual wood choices, I made my sides out of walnut scraps from my dining room table project. The top is grade AAA curly maple, and the bottom is spalted maple. While curly maple of that quality is expensive, I used less than two board feet of it which keeps the price way down.
I finished it quickly; I’ll probably go back later and refinish it more carefully. I used Bull’s Eye Shellac for everything. I’ve never tried premixed before, but I was out of flakes and they carry it at Depósito Casero. It worked fine, although it doesn’t dry quite as quickly or nicely as the DIY stuff. The key thing to remember is that you have to finish the top and bottom before you assemble it. Otherwise, you’ll waste all your time with the raised-panel stuff, because the finish will lock everything in place, preventing movement.
More soon, including pictures!
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