HUMIDORS - PART TWO        

This is part 2 of a three part series by woodworker Norman Pirollo about "Designing and Building a Humidor". 
Please visit this site http://www.fineboxes.com for more information on humidors, jewelry boxes, 
and a great woodworking course on CD that was designed and written by the folks at White Mountain Design.

Construction of the outer box or carcase involves preparing and dimensioning the stock into four sides. 
The shorter 10 " pieces comprise the sides of the box , and the longer 12 or 14 " pieces comprise the 
front and back of the box. It is important to have the edges of these four pieces square or perpendicular 
with the lengths, as well as the lengths equal. A variety of joints can be used to join the four sides , 
front and back.
The most common corner is the reinforced miter joint. The ends of the pieces are essentially cut at a 
45 degree angle. This type of joint is ideal for solid stock, since any end grain is hidden. The reinforcement 
for this joint is provided by either a hidden inner spline, exterior splines, or small biscuits. The simplest 
reinforcement is the outside spline. This can be accomplished after the box has been assembled and 
glued up. This type of spline is perpendicular or horizontal to the side and can be also very decorative. 
If a contrasting wood is used, the decorative effect is achieved, or a wood spline similar to the side 
can be used to hide the spline joint. Four of these horizontal splines per corner should be sufficient 
for a box this size. Using an inner spline is equally as strong. The spline itself would run in the same 
direction as the end of the pieces, running vertically from top to bottom. The groove for this type of joint 
is created prior to glueing up the walls of the box. The vertical spline is also inserted at glue up time. 
Grain orientation is important with vertical splines, and should be consistent with the grain orientation 
of the sides of the box. The vertical spine will be very brittle , since it essentially short grain, and needs 
to be inserted very carefully into the spline groove.
Another type of joint to consider is the rabbet joint. The front and back of the box are inset into the sides 
in this case. This provides good long grain to long grain glueing, but exposes some end grain . A good 
compromise would be to use this type of joint, and to additionally band the box with ¼" contrasting banding. 
The ¼" banding would serve both as a reinforcement, and a very decorative addition. This is easily done simply 
be routing a ¼" groove in the sides and ends of the box. A ¼ " strip of contrasting banding is then inserted and 
glued into this groove. Since the humidor is placed in environments where the humidity can range from 20% to 80%,
which is the inside of a typical heated home, and the interior of the box needs to remain at a constant 60-72% 
humidity range, it is important to use weatherproof, waterproof glues for the exterior sides of the box. . 
There are many new brands on the market which are water and moisture proof, such as Titebond II. 
We will also seal the inside of the four corner joints with lacquer after assembly , to slow down any 
moisture absorption.
After successful glue up, you can sand the box with progressive finer grits of sandpaper up to 220 grit or so. 
I round the corners of the box slightly , using a round over router bit on a table prior to sanding. You can chamfer 
or round over the edges of the box, as you please. We glued up the box complete with the top and bottom 
panels in place. This is purposely done, since we will now slice open the box into a bottom portion and a top 
lid portion. Another benefit of this is matching grain orientation of the top lid with the bottom of the box..
You can accomplish this with a table saw and a tall fence. Allow for 1 1/2" for the lid depth.
This allows for the ¼" dado which is ¼" from the top edge [ 1/2" ] and ¼" of a Spanish cedar interior liner top. 
When sawing the box into two components, raise your blade to 1/16" short of ¾", avoiding kickback. 
This will leave a thin temporary support for the bottom and lid, which can easily be removed with a back saw. 
At this point the sawn edges of the box can be sanded flat by rubbing the box half onto a sheet of 180 – 220 
grit sandpaper. This will ensure an even fit throughout.
Installing the hinges is another step where accuracy is important. I use three hinges in my designs. Two of the 
hinges are the normal brass type, but the third is a brass quadrant hinge. This type of hinge is installed in a 
rear corner of the box and serves to both support the lid and to keep it from opening further than 90-100 degrees 
when open. There are more steps involved in installing the quadrant hinge, since there is a retainer portion of 
the hinge which needs to withdraw into the box side when the hinge is closed. The quadrant hinge itself 
resembles an L-shaped hinge, with a portion along the side of the box, and the other part along the back 
of the box. The additional steps for installing this type of hinge are, mortising a slot into the sides of the box 
and lid to allow the retainer to neatly withdraw when closed. A drill press would come in handy at this point. 
The other standard hinges are installed conventionally as hinges on a box. I rout a recessed area into the back 
and lid of the box to accept the hinges. The hinges I use are of brass, 1 ½" wide by 1" wide with both leaves 
open. The thickness of the hinge is 3/16" when closed.
The 3/16" figure is important, as this is the total amount to mortise into the back of the box per hinge. I divide 
3/16" equally into 3/32" for the lid mortise and 3/32" for the box hinge mortise. You can either chisel or rout the 
hinge mortise out. I have designed special hinge mortising routing jigs for the particular hinges I use, they provide 
a much cleaner and accurate job. If chiseling a hinge mortise, be very careful, since it is easy to ruin the back 
edge of the box at this point. The spacing of the hinges is your choice, 2" or 3" from the sides. Installing the 
quadrant hinge is similar in some respects, but the hinge mortise is fancier, and the mortise slots have to be 
drilled vertically into the lid and sides of the box. Quadrant hinges are available from any woodworking supply 
store such as Woodcraft. I usually insert the bottom portion of the hinge , then line up the lid to close completely 
square with the bottom, and mark and fasten the hinges to the top.

                                             END OF PART TWO

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Last modified: January 20, 2006