Walnut Humidor and Shelf

After my practice run on the large lidded box, I figured I was ready to build a humidor.  I purchased two boards of 4/4 walnut, a small spanish cedar board and had two pieces of walnut plywood delivered (reviews here). The top and bottom of the box will be made from plywood due to wood movement issues.

The finished humidor will be at least 12″ wide X 10″ deep and 5 1/2″ tall.  I am also making a shelf for the humidor to sit on.  The shelf will will fit inside a large metal cabinet.

Rough Lumber

I got a little ahead of myself and starting to cut the walnut down to rough lengths.  I shouldn’t have done this because I wanted to have continuous grain all around the box.  Unfortunately this box won’t have a nice grain wrap all around.  Another lesson to engage the mind before the hand.  After milling the walnut and cedar, I resawed the cedar in half and ripped the walnut down to width.

Miters and Splines

Next step was to cut the box pieces.  I set the table saw blade to 45 degrees using my Wixey gauge and made a few test cuts to ensure it was right.  Using the miter gauge and stop block I cut all sides of the box.

Before I can cut the spline grooves I needed to make the splines.  I jointed and planed a small piece of walnut and then resawed it in half.  It is impossible to send small pieces through my planer, so I made a small sled and added double stick tape.  More tape than required, it was a little tough to get the pieces off.

Next was to cut the splines.  Its important that the grain runs from one box side to another and not vertically.  If the grain runs vertical the spline could break and so could the box.

Spline Grooves and Rabbets

After the splines are cut, now the spline grooves can be cut into the box sides.  Keeping the table saw blade at 45 degrees I moved the miter gage to the left hand slot and added a sacrificial fence.

The edge of the miter rides against the fence while I push it through with the miter gage.  After a rough layout, I make one pass through each miter.  Then move the fence closer to the blade by a kerf width and raise the blade a little bit.  Make a second cut and adjust the height to make a flat groove.  The third cut is trial and error to get a tight fit on the spline and adjusting the height.

Next was to cut the rabbets.   I placed a dado stack in the table saw and kept the sacrificial fence on there.  I want to completely rabbet in the top and bottom plywood panels, so they rabbets are 3/8″ deep and 3/4″ wide.  In hindsight, I should have made the rabbets a little wider, maybe 13/16 or so.  It would have been easier to flush the sides against the plywood after the top and bottom panels were glued in.

Masking Tape and Glue Up

I sanded all four sides and added masking tape to interior.  I find it very difficult to scrape the glue cleanly from the inside after the glue up, so that is the reason for the  masking tape.

Using the splines makes the glue up pretty easy since I don’t have to worry about the miters slipping past each other.  After the glue dried and I took the box out of the clamps, I noticed I had a small gap in one of the miters.  I used a mixture of glue and sawdust to hide it.   Then, I measured for the top and bottom and glued them into place.

Rabbets for Trim and Cutting Box in Two

I will be adding trim boards along the top and bottom of the box to hide the visible rabbet joints.  To make clean cut lines, I cut a 3/8″ x 3/8″ rabbet on the top and bottom of the box on all 4 sides.

Next, was to separate the lid and bottom of the box.  I set the blade to be the same height as the thickness of the stock and made a cut on two adjacent sides of the box.

Then, I added a thin strip in the kef and clamped it in place to cut the remaining two sides.

Below you can see the masking tape from the initial glue up after the top is separated from the bottom.

Mitered Trim

Next step was to add the trim pieces from the top and bottom.  I started with a nice piece of maple left over from an earlier project.  Did some quick milling and then ripped it down a little oversized.  From there, I ran it through the planer to remove the burn marks.

Next step was to start laying the trim out and mitering the corners. I started  by mitering my first corner on the table saw using my miter gage (Incra).  Then just work my way around using a combination of my table saw, shooting board, block plane, and masking tape.

The next step was gluing up the trim.  The masking tape is great to use.  Just flip up the trim piece, add glue, and flip back down.  Add clamps.  In hindsight, I should have added clamps pulling it down on the box.

I worked on the shelf at this time, but I put it towards the end of the post.

Cleaning up trim

Once the glue dried, I was able to hand plane the trim down flush and did some sanding.

Hinges (Most Intimidating Part)

I purchased some Brusso hinges that has a stop built in. I figured I wouldn’t need a chain to hold the top open.

I started with putting some masking tape on each end of the box/lid that was getting the hinges.  After that I set a combination square to the desired distance from each end I wanted the hinges.  After holding the hinge in place with the combination square and my hand I marked the edges with a pencil.  Using a steel rule and a marking knife, I scribed the hinge location.  From there, I used a small router and a small straight bit to mortise a majority of the waste.

The rest of the waste is removed with a chisel.

Once the hinges were in place I used one of my self centering drill bits to drill the hole.  This was a big mistake, the bit didn’t center properly and I had 4 holes off-center.  I had to drill and plug all four holes in the box.  I added glue and some wooden skewers to fill the bad holes.  While the glue dried I placed the hinges on the lid and marked the centers, drilled, and attached them.  After the plugs were dry and flushed up, it was time to mount the hinges to bottom of the box.  I added double stick carpet tape the mortise locations.  I placed the top of the box on the base so all the surfaces were flush and pressed the hinges into the tape.  The tape allowed me to open the box and mark the hinge holes.

In order to help hold the weight of the lid, I added a piece of plywood into my leg vise.  Mark and drill.

After attaching the hinges and doing  quick test, I realized that the “Stop Hinge” was not near strong enough for my lid.  I felt as though I would pull the screws out.  I had to add a lid support to the box.

Box Liner

The liner is pretty straight forward.  The bottom section should protrude upward out of the base a bit to provide alignment and a seal for moisture.  The top needs some small trim pieces aroudn the perimeter.  I glued all of them in place.  I made a big mistake of not buying the pull and mounting it before the liner was glued in place.  Below you can see what the finished piece looks like. I had to cut out the inner liner and mount the pull.  Then glue a small piece back in.

Shelf Construction

The shelf is straight forward.  Plywood center with hardwood edging.  The hardwood edging is about 1 1/2 ” wide and is attached with tongue and groove.  The groove is made with a 1/4″ dado stack and flipped after the first pass to make sure it is centered.  The plywood tongue is made with the same 1/4 dado stack and the blade  is slowly raised to sneak up on the perfect fit.

I used the same setup to cut the tongues in the end of the long edging pieces.  You can see the tongue in the plywood and the long edging below.

Clamp and Trim

I used a trim router with an offset (raised) base to flush it up.  Then followed it up with a hand plane

During my hand planing I chunked off some veneer from the plywood.  My fix was to fill and then break it up with some maple strips.  I had to make my problem a little worse by cutting a square out and then clamping a small piece of walnut in place

The grooves were made on my router table and the strips were cut on the table saw.  Glued them in place and flushed them up.  It didn’t turn out as good as I wanted, but it is the bottom.

Finishing

The shelf and box received the same finishing process.  So the pictures are mixed.  Two coats of Medium Walnut danish oil gives the box its depth and color.  I only applied finish to the exterior of the box.

After 3 1/2 days, I  applied the first coat of wipe-on poly.  Next day, I applied the second coat.  Next day, I sanded lightly with 400 grit.  I wiped up the “dust” with mineral spirits on a rag.

Two more coats of wipe on poly and then some wet sanding with 2000 grit.  I cleaned it up with mineral spirits again.

A little bit of wax and done!