Humidor table

[schloff]

Hi guys, and gals. I am in the very early stages of planning a humidor/side table. The table skirt will double as a humidor, with a single drawer to access the cigars and pipe tobacco. The top will be 1/4” glass, with a view inside the humidor to the hygrometer under the glass.

My question is how would I begin to design the drawer to seal, the way a typical “chest” style humidor would? They use a Spanish cedar “lip” to make the seal when the lid hinges to the box. Or do you think another approach would be appropriate in this application?

I’ll try to attach a photo of something that I stumbled on just this morning. Mine would be a lot more rustic than these, but the concept is the same.

Thanks a lot. Any input would be appreciated.

[Uncle Cracker]

Just thinkin' out loud, but with the humidity of a lot of presumably expensive cigars at stake, I think I'd build-in some kind of flexible, malleable barrier (weatherstripping, if you will), since the absolute face-to-face matching of drawer fronts to face frame might be difficult to achieve, particularly since you will not have the additional help of weight and gravity to achieve the seal, as you would with a vertically-opening box lid.

[JR]

I've built a couple of humidors, but this concept has me stumped. Part of the problem is that you have to accept that there will be high humidity inside the drawer, which could be very different from the ambient conditions.

I'd guess the drawer front can not be part of the sealing mechanism. That would mean the drawer box itself is what you'd need to focus on for sealing the compartment.

Thinking out loud here, maybe the drawer slide could form a little ramp, so when the drawer is pushed in the back meets a top seal. The drawer front might be hinged or pivoting such that it slightly tilted forward when the drawer hits the stop at the back. Pushing in the front would cause the front portion of the box to lift up into the seal.

I dunno, I'll have to put some thought into it. It's a cool idea, though!

JR

[Pappy]

What about making your slides of wood so the drawer slides out either side. Split the drawer in to 2 wide humidors each with its own glass, hinged top.

[schloff]

Thanks for the ideas.

I was pondering this over a Yuengling last night, and came to the simple conclusion that I need to build the drawer sides in 2 pieces. Make a wedge out of each side, where the top wedge is fixed to the table, and the bottom is the actual drawer side. It can be a very slight taper, but will allow the Spanish cedar to make a positive seal to the opposing piece. I would use oak as the structure, and rely on the Spanish cedar lining to make the seal.

I can groove and chamfer the front to make a positive seal, too. Sort of like the way a stile and rail might fit, for lack of a better example.

I think the split side concept could be a mesh of JR and Pappy's ideas. I can always follow up with some weather stripping if need be. Thanks to all who helped on this, and all who helped in the past. You guys really are a fun bunch.

See if the models that I try to upload shed some light on my ramblings.

[JR]

I like it!

You might want to think about some sort mechanical fastener to seat the assembly in the closed position, otherwise it would be difficult to get a tight seal.

JR

[Larryl]

Humidore Drawer

You might use this as a carrier for a seperate cedar box with its own glass sealing lid.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...wer%20hardware

[schloff]

JR, thanks for the idea of a mechanical "lock". That would aid in both keeping the drawer tight, and keeping unwanted hands out of the stash.

Larryl, I was looking to make the drawer the actual humidor. Mostly as a conversation piece, plus it seems like a decent challenge on my part. I have floated the idea of something similar to your suggestion, but if I can pull this drawer concept off, I'd mark one off of my big list. I really do appreciate your input.

Thanks to all. Now I need to get away from this darn computer and into the shop. We'll see if that happens before Xmas.

[phi1l]

I think a simpler solution would be to just make each drawer with it's own hinged lid on top. If you want the contents to be seen through the top, like the example, use a glass lid. The down side is that this would require that the drawer must be opened a certain minimum amount before the top lid could be opened, but top lid hinge would not need to be all the way to the back, just far enough to comfortably get to cigars at the back of the drawer.