Last spring I was reading online from a Fine Woodworking magazine when I ran across this article about how to make a humidor. I read the article and thought to myself “it would be awesome to make that for someone.” I printed the article out and set it aside thinking that someday I would get the chance.
That chance came a few months later when a friend was celebrating his 30 year anniversary at work.
So… I started this humidor in the fall with plenty of time to accomplish the design I had set out to incorporate in the project. I cut the pieces from the exotic woods I had stockpiled in my shop and I planed them and ran them through my router table – making exactly the joints I had anticipated.
Well… almost. Twice as I was making the last cuts on the “double-double” box joints the router bit grabbed the wood and shot it out the other side of the table, sending pieces of wood in all directions. OK – so I am not quite the accomplished wood worker I imagined. Being a better engineer (I hope anyway) – I went back to the drawing table and redesigned! After all, that’s what great engineers do – right?
Now with limited time – I set about to create the newest design and salvage what I could of what was already made. Luck was with me this time! I managed to create something just as good (maybe better) than the original design without blowing it up all over the shop.
However, all things come with a price – by this time I was running behind schedule and realized there was no way I would finish this project on time (also a trait of great engineers). It still needed a plethora of coats of urethane applied to the outside surface before it would take on the high gloss suitable to this application.
Although this gift was about 3 weeks later than I anticipated, it was well worth the wait. The pictures tell the “rest of the story”.

Launch Gallery