So.. about a week ago I started a project to get a cabinet humidor up and running...
It all started with an ad on Craigslist.. a family was moving out of the country (Mexico) and wanted to sell off all of their household furnishings and furniture before the move.. One of the things they were trying to get rid of was a cabinet humidor.. they had a list price of $150 on it..
I could tell by the pictures that it really wasnt something I wanted.. I have been looking at several different cabinets lately.. this one aesthetically wasnt what I was looking for.. and it didnt appear to be in very good condition... but I thought for $150 I should go check it out.. Before I even left to go look at it, I had already talked to them about an OBO deal, and pitched the possibility of $100.. but had no intention of going higher, etc...
When I got there, I found a hunk of junk.. The piece I was looking at obviously didnt start life off as a cigar humidor.. although the lady I spoke to insisted that her husband had bought it new as a cigar cabinet.. Im almost sure it was originally a gun cabinet.. probably made in the mid 1970's or early 1980's.. That someone tried to convert (poorly) to a cigar storage box..
There were several nicks and dings on it.. the locks were locked open (bolts thrown), but the lady selling it didnt have the keys.. there were two holes the size of quarters drilled in the back of it where the cords for an old, rusted florescent light and a $29.99 room humidifier ran out of the box.. the wal-mart humidifier had dirt and grime all over it (to include the filter).. etc..etc..
The good news is the entire inside of the box had been lined with spanish cedar (at least someone had the sense to do that), that poorly designed but well built shelves (made of cedar) were inside it.. and there were 10x sticks (albeit somewhat dried out) inside it in a box as well...
sorry.. I completely forgot to take any "before" pictures... I should have....
Anyway.. I thought.. what the hell.. Ill make her a ridiculous offer.. if she takes it.. cool... Ill try to make this thing work, and it will be a fun project.. if not.... nothing really lost since this really wasnt what I was looking for...
So I offer her $50... and she takes it... the box gets loaded up.. and brought home.. I figured the sticks (if salvageable) were probably worth half of that if nothing else..
1 week later.. this is what I have ended up with... a perfectly functioning cabinet.. holding a steady 65 RH..
The steps to getting the cabinet operational were actually very simple..
to seal it, I used a very thin line of caulk on all interior seams.. when I inspected the back of the cabinet I found that the two large holes werent my only problem.. there were probably a dozen or more pin holes all over the back where the owner had used an industrial stapler to staple the power cords for the light and humidifier to the back of it and had penetrated the thin 1/8" fiberboard back wall... the solution for this was to flex seal the entire back of the cabinet (basically covered the entire back in a sheet of rubber).. then I put a 1/8" weather strip around the entire front of the cabinet to get a solid seal on the door... In total I spent about $35 in materials to get it all sealed up..
Next step.. replacing the locks.. very easy to do.. just 2 screws held each of the locks in place.. I found two similar locks off the shelf at home depot for about $4.50 each.. they snapped right into the holes already cut for the previous locks...
Then I reworked the shelves... When I picked the cabinet up it had 4x shelves, all hanging at an angle.. great for displaying trays or open boxes.. but terrible for storage.. the way they were fit into the cabinet you could only put 2x boxes on each shelf.. nothing could be stacked.. and the max height of each box could only be about 2".. otherwise the box pressed up against the door..
the solution was to remove the top shelf, and replace it with 3x flat shelves.. I had some spanish cedar board available from a previous project.. so no cost here at all.. .. now I have room at the bottom of the cabinet for box storage.. and room at the top as well..
The last step.. humidification... I did an ISO here for some coffin boxes and have been getting bombed daily since.. filled them up with KL that I already had on hand.. as well as a handful of bovedas that I already had.. and brought the box up to 65 RH (thanks guys for the coffins!).. I originally planned on drilling holes in the tops of the coffins and putting them in the cabinet closed.. but found that the drill bits were making a mess of the wood, and I didnt want to go through the process of sanding everything back down, etc.. so Im just leaving the tops open on them for now...
I ordered some custom sized trays from Forrest that will go on the 3x angled shelves.. but in the meantime a couple of churchill boxes will do for holding singles, etc.. total price on the trays (including shipping) was $66)...
$50 for the box..
$45 for materials/supplies
$66 for trays
$0 for traded items with members here..
$161 all in.. and Ive got a cabinet!
Stoked!
It all started with an ad on Craigslist.. a family was moving out of the country (Mexico) and wanted to sell off all of their household furnishings and furniture before the move.. One of the things they were trying to get rid of was a cabinet humidor.. they had a list price of $150 on it..
I could tell by the pictures that it really wasnt something I wanted.. I have been looking at several different cabinets lately.. this one aesthetically wasnt what I was looking for.. and it didnt appear to be in very good condition... but I thought for $150 I should go check it out.. Before I even left to go look at it, I had already talked to them about an OBO deal, and pitched the possibility of $100.. but had no intention of going higher, etc...
When I got there, I found a hunk of junk.. The piece I was looking at obviously didnt start life off as a cigar humidor.. although the lady I spoke to insisted that her husband had bought it new as a cigar cabinet.. Im almost sure it was originally a gun cabinet.. probably made in the mid 1970's or early 1980's.. That someone tried to convert (poorly) to a cigar storage box..
There were several nicks and dings on it.. the locks were locked open (bolts thrown), but the lady selling it didnt have the keys.. there were two holes the size of quarters drilled in the back of it where the cords for an old, rusted florescent light and a $29.99 room humidifier ran out of the box.. the wal-mart humidifier had dirt and grime all over it (to include the filter).. etc..etc..
The good news is the entire inside of the box had been lined with spanish cedar (at least someone had the sense to do that), that poorly designed but well built shelves (made of cedar) were inside it.. and there were 10x sticks (albeit somewhat dried out) inside it in a box as well...
sorry.. I completely forgot to take any "before" pictures... I should have....
Anyway.. I thought.. what the hell.. Ill make her a ridiculous offer.. if she takes it.. cool... Ill try to make this thing work, and it will be a fun project.. if not.... nothing really lost since this really wasnt what I was looking for...
So I offer her $50... and she takes it... the box gets loaded up.. and brought home.. I figured the sticks (if salvageable) were probably worth half of that if nothing else..
1 week later.. this is what I have ended up with... a perfectly functioning cabinet.. holding a steady 65 RH..
The steps to getting the cabinet operational were actually very simple..
to seal it, I used a very thin line of caulk on all interior seams.. when I inspected the back of the cabinet I found that the two large holes werent my only problem.. there were probably a dozen or more pin holes all over the back where the owner had used an industrial stapler to staple the power cords for the light and humidifier to the back of it and had penetrated the thin 1/8" fiberboard back wall... the solution for this was to flex seal the entire back of the cabinet (basically covered the entire back in a sheet of rubber).. then I put a 1/8" weather strip around the entire front of the cabinet to get a solid seal on the door... In total I spent about $35 in materials to get it all sealed up..
Next step.. replacing the locks.. very easy to do.. just 2 screws held each of the locks in place.. I found two similar locks off the shelf at home depot for about $4.50 each.. they snapped right into the holes already cut for the previous locks...
Then I reworked the shelves... When I picked the cabinet up it had 4x shelves, all hanging at an angle.. great for displaying trays or open boxes.. but terrible for storage.. the way they were fit into the cabinet you could only put 2x boxes on each shelf.. nothing could be stacked.. and the max height of each box could only be about 2".. otherwise the box pressed up against the door..
the solution was to remove the top shelf, and replace it with 3x flat shelves.. I had some spanish cedar board available from a previous project.. so no cost here at all.. .. now I have room at the bottom of the cabinet for box storage.. and room at the top as well..
The last step.. humidification... I did an ISO here for some coffin boxes and have been getting bombed daily since.. filled them up with KL that I already had on hand.. as well as a handful of bovedas that I already had.. and brought the box up to 65 RH (thanks guys for the coffins!).. I originally planned on drilling holes in the tops of the coffins and putting them in the cabinet closed.. but found that the drill bits were making a mess of the wood, and I didnt want to go through the process of sanding everything back down, etc.. so Im just leaving the tops open on them for now...
I ordered some custom sized trays from Forrest that will go on the 3x angled shelves.. but in the meantime a couple of churchill boxes will do for holding singles, etc.. total price on the trays (including shipping) was $66)...
$50 for the box..
$45 for materials/supplies
$66 for trays
$0 for traded items with members here..
$161 all in.. and Ive got a cabinet!
Stoked!
....
