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Cabinet options, Buy or Build?

T

TheVitaleMob

Full Trucker Effect
Joined
Oct 24, 2005
Messages
686
I’m starting to plan out a couple of options for a cabinet humidor to round out my man room. There are a couple of routes that I can take. First, I could buy one from one of the internet retailers for around $600 + $400 for humidification. I would buy a Staebell, but I just don’t have that kind of money. My other option is to build one myself. I like this option better because it’s cheaper.

My question is what kind of wood should I make this thing out of if I go this route? I would like to keep it as cheap as possible. Can I go with a particle product with laminate or other covering on it? Should I use plywood?

I plan to line it with Spanish cedar, use silicone caulk for sealing, and take all the necessary precautions as far as leakage goes.

Thanks in advance for the input.

Edit: Here's a pic of the space

The room is a standard small bedroom with a closet on the left side where my desk/office space will go. And on the right side behind where the door would swing will be the humidor (where the black trombone cases currently are). The workable dimensions are 38.25" Wide Left to right x 18" Deep, and I plan on going 82" High, even with the top of the door jamb so that it looks level in the room. I also plan on putting a door stop peg on the bottom of the humidor to keep the room's door off of it.

The only real problem with buying is that most of the cheaper cabs are only 20-24" wide, and i want to use all of that space for cigars.
100_9176.jpg
 
Chris,

Even though I just PM'd you I will chime in here. :laugh:

I think the one question I would need to know for advice is what the cave is like. If it is a garage or other work space/man cave then looks are of no concern. If your desire is to add beauty to a room with this addition the you may have to ask if your wook working skills are up to par.

If you simply do not care at all about the looks, then just build it. You can use particle board or solid mahogony, just as long as you do what you said which is of course spanish cedar ect ect...leak proof. With the right temp, a humi is a humi if it holds humi :laugh:

Much care brother.
 
IMHO I would use solid woods for the rails and styles and Baltic Birch plywood with veneers for the panels and door faces. Personally I would not use Particle board, it has formaldhyde in it and it'll expand and turn to saw dust from the high humidity over time. Then line it with thick, solid Spanish Cedar. PM me if you need any more info if I can help.
 
Anthem said:
Chris,

Even though I just PM'd you I will chime in here. :laugh:

I think the one question I would need to know for advice is what the cave is like. If it is a garage or other work space/man cave then looks are of no concern. If your desire is to add beauty to a room with this addition the you may have to ask if your wook working skills are up to par.

If you simply do not care at all about the looks, then just build it. You can use particle board or solid mahogony, just as long as you do what you said which is of course spanish cedar ect ect...leak proof. With the right temp, a humi is a humi if it holds humi :laugh:

Much care brother.
Click to expand...


Anthem has some very good points. If you aren't the best at woodworking, you could just by a nice old cabinet from a garage sale or something similar. Then you could line it with ceder and seal it. Search Clockidor.
 
I don't know anything about wood working, but build one. It will make you feel like a man!!
 
I've seen some nice cabinets converted that people picked up at garage sales, etc. As Bill (Humidor Minister) stated, go with solid cedar and definitely contact him as that's his forte. I picked up the Sentinal Humidor from Cigar Bid last year and the Cigar Oasis XL II from Atlantic Cigar. Presently on CigarBid there are 3 cabinets listed; the Verona, Chancellor Tower and the Tower of Power. The three links are below:

http://www.cigarbid.com/auction/lot.cfm?lotID=669268

http://www.cigarbid.com/auction/lot.cfm?lotID=670513

http://www.cigarbid.com/auction/lot.cfm?lotID=670581

The cabinet that I bid on and kept bidding on (max bid if $451) is not up but here it is. I won it at $451 and then I picked up the Oasis XL II to go with it:

http://www.cigarsinternational.com/proddis...;stext=sentinal

http://www.atlanticcigar.com/goldhumidifier.html#section5

I love this baby and it easily holds 50+ boxes. If you desire a nice piece and want it to last for ever, it's the way to go....... :) :thumbs: :cool:
 
Some more choices to add to the confusion..... :laugh:

Rod's business, Cigar Swag, has the cabinets you've probably seen on the web. Might contact him and see if he's got any he could swing a deal on. You'll want to plan on adding an Avallo humidifier or something along those lines to the project. The two can Avallo system (the 10-20) should do the trick, nicely.

Secondly, you might look around locally and see if there are any cabinet guys that would take this on. Not sure if you'd save any money there but it'd be worth a couple of phone calls and maybe a face to face to talk about the project. You'll need to be VERY clear to these guys that you do NOT want aromatic cedar as is used in hope chests. Spanish cedar is the preferred material, but I have heard of very acceptable lower cost liner alternatives. I'm sure the Humidor Minister will have some wise words there. I'd build the shell out of marine grade plywood (no formaldehyde based glue) and go from there. Slide out shelves and fancy singles drawers are nice but you can save a ton of money if you go with simple fixed shelves and use wooden cigar boxes to store you loose cigars. The same Avallo humidifier should work nicely if you decide to build.

Lastly....have you considered a walk in? Converting an existing closet is not a huge undertaking. Or, claiming a room corner as Atuck did is a smashing idea and can be done quite reasonably.

More things to think about. Good luck, Chris - B.B.S.
 
BlindedByScience said:
Some more choices to add to the confusion..... :laugh:

Rod's business, Cigar Swag, has the cabinets you've probably seen on the web. Might contact him and see if he's got any he could swing a deal on. You'll want to plan on adding an Avallo humidifier or something along those lines to the project. The two can Avallo system (the 10-20) should do the trick, nicely.

Secondly, you might look around locally and see if there are any cabinet guys that would take this on. Not sure if you'd save any money there but it'd be worth a couple of phone calls and maybe a face to face to talk about the project. You'll need to be VERY clear to these guys that you do NOT want aromatic cedar as is used in hope chests. Spanish cedar is the preferred material, but I have heard of very acceptable lower cost liner alternatives. I'm sure the Humidor Minister will have some wise words there. I'd build the shell out of marine grade plywood (no formaldehyde based glue) and go from there. Slide out shelves and fancy singles drawers are nice but you can save a ton of money if you go with simple fixed shelves and use wooden cigar boxes to store you loose cigars. The same Avallo humidifier should work nicely if you decide to build.

Lastly....have you considered a walk in? Converting an existing closet is not a huge undertaking. Or, claiming a room corner as Atuck did is a smashing idea and can be done quite reasonably.

More things to think about. Good luck, Chris - B.B.S.
Click to expand...


Avallo Two-bottle, Check.

The original plan was to make the closet space on the left of the picture (added after your post) the humi, but this small, 13x9' room will have multiple uses, and I figured that it wasn't the smartest use of space because I need a big desk space as well.

The base layout right now is 2 sets of 2 doors, 2 bottom shelves about 15" apart, then a singles drawer about 7" tall, then 2 slanted shelves, and then a flat shelf with about 10 more inches of clearance. (approximate numbers of course.)

Here is a spanish cedar veneer

Here is 1/4" spanish cedar planking

I'll probably go with Minister's ply or the marine ply, and spanish cedar for some of the shelving.

I'm just in the planning phase, so I'll get more detailed as I go along, but it looks to be a fun build if I go that way, and I probably will.

Thanks everyone!
 
I looked on cigar swag and the site says they are all sold out?
 
I used to do a bit of woodworking with my father, as carpentry work was his past time.

It'd be an interesting thought, as Im sure you are planing a nice finish to put on the outside wood, maybe you could find one that nicely matches the desk? The colors/ finish may contrast, but I think it'd look nice if you used the same white trim that's in the room to trim the top and bottom of the humidor with. Now, I'm no interior decorator, but hey....just a thought.

You say your dimensions are approximate....make sure you consider the width of the wood while drawing out the blueprints, as the precise numbers in inches probably won't play out the way you have them listed, as far as open space is concerned. If you took the measurements based on "the top of the next shelf" then you should be fine...but depending on the wood, you may be looking at a .5 or .75 difference in available heights for storage.

It also looks the the 1/4 Spanish cedar is on back order, and is only sold by the 1/10th of a cu. foot. The veneer looks like the best choice. I've also heard that Mahogany and Andiroba work just as well as spanish cedar, depending on the cost efficiency of either...but maybe someone with more knowledge could let us know.

Good luck on the project.
 
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