Odd Smell in New Humidor

[calstogy]

I recently purchased a Treasure Dome humidor, imported from China. It is nicely constructed of veneered fiber board. There is a little solid Spanish Cedar on the trays, but the predominant smell is more like glue. I've been putting it outside for the last five days with the lid open to see if the smell will go away. Not much luck so far.

I also noticed traces of a fine white powder. I wonder if this is residue from the glues? Maybe I should wipe the inside down with denatured alcohol?

I'm hesitant to season it until the smell goes away. Suggestions? Thanks is advance.

 

[Rod]

Try wiping it out with a slightly dampened paper towel. I'd use distilled water if I were you, opposed to alcohol. Leave it open and see if the smell goes away. It's possible they sanded glue down that may have over spilled, which is what's causing the smell.

 

[Ginseng]

Hmmm,

Sounds like your humidor might have been used to smuggle cocaine.

But seriously, your course of action should be:
1. vacuum out all the loose dust you can find
2. if desired, get a woodworker's tack-cloth and pad down the interior to remove anything stuck in the grain
3. wipe down the interior with a soft cloth or cellulose sponge that is just barely dampened with water and squeezed out
4. let dry, opened, preferably in sunlight on a tabletop or something

if this does not work, then they may have used a solvent glue or adhesive and there is lots of residual solvent. I seem to recall that there have been a few threads about what glue to use in building humidors and if you do a search on that, that might give you some leads as to how to deal. There are a few experienced professional and hobbyist woodworkers on CP that could give you advice on what to do.

I would say that your ultimate remedy would depend on the glue that was used.

Wilkey

 

[grateful1]

Have you tried Arm and Hammer!?

 

[souldog]

Lesson learned: Don't let your cat pee in your humidor.

But seriously, like others have said, leave it out for a couple days.


If you have more questions, there are threads you can search for, and more than a handful of wood-working BOTLs on CigarPass who would probably be more than willing to give you some helpful advice. Good luck!

 

[BlindedByScience]

Leave it open for a few days and see if that doesn't take care of it. My guess is that should do it.

Good Luck - B.B.S.

 

[lurch]

Back when I was extremly new to this I put a half smoked cigar back into my desktop. Needless to say, that smell is one that is not easily gotten out of Spanish Cedar. I left mine out in the hot Texas sun for three days and then left some baking soda in there for about a week. Magically the smell disappeared and I've still got that desktop to this day. In fact, I'm reseasoning it right now. Good luck with the smells....

 

[calstogy]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've been leaving the humidor outside during the day - that seems to be helping.

Here is a photo showing the humidor and a blow-up with the lock escutcheon and body removed. You can see that there is a fine white "sawdust" powder from boring the lock mortise. I wonder now if the smell is coming from the powder and not the glues used to bind the fibers.

In this photo, you can see that the aerator that goes in the bottom of the humidor is also made of fiber board with a thin veneer. I intend to replace this with solid Spanish cedar.

I'll also try the baking soda, but would be interested in hearing from other woodworkers that have experience with these humidor supplied by the Quality Importers Trading Co. I have ordered a second humidor for destructive testing. Ultimately, I would like to produce one or two humidors for my personal use that work well and contain a minimum of non-wood products.

Thanks - Rick

 

[BlindedByScience]

Not sure what that gray powder is, but I'd get a can of compressed air and blow that crap out, to be sure.

 

[Rod]

Hey Rick,

If you're just storing cigars, might want to get a small cooler. I have ordered a lot of humidors from Quality Importers; latest purchase being a 3,000 count cabinet. Very happy with their products; solid construction. Unfortunately it's not made the US - it is mass produced in China, so there will be defects time to time.

 

[calstogy]

Rod,

As a fairly good woodworker, what amazes me is the incredibly good fit and finish on this humidor. The $139 I paid means this was produced and shipped to the US for somewhere around $60. How do they do that? Are these handmade or a product of a highly automated factory?

- Rick

 

[AKmik]

I had the same humidor briefly. The week I ordered this one to take care of my overflow problem I found an Avallo I could not pass up.

The smell is the MDF board that the tray bottoms, and aerator on the bottim are made from. I would loose the aerator all together as it just cuts down on 1/2" of depth , and smells bad. Then I would go with a bowl of arm and hammer next to a bowl of distilled water for about a week as the humidor seasons. If you are a woodworker replacing the mdf tray bottoms will also help.

I loved the humidor, but was kind of turned off when I saw raw MDF (or the Chinese equivelent of MDF ) was used to cut corners on cost.

 

[Ginseng]

I loved the humidor, but was kind of turned off when I saw raw MDF (or the Chinese equivelent of MDF ) was used to cut corners on cost.

That would concern me as well. While formaldehyde-containing adhesive if banned in this country, who knows...

And formaldehyde is some stinky chit.

Wilkey

 

[Rod]

Rod,

As a fairly good woodworker, what amazes me is the incredibly good fit and finish on this humidor. The $139 I paid means this was produced and shipped to the US for somewhere around $60. How do they do that? Are these handmade or a product of a highly automated factory?

- Rick

While I always prefer to buy USA made items, the Quality line is actually quite good. I've seen some humidors made in China where the top lid has a 1/8" gap all around, resulting in a very poor seal. The Quality humidors are well made. It's rare that I'll get a bad one, and it happens, out of so many humidors you're bound to get a bad one. The factory they use is monitored closely by the company in the US, so their quality control is pretty high. They're stuff is made solely for the importer (Quality), as opposed to being mass produced for any importer to buy.

 

[calstogy]

It has been a couple dozen days and the odor in my Treasure Dome humidor from Quality Importers has not gone away. I tried most of the suggestions offered in this thread. For the long term, I'm interested in building and/or designing a humidor that doesn't have these sorts of problems. In that vain, I came-up with a stop-gap solution for this particular problem - Shellac (from Wikipedia):

Shellac is the commercial resin marketed in the form of amber flakes, made from lac[1], the secretion of the family of lac-producing insects, though most commonly from the cultivated Kerria lacca [2], found in the forests of Assam and Thailand.

Shellac is a natural plastic. It appears to have sealed in the odors. I coasted the whole inside of the humidor minus the side panels that are billed as being solid Spanish Cedar:

I'm also replacing the particle board aerator with a solid Spanish Cedar one:

As I look toward building a prototype which I'm happy to share with the world, I'm considering Brusso Hinges. This next photo shows the hinges that came with Treasure Dome next to the smaller of the two quadrant hinges that Brusso makes. I foresee some problems with the Brusso hinges because they are not plated or sealed - they will tarnish in the high humidity environment of a humidor. For those that use an ice chest, many of these consideration are mute. I just like the added sensual pleasure of having a visually and tactily (is there such a word?) appealing humidor on my desktop.

- Rick

 

[Infinity]

Looks like you should have built your own, sounds like you have the knowledge.

Personally, I always believe you get what you pay for.

I have two Daniel Marshall (150 count) chest humidors, originally made for Schwarzenegger as auction pieces. These were around $800 a piece as I recall.
Over the top for sure but looks, function... top top top. I rarely use them these days.

Brian

 

[calstogy]

Brian,

I'm afraid to ask, but what do you use for your cigars? I suspect, if I build a larger capacity end table humidor, the desktop humidor will fall to the wayside.

- Rick

 

[{tpc}]

I've found that things made in China, quite often "look" the same but there are various reasons they aren't the same. I guess I can apply that to humidors from there as well, now. Looks like you are already on your way to rebuilding this one with the shellacing and all. If that takes care of the odors, you could always just attach a layer of spanish cedar over everything on the inside instead of just the particle board aerator thingy.