I just lit up an Opus X Petit Lancero and I'm waiting for the UK-KU game to start so I think I will catch up what I did today up in the shop.

When last we parted I left a picture of a partially finished box on the screen. That partially finished box is still operative but now it sports a slight difference. I sanded down the top through 220 grit then modified the topography a mite with a panel raising bit. Gives it a bit more character I think...

Much nicer! Don't you agree?  

Wow! That really adds some character!!

That looks really nice.

Looking real sexy!

I want one  Great job

Bea u tiful!

Excellent call going with the raised panel look!!!

We're going to let the box alone for a bit and turn attention to the Spanish cedar liner portion of the project. Just like cigars, wood needs to acclimate to its surroundings and in some cases, needs to age a bit to settle things down and stabilize. Spanish cedar is a good example of this process because of its variable sap content. The sap in this wood tends to settle in pockets and will leak out unpredictably. I've had this plank in the shop for over a year and I'm still waiting for it to get through with its piddling around. You can easily see where the sap has bled through to the surface. I'm pretty sure it has settled down and I could start slabbing it but I will give another couple of months of drying to make sure.

So, for this project I grabbed a board I KNOW is stable and I think I have enough in this one piece to construct the liner...with maybe a little fudging.

The strips in the second picture are left over from another humidor build. I'll use them to make some pieces for the top of the box to help hold the top liner in place and to help the seal...more about this in due course.

Looks great so far, have you given any thought to possibly CNC'ing a design or logo into the lid.
I would like to make a humi oneday and I would like the masonic square & compasses put into it.

So that short board is still pretty rough so I need to shoot it through the planer to smooth it up some before I resaw it into thinner pieces. Spanish cedar has a real bad tendency to get wooly when planed so you have to take it down in small bites. This particular piece is showing a nasty streak so I will probably have to resort to scrapers to knock down the wooliness and some ridges that popped up. No way to explain what I mean by this...you have to see it and the pictures don't do a real good job of showing what's going on. You'll just have to take my word for it. But it's all part of the fun and the problem can be easily dealt with.

The picture shows it going into the planer all rough and wooly looking and coming out smooth as a baby's butt. The reality is a little bit different but as I said, it can be taken care of.

Looking very good man. How many hours do you think you've put into this project so far?

QuoteRingadingh - 4/2/2012  9:45 PM

Looks great so far, have you given any thought to possibly CNC'ing a design or logo into the lid.
I would like to make a humi oneday and I would like the masonic square & compasses put into it.

Good question.

 

Now we have to make the thick board thin so I set up the resawing fence on the bandsaw. This is kind of a piddly job so I resort to a caliper to set it to cut a piece about .300 thick so I have enough thickness to get the final piece down to the goal of .250. I'll admit to making an error here in that I neglected to realize I needed to clean up the glued up panel so the final product will be a bit thinner than .250 by a bit but you won't notice it in the final product. Keep in mind that I'm allowed an occasional f**kup please!  

That looks great with the raised panel, Ken!

So I hold my breath and start feeding wood into the bandsaw. After I cut the first piece I need to run the main stock back through the planer to reestablish a smooth surface so I can cut the next .300 piece.

Then I cut the next thin piece and have a remainder which is about 3/16" thick. I'll clean that up and use it for another project yet to be determined. I hate to waste Spanish cedar because it is running about $11/board foot nowdays. I can use the little piddly bits in tupperdors and so forth.

The next part is a repeat of some steps which have come before. I dry fit the pieces in the panel gluing jig to see if the edges line up and then glue it up and clamp it tight. When the glue dries I will start cutting pieces for the liner.

looks good. cant wait to see the final product

Some nice work.

I ran a wood shop for a couple of years and your workmanship is outdone only by your narrative. If you were to put it all together you would have a hell of a coffee table book. Thank you for chronicaling you project and I look forward to the remaining installments. Perhaps a matching glass bottomed ashtray would make a nice accessory. I made one for my porch from mahogany with ebony accents. The glass bottom looks real sharp.

Extremely impressed with the work here and the time spent making it just right.  Well done!

Looking real good.  It's coming together quick it seems.

QuoteChrism305 - 4/2/2012  11:37 PM

I ran a wood shop for a couple of years and your workmanship is outdone only by your narrative. If you were to put it all together you would have a hell of a coffee table book. Thank you for chronicaling you project and I look forward to the remaining installments. Perhaps a matching glass bottomed ashtray would make a nice accessory. I made one for my porch from mahogany with ebony accents. The glass bottom looks real sharp.

Thanks for your kind words! I do the best I can as a self-taught craftsman and it's nice to know my efforts are validated.  

Excellent work Ken! Looking forward to the final!