Cigarticles
My Ice Chest to Humidor Conversion
by Mark Steinberg
A few weeks ago, I came across a thread in the Cigar Weekly forums entitled "Show Me Your Humi", and saw something there I really liked. It was an old icebox CW member Thomkm (Tom) had converted into a humidor.
The icebox is a precursor to the refrigerator. In the era before domestic electric appliances became commonplace, an ice man would deliver a block of ice to a typical household, usually on a daily basis. Once the block was placed in the chamber of the icebox, the tin lining inside the box conducted the cold throughout the interior, keeping the stored food cold. The melted ice would drain through a spigot down into a pullout tray underneath the ice chest.
Thomkm's icebox turned humidor... fantastic work
Thomkm's humidor appeared so awesome that I knew I had to have something like it. I certainly didn't have the room or the budget for something as big or elaborate as his, so I looked around for a smaller icebox unit.
With a little bit of luck, I found a nice icebox on eBay and won the auction for it.
The exterior of the original ice chest as I received it
I brought the cabinet home and started my project. The first thing I noticed was that the icebox had a nasty 'perfume-y' smell to it. I think the scent was left over from a detergent or something similar, and it had penetrated the icebox all the way into the wood. I decided to take the cabinet down to its shell so I could clean it out and start from scratch.
I did a search online and found a thread from my CW pal MTMOuse (Tim from Ontario, Canada). I'd done a cigar trade with him and, coincidentally, he had already carried out a similar project to the one I was undertaking. MTMOuse had posted a lot of pictures of his project on Cigar Live, and that gave me a good head start plus a lot of information with which I could begin my project.
2 views of MTMOuse's ice chest humidor... He did a fantastic job.
As you can see, Tim did a great job on his project. The quality of his icebox humidor set the bar rather high. Hopefully I'd be able to live up to the standard that had been set. With that in mind, I started my project.
Front door and top lid open to expose the inside
I removed all of the tin lining from the ice chest and cleaned the cabinet thoroughly to remove any odors.
First, I pulled the tin insides out of the icebox in an attempt to get the smell out of the cabinet. I then washed the entire inside of the cabinet, and this cleaning really helped to eliminate the odors.
The stripped ice chest
I added new floor and leg supports to the bottom of the cabinet. The old ones were in rough shape, and needed to be replaced to stabilize the cabinet.
I reinforced the legs and bottom of the chest to help stabilize it.
I decided to insulate the cabinet with Styrofoam to help stabilize temperature levels inside, and also elected to follow Tim's lead and build an interior plywood box. This would help solidify the cabinet and create a better seal for the Spanish cedar lining.
I cut Styrofoam panels to fit between the cabinet's supports to help insulate it and maintain a constant temperature.
An interior plywood box over the Styrofoam helped to further stabilize the cabinet.
Finding the proper Spanish cedar at a good price became a major project in itself. I found many different places that sold Spanish cedar online. However, I felt they were too expensive, and preferred to deal with a local lumberyard anyway.
Around Christmas-time, I was in Mamaroneck, New York, and went to Doc James, a new 'brick and mortar' cigar shop there. The proprietor had recently built a fantastic, brand-spanking-new walk-in humidor. I asked him where he obtained his Spanish cedar, and he directed me to the Maurice L. Condon lumberyard in White Plains, New York. I called them and was told that ½-inch boards cost $3.75 per board foot.
I measured the inside of the cabinet and calculated what I would need for lining, shelves and cigar trays. I then drove the two hours to Condon's and discovered that my hunch about buying in person was correct. Spanish cedar is a very sappy wood, and most of the boards I sorted through were covered in sap. I would have never had my pick of the lot had I ordered online. I went through all the wood to find the best ½-inch boards. I also purchased one 1-1/2-inch x1-1/2-inch x10-foot board and a 3-1/2-inch x ¾-inch x 10-foot board.
Raw Spanish cedar boards from the lumberyard
I was now ready to start working on lining the inside of the cabinet.
All of the nice humidors I own are lined with Spanish cedar that is fitted tightly within the box, without obvious glue or nails. To accomplish this, builders use wood with 45-degree beveled edges. I decided this was the best approach as well.
I beveled the edges of the boards at a 45 degree angle to provide a better fit and a seamless presentation.
My boards were of various widths. So I cut a lip (also known as a 'dado' cut) into each board in order to make it overlap with the adjacent ones. This strategy ensured a tight board-to-board fit while also providing an almost seamless presentation.
The beveled edges make for a tight seal and tighter corners.
The work was lengthy and tedious, but I was really aiming for a well-finished and fitted presentation. What made this project even more difficult was the fact that I was retrofitting an antique, and some of the edges weren't exactly flush. I was really glad I followed Tim's lead at this point by having made a box inside the cabinet. That crucial step helped in making the interior measurements more consistent.
The lining of the main cabinet
There were some tricky spots, however, and I wound up having to nail a few pieces into tight areas.
One of the tricky spots... Note the nails.
One particular spot where nailing was required was on the inside front of the cabinet, on both the latch and hinge sides of the cabinet.
Once the inside was fully lined with Spanish cedar, I cut slats out of the 1-1/2-inch board to make a shelf for separating the bottom portion of the cabinet from the top. I screwed small pieces of cedar to the sidewalls to provide support, and then screwed the shelf boards onto them.
The cedar slats to separate the top chamber of the chest from the bottom
Next, I cut a hole in the bottom of the cabinet to place a gang box into for the Ground Fault Interrupt (GFI) outlet. GFI outlets are sensitive to fluctuations in electrical current, and using one here adds to the safety factor of the humidor.
The hole for the GFI
Then I wired the outlet to the GFI and sealed the gang box with caulk.
The underside of the GFI outlet assembly
I then fashioned a GFI outlet cover out of Spanish cedar.
The installed GFI outlet with Spanish cedar cover
With the inside of the cabinet finished, it was time to start replacing the top.
The interior of the ice chest
Another view of the interior of the ice chest humidor... This view shows the slats separating the top chamber from the one at the bottom.
I built edge seals and started on the lid and front door inserts. The front door seal was a bit tricky, as I really wanted this to be a tight seal. I then removed all the existing wood forms from the front door. To do this, I closed the door and used a carpenter's pencil to trace the edge of the inner door seals onto the closed door. Once I'd done that, I measured the size of the tracings and started to fashion a 'plug', which I could then attach to the door. I used the 1-1/2-inch square board to build the frame, and routed a ½-inch slot along the inside edge to slide the ½-inch slats into.
The 'plug' of Spanish cedar used to line the door
Another view of the 'plug'
I made the inside able to hold some of the same Styrofoam I had used to insulate the cabinet walls. Once this piece was made, I had to carefully sand the edges so that the door would fit tightly and close with ease.
Here is the door plug in place on the cabinet door...
The front door, fully assembled and installed
I did a similar thing to fashion the top 'plug'. With all these steps completed, the cabinet was now sealed and finished.
I then worked on installing the humidifier unit. I bought the new 'Hydra' unit to humidify my cabinet, as it seemed like the best for the job. The fact that I could use additional fans on this unit weighed heavily in my decision-making process. I already had some spare computer fans, and decided that I would mount them underneath my separating shelf. I placed one directly above the corner where I installed the Hydra, and one facing downward on the opposite side of the cabinet.
The Hydra unit and one of the two fans I installed to circulate the humidified air
Fan placement is on either side of the cabinet, under the slats that separate the top of the cabinet from the bottom. This arrangement will keep humidified air circulating throughout the humidor.
I then measured the top hole and calculated what size trays I could make. I made three trays out of the Spanish cedar.
Tray construction
The completed trays
Once the trays were installed, all that was left was to season the inside with moist air, install the trays and plug the unit in! Here's the final product...
Mission accomplished!
Looking good!
A peek in through the top with the trays installed
Thanks to Thomkm and MTMOuse for providing the inspiration and construction ideas. Thanks also to TommyBB for allowing me the opportunity to present this project to the Cigar Weekly board members and visitors.
CW Contributing Editor Mark Steinberg (mrtapes) is a professional sound engineer and a cigar aficionado.