Partagas brand wood carving

[PigFish]

I don’t use any wood in my humidors. However I am tired of adapting different materials to construct the one shelf that I usually use. I have a minimalist approach to shelving. The more you use, the worse the humidor generally works. Shelves impede airflow.

 

I prototyped a very simple shelf made of robust Spanish cedar. I wood carved a couple of members however they are so narrow that the carving was less than desired so I decided to embellish the last member with some Habanos cab “brands.” Brands as in branded or embossed brands… the ones that come off the tops of cabinet lids.

 

These take some time to recreate. I have searched high and low for matching fonts, but they are not easy to come by. Some used are similar, some totally recreated by me.

 

 

Anyway, here is a rendering of my first attempt. I have several I am going to recreate (just for kicks). Criticism welcome.

 

Enjoy!

 

-the Pig

[perkinke]

I like it. Question: how did you carve it? Do you have a machine you can program the design (a CNC i think it's called?) or do lay out the pattern and do it by hand?;

[PigFish]

This is just a 3D rendering. I have not carved it yet. No, I don't do anything by hand anymore! Yes, it will carved on a CNC... -R

[jwr0201]

Very nice!  You do good work.  Well done!

[CaptainQuintero]

Very nice

 

I got around the shelving issue you mentioned by using bbq rack/grid. I'd hazard a guess at the thickness of the wire as 4mm?

I found that eBay etc sells sheets of the stuff you can simply cut to whichever size you need then you just slot it in

[irratebass]

No wood at all Ray? So do you take the sticks out of their boxes & have a bunch of singles lying about?

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[PigFish]

12 hours ago, CaptainQuintero said:

Very nice

 

I got around the shelving issue you mentioned by using bbq rack/grid. I'd hazard a guess at the thickness of the wire as 4mm?

I found that eBay etc sells sheets of the stuff you can simply cut to whichever size you need then you just slot it in

This is also what I do now. Since I only use 1 shelf, they bend a bit, and frankly I don't like the way it looks!!! Silly, yes!

1 hour ago, irratebass said:

 

No wood at all Ray? So do you take the sticks out of their boxes & have a bunch of singles lying about?

 

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No, for the most part I only store in boxes. I meant 'added' wood.

Other humidor makers rely on wood as a passive means of environmental support. They work from an assumption that the ambient is always rH(-) of the storage conditions. This way the humidor always "bleeds" water to the ambient. This is the way that humidors have been made from the beginning. The problem is that the ambient does not always cooperate.

I build a humidor from a different perspective. One based largely independent of the ambient. I say 'largely' because I have to work in the real world. I have stored cigars briefly in ambient temperatures of 95 and 100˚F. The systems themselves, largely due to insulation, cannot remain stable forever in these conditions. A box (humidor) built with say 4" of insulation could, but one with 1.5 inches, no way! So, in some sense, all humidors are built around the ambient, but the range of the ambient is one of the things that make my systems different.

Now, back to wood. Why no wood? Because I build a humidor to give one precision control without it. It is not necessary, and since it is not necessary, it largely becomes a hindrance to control. Wood, as a hygroscopic material competes with cigars. Therefore if you wish to adjust the humidor, either by adding or removing water from the system (changing equilibrium rH (storage conditions)) then one must wait for the wood products to adsorb and desorb water first, or at least in conjunction with the cigars themselves. Ridding water from wood products, especially for people with net rH(+) environments can be a real problem. Just ask anyone form a humid area...

What is nice about wood is how it looks. It is easy to work with and machine! It is cheap, even Spanish cedar, when compared to solid surface materials. I could, for instance use polyethylene, a material I work with a lot. PE is expensive, non-hygroscopic, yet easy to machine. While it is rigid, it does not have the rigidity of wood and it does sag if weighted above its dimensional resistance to flexion. I am not ruling out PE, I am simply prototyping. People ask me for shelving all the time. But I resist working with wood (meaning making wood products). There are plenty of others that do this work and it detracts from my focus.

At least one shelf is a necessary evil in my humidor. It has to be open, rigid and may even be something that I have to build and supply. A simple solution build in narrow, sparse members, one that can be fit easily into a kit for shipment is a solution that I like. People like Spanish cedar, so I am trying this simple idea out.

This is part of a 6 member dadoed lattice assembly. The back two members I carved with a "leaf bed" motif. It is hard to see, won't be seen in the humidor, but I just did it for fun. The machining process for these two members was approximately 100 minutes, so you can see it was a serious waste of time! I wanted an uneven surface that air cold pass under, without sterile looking grooves. It was folly.

Anyway... that was the idea! The wider front member will get a number of these brand "brands." This step will care in minutes not hours and while it has no usefulness, it is just fun!

-Piggy

[Cep]

Hello Mr PigFish,

Just wondering why you need at least one shelf?  (Couldn't the bottom of the humidor be a shelf?)

I also enjoy reading your extremely long posts      Thx!

-CEP

[PigFish]

1 hour ago, Cep said:

Hello Mr PigFish,

Just wondering why you need at least one shelf?  (Couldn't the bottom of the humidor be a shelf?)

I also enjoy reading your extremely long posts      Thx!

-CEP

Thank you! I try to post enough detail to actually benefit people.

This picture shows one of the test humidors in my shop. Okay, it looks junky inside, I get it!!! This box has been refitted many, many times and I use it to test new design ideas. Yes, it holds about 250 cigars with "no other home." It is therefore a working humidor that gets data logged and constantly tested. It is not designed to represent a finished 'show piece.'

The point in the picture is twofold. First, notice the early wood shelf that I have in here. It was built close to 10 years ago! It gets in the way of airflow. If there are few cigars in the humidor, it does not matter much. As the humidor gets more cigars, the more it gets in the way!

The bottom 'shelf' is largely wasted space. In larger humidors I put cabs down here. Yet the space must maintain the humidifier, at least one fan and a heater if I am using one. I put a heater in all my projects. This is a narrow cooler, and the IO box is pretty large for it, but like I said, this is the Frankenstein monster of humidors!

The humidifier must be downhill from where condensate is collected so this is where it goes. If the condense line comes out, or if the humidifier overflows due to neglect of the owner, it is better that it happens at the bottom of the humidor than elsewhere. Yes, a humidifier can overflow! Why? My humidors dehumidify, a very important function to real humidor control (MHO). Repeated air exchanges in humid conditions (net rH(+) conditions) will result in an increase of water vapor, total water content in the humidor. This means that you either deal with high rH cigars during humid months, or you have a system that dehumidifies (like mine do) and collects this water for future use, or disposal in the humidifier. If I suffer a hot humid summer, or a net rH(+) ambient for a short or long term I have no fear of it affecting my cigars and my smoking experience.

Because my humidors are made from wine coolers (solid surface materials) I do not need large or multiple humidifiers. I typically keep only about 300ml of water in a humidor. That is all that I need. Multiple humidifiers waste space and add complexity. Smaller solid surface assemblies like mine don't have the water loss problems that wood humidors possess. In dry months (like 10rH) I have to put water in them about once a month.

I hope this answers your question.

Cheers! -Piggy

[Cep]

Thx, yes that answers my question

I just recently bought a very small 12 bottle thermo wine cooler.  Going to try it set at 64F just with empty boxes for a while and see what happens.  I keep my condo around 70-71 F during the summer (and winter also i suppose), so i'm hoping I wont see a condensation problem.  But your posts do worry me greatly lol!  I just need to experience this for myself and see what happens, before i have to leave it unplugged.  

Cheers!

[CaptainQuintero]

Is it purely the aesthetics? I only use one in mine aswell, there must be around 35 boxes on it but no warping. I know that bbq set ups are quite different over here and there though. The grid is layed out so the squares are probably 30mm/30mm

Like this thickness, but in a grid as above

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stainless-Steel-BBQ-Grill-Mesh-21-5-x-21-Stainless-Steel-304-BBQ-Firepit-/272234771597?hash=item3f6274f48d%3Ag%3Ald8AAOSwQItTz4f5&_trkparms=pageci%3Aa06b34a8-284a-11e6-9a0f-005056b6719b%7Cparentrq%3A0e2531c01550a606257b07d8fffec770%7Ciid%3A23

 

I could see how the non industrial type mesh could bend easily 

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/5x-Metal-Squares-Holes-Grilling-Barbecue-Wire-Mesh-40cm-x-25cm-/222102153192?hash=item33b651e7e8%3Ag%3AWSgAAOSw1DtXI7Br&_trkparms=pageci%3Aa06b34a8-284a-11e6-9a0f-005056b6719b%7Cparentrq%3A0e2531c01550a606257b07d8fffec770%7Ciid%3A4

 

But like you say, aesthetics wise they are harsh. But then again I do keep my humi in the garage in the dark so it's certainly not a show piece! 

[irratebass]

I'm curious to see what Ray thinks of the grill. Also, why a heater Ray? What am I missing here?

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[PigFish]

16 hours ago, CaptainQuintero said:

Is it purely the aesthetics? I only use one in mine aswell, there must be around 35 boxes on it but no warping. I know that bbq set ups are quite different over here and there though. The grid is layed out so the squares are probably 30mm/30mm

Like this thickness, but in a grid as above

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stainless-Steel-BBQ-Grill-Mesh-21-5-x-21-Stainless-Steel-304-BBQ-Firepit-/272234771597?hash=item3f6274f48d%3Ag%3Ald8AAOSwQItTz4f5&_trkparms=pageci%3Aa06b34a8-284a-11e6-9a0f-005056b6719b%7Cparentrq%3A0e2531c01550a606257b07d8fffec770%7Ciid%3A23

 

I could see how the non industrial type mesh could bend easily 

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/5x-Metal-Squares-Holes-Grilling-Barbecue-Wire-Mesh-40cm-x-25cm-/222102153192?hash=item33b651e7e8%3Ag%3AWSgAAOSw1DtXI7Br&_trkparms=pageci%3Aa06b34a8-284a-11e6-9a0f-005056b6719b%7Cparentrq%3A0e2531c01550a606257b07d8fffec770%7Ciid%3A4

 

But like you say, aesthetics wise they are harsh. But then again I do keep my humi in the garage in the dark so it's certainly not a show piece! 

The first one here is a nice grille. It is SS and I like SS... It is also heavier gauge than mine. Mine is crappy chrome and light gauge. Of course I am pretty 'handy.' So I would likely make something for a fraction of this cost before buying this. As you say, the grill does not look that good, and I have never liked mine, it just did the work when I was too lazy to make something better. Mine bends... and looks even worse!

The last think I don't like about metal, especially if you really cool your cigars is the idea that they get close to the dew point temperature when the ambient is higher. The metal has  a high thermal mass and holding the door open can get you drops on the metal. Of course if there is that much differential temperature/rH then everything is going to get a coat of water. This is one reason why I won't store below 70F.

My coolers shelves are actually tapered. I don't cut the wood members by hand, I cut them off a CAD image on the CNC. They are laid out such that the taper and spacing work at their various locations, and they cannot be interchanged. Why the cooler maker would do this is beyond me. It just makes fitment of anything a pain in the ass, but that is the way the cookie crumbles!

As alway I say use what works. I don't like making shelves and have resisted it for as long as I can... I just cannot stand the wire any longer! The time has come!

I have been thinking some of a YouBoob channel and in order to do that, I need to clean up the presentation of the stuff I demo. The science aspect, the functionality has always been more important to me than the looks. While I can wire them beautifully and neatly, it is only a matter of time before I want to test a new idea, or data log something different. All the neat work gets cut out and moved around and I am left with a mess of wires, data log sensors and connections and it is a mess again.

I am not big on staging, but if might look better if I clean the place up a bit... -LOL

-Ray

[PigFish]

15 hours ago, irratebass said:

I'm curious to see what Ray thinks of the grill. Also, why a heater Ray? What am I missing here?

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I believe that the true controlled humidor is a consummate solution.

I keep 2 humidors in the shop. One is this test box, the other is the latest model of what I am selling, or contemplating selling and testing. They are both test humidors, however one is to test ideas, the other is to test the ideas in the current or next generation humidor.

The temperature in the shop can get into the 50's. Therefore a heater! I have extended periods where there is no cooling required at all but heating is. Furthermore, solid surface humidors with free water require a dehydration cycle, if they are not in need of an active cooling cycle in a short enough cycle period to keep free water in check. Dehydration is in fact more important then formal cooling in most cases in my humidors. As a result of dehydration at temperatures near or below the set point, the humidor actually loses a small amount of heat per cycle. I therefore supplement the heat if the dehydration cycles are necessary and often.

I may run a little video today to demonstrate the usefulness of dehydration. The shop was perfect for it yesterday but I have been busy, and it is really a mess in there. If the environment is right today I will shoot the video.

Cheers! -Ray

[NJP]

Good form Ray. 

[jwr0201]

PF... Inside that humi looks like it's wired to blow anytime!  Take care getting out your sticks!