April 18th – Joint cutting day (or for those who lived in the 70’s “wood joint cutting day”). Here is the dry fit of the casing and back. It is a little lower than the 42” top of case final size – but you can kind of get the feel for how it’s going to look. The outside is approximately 19” W x 15” D x 27” H.

I had settled on doing blind dovetails with a custom spacing – that is extra wide tails and narrow pins. After testing some options, my wife said that the standard pattern from the jig looked the best. This worked out to be good, as the “kiln dried walnut” was trying to warp, the tight spacing of pins and tails has more strength, and screw it – they are one hell of a lot easier to cut.

Once the back panel is finished and the mountings for the top glass have been cut the case will be glued up.

That's a lot of saw dust.

Toxic.

Be very careful.

Can't post refrences on here, but your search engine will help.

.

Thanks Bear, I’ll be careful. The walnut is not as bad as some others I’ve worked with. There is one called Padauk that makes red/orange dust which is like nuclear waste. I won’t build with it any more – that stuff is rood.

you're making it look easy... I may have to buy some wood and put the Shop Smith to work soon..

keep posting...looking great!!!

Beautiful work Brewha..

can't wait to see the finished Humi...

wheel,

Nice work, keep us updated.

I see you went with the dove tails -- looking good!

I can see the humidor with all the sawdust on the floor. Buy a broom!

Note to self: Only take pictures after sweep up.

Thanks to all for the positive comments. Perhaps Busa can spare a few flavored White Owls when it’s done 😉

DrafterX – I keep thinking this would be easier if the whole thing we done in Spanish Cedar, rather than hardwood and lining it. The cedar would stain up nicely and machine twice as easy as any hardwood. Guess I tend to go overboard.

Looks great!

I can tell gringo has never been in a wood shop. I've had my shop so bad that I can almost change my light bulbs without a ladder and my ceiling is 10.5 feet tall.

Black Walnut is hard on saw blades and router bits..

wheel,

CE,

I actually used to spend hours with grandpa in his woodshop. If I had the space, money, and time, I would do a lot of wood work. Very theraputic. I like your work also.

Gringo

Thx – CE

Wheel, your right about the hardwoods. Most of my past projects have been done in white oak. It’s like cutting rock with a saw. But the worst woods have a high silicon content – teak and the like. The blades go dull while you watch. When I did the set up work for the joints I used some scrap softwood (cedar). The blades blow right through it. The walnut machines like mahogany – middle of the road for hardness. Some tear out and hanging ‘hair’ in the joints. I think cherry and mahogany have to be the best all around machining hardwoods. Building in a soft wood seem like cheating by comparison .

I also built with my grandfather, and to this day those are some of my best memories. I wish he could see my wood shop he would be amazed by the set-up I have.