Welp, I'm finally building it.
This mess will serve as the bottom of the box. Once the glue dries, I'll drill some holes, screw her down to the cnc table, hollow out the shape for the inside of the box, then I'll cut the profile.
That'll make the box one nice, solid piece that won't twist or warp once it has a finish applied. That's VERY important. If the base doesn't keep shape, the inset lid won't set in properly, and there'll be gaps.
The walls of this base will only be 3/8" thick. In the world of wood, that's very thin. It'll be prone to cupping and warping.
The trick to keeping thin lumber from doing goofy things is to seal it. Be it shellac (which I think is a poor choice for a finish, but okay for a filler base coat), poly, wax, or vaseline, it is imperative to use equal coats on each side of the project.
You'd think it wouldn't matter, but it does. Very much so. Just the uneven tension of different thicknesses of sealer will twist, warp, and rack thin lumber.
Off topic, but good info...
When building a humidor, it's very important to finish the interior prior to setting in the spanish cedar. That's what stabilizes it and keeps it's fine tolerances. Most guys don't do it because, well, I don't know why they don't.
If the interior isn't sealed prior to installing the spanish cedar, it gets a nice, steady supply of moisture from the inside out. The different densities of the wood take water at different rates, and a box will rack and twist and never hold humidity worth a damn.
Mind ya, we're not talking about the particle board laminated humis like from CI and so forth. I'm talking about real handcrafted solid wood expensive humidors.
High density MDF is a good part glue and the rest is sawdust. It doesn't have grain, making it inherently stable.
That ends the Mr. Wizard portion of the show.
Here's a pic of tons of glue and a mess of clamps...
