Rockler now offers a turning kit that enables woodturners to craft a custom single-cigar humidor using a lathe. Featuring a tubular aluminum design with a black finish, Rockler’s Cigar Humidor Turning Kit turns and assembles somewhat like an oversized pen kit. Once completed, it allows the user to regulate the humidity inside the chamber to preserve the cigar’s freshness and flavor. With a finished interior measuring 7/8 in. in diameter by 7-1/4 in. long, it fits cigar sizes up to a Churchill.
The Cigar Humidor Turning Kit incorporates a hygrometer with an analog dial that monitors the interior humidity. If more moisture is needed, the user can add a drop or two of cigar humidifier solution or distilled water to a foam disk in the bottom cap. The cigar rests on a platform above the foam disk to keep it from absorbing too much moisture.
The kit requires a turning blank measuring at least 2 x 2 x 6 in. long (not included). Users cut the blank in two and drill 1-1/16-in.-dia. holes down the center of each piece with a Forstner bit (sold separately). The kit’s aluminum tubes are epoxied to the inside of the blank sections, much as brass tubes from a pen kit are glued inside the sections of a pen blank. A set of bushings sized to the final diameter of the humidor is available for purchase separately so the sections of the blank can be mounted on a standard pen mandrel for turning.
“This is a truly unique kit that’s fun to turn,” says Steve Krohmer, Rockler’s vice president for product development. “The result is a handcrafted, functional humidor with a great fit and finish.”
Rockler’s Cigar Humidor Turning Kit (item 52105) is priced at $19.99, and the Bushing Set (item 57951) is $9.99. Both can be purchased at Rockler.com or at Rockler Woodworking and Hardware stores nationwide, as well as through the Rockler print catalog.
