This is where we begin. Choice of woods. I selected figured Bubinga as well as Quilted Maple, Burlwood Walnut, Carpathian Elm, Gaboon Black ebony and Maple Burl. Not all of these got used but more on that later.

Because I'm starting with rough sawn wood, I cut my pieces long. Then I'll square them up later after they have been jointed.

Because my shop is so small. It's much easier for me to cut my pieces short then take them to my Festool HL 850 with the SE-HL and the WA-HL accessories. This little Planer rocks. It makes small pieces simple to work with and it'll handle larger projects as well. I could go on for an hour about the benefits of this tool.

In this picture you see the painted end has a line through the center. I use this to aligh my Bandsaw. Because I'm working with very little room for waste, it's critical that I cut right down the center.

Once the pieces are split down the middle I take them to the Performax 22-44 drum sander. This is another critical step. I'll explain in the next picture.

All 4 sides of the box must be EXACTLY the same thickness. I like 3/8" thickness. It has an elegant look upon completion IMHO.

Now I joint the edges of the sides of the box. I forgot to mention that I also leave my pieces taller than the finished box until later. I will explain later as well.

The sides are off the the drum sander now as well. They must be the same thickness as the front too.

Now that the drum sanding has been done, I use my vacuum press to hold my work firmly and I take my ETS 150 to the material to remove the roughness the drum sander has left behind.

The ETS 150 does a great job removing the drum sanders finish.

I did find however, the Bubinga is extremely hard so I had break out the big guns, ROS 150 was up for the job though. at this point I like to get the material down to about 220 grit. I'll explain next.

Now we go to the router table and the Incra LS positioner. This fence system has pre marked strips to determine your cuts. At this point, install a 3/8" dado bit. |It is critical to the end results that the bit be set exactly to the thickness of your material. If you don't do this your box joints will not be pleasing to to the eye.

Now I cut my material to length. By waiting until after sanding. I can be sure I'm not using an edge that might be rounded off from sanding. I do still leave the material taa for now though. More on that later.

Now for the fun stuff. Using Incras' guide book and the pre measured strips, I start making the cuts that will create the double, double box joints. When you start doing these steps there are several critical steps. One being always use a backer board for ALL your cuts and 2 always, and I mean always, reference your material to the fence on one edge only.

At this point I have made all the cuts I'll need for the box to be the size I want. This is one of my variations from Incras instructions. By waiting to cut to height, I don't have to make the last cut by doing a pull cut on the router. (Lost the tip of a finger doing a pull cut once....it grew back though) I avoid pull cuts like the plague.

Next I use a contrasting color wood. This will end up being the stripe in the box joint. You can use any contrasting wood of your choice. I stuck with the Bubunga. I didn't want too much contrast in color on this box. The dado cuts being made here will intersect with the Maple in the previous pictures.

You can see here they are opposite cuts that will intersect.

Now I start doing just the opposite to the opposing woods and sides.

This will also recieve the Maple to create the opposing color stripe.

his piece of Maple will be whats used to create the stripe. Once again, back to the HL 850 E.

Ultimately I end up with 4 pieces of material, 2 dark and 2 light with opposite cuts that will end up all locking together.

Finally I go back and cut everything to what will be very close to the correct height.

The same with the front as well.

lso the sides are done the same.

Now that the dados are made in the piece it needs to be planed down to size. This is another variation I use from Incras instructional book. You want the thin part at the bottom of the dados to be 3/32nd thick. I'll elaborate more later.

This is done on both a light and the dark pieces that have the dados running the lenght of the board.

Once they are dimentioned properly, cut off pieces approximately 7'16th to 1/2 inch wide.

Shown are the dark pieces but you will do this to both the dark and light pieces.

Now those pieces are glued into the front and sides as shown.

These pieces MUST have even clamping preasure in order to have the DDBJ (Double, double box joint) come out as nice as possible.

use a cork caul to aid in the clamping preasure distribution.

This is where I'm at, at this point. 2 sides and 2 fronts with opposite ends glued to them.

This is a picture of my simple vacuum clamp. It's a plastic block with a hole drilled through and another hole on the side which intersects it. Foam tape is added to both sides encompassing the hole and a brass barb fitting is screwed into the side. Apply the vac to it for 1500 lbs per sq ft of clamping preasure.

Once the glue has dried I use my ETS 150/5 to sand the ends flush. I don't use the drum sander because if it even slightly reduces the overall thickness of the full piece the project is a do over. The vacuum clamp is especially nice for holding the project at this time.

FINALLY time for the fun stuff. Now I go back to the Incra router table. This is how the double, double box joint comes to be. As stated before, the Incra system has plastic inserts that have markings that tell you where to cut.

This is what your piece should look like at this stage.

This is the opposite panel. When using the Incra guide book the cuts are labeled A,B,C,D,E on the strips. It's very easy to understand the process.

If everything goes right, this is how it starts to go together. Pay no attention to the Maple burl it's sitting on. Thats another project you'll see in the future.

Here are the 2 pieces as they go together. Keep in mind this process is multiplied by 4 corners.

At this point all 4 sides can be glued together and clamped. If you did the job right the box joints should be flush on all 8 points of the 4 corners.

While the glue is drying, I seamed the veneer for the top. Using a quality straight edge, make sure your veneer is straight where the 2 pieces will book match.

Pick the better side of the 2, flip it over and apply blue tape in strips about 1 inch apart. I add a slight bit of tension to make the tape pull the veneers towards eachother.

On the good side, I apply veneer tape the same way. Veneer tape will shrink as it drys which helps pull the veneer together as well. Let the veneer tape dry for about 15 minutes before removing the blue tape from the other side. I usually let it stay on until I'm ready to use it.

Now back to the box. Using my ETS 150/5, I sand all the sides to remove the glue on the corners. I still am careful not to remove too much material. If you do, the stripe will vary in thickness and will look like you didn't measure correctly.

Once sanded I round the corners ove using a 1" round over router bit. The corners will usually turn black so I must use the ETS150/5 to clean them up to this stage. Not too bad so far eh?

This is the other side getting sanded as well.

Now I throw a quick coat of sealer on the box to get an idea of what it'll look like. Now we're having fun.

The box portion is done for a while, on to the bottom and the top. This is where the Incra miter 1000se and the HL 850E come in handy. Not pictured but I start by Jointing then cutting the pieces to be mitered as seen here.

Using a piece of scrap with 2 45* miters on it, I mark the points where the Domino will plunge the corners.

By just moving the foam tape, I now have a clamp for the frame pieces.

Here is one of the pieces clamped to the table. Again 1400+ lbs of holding power.

Time for my favorite tool. I now Domino the miters. This is essential to the Humidor staying together. With the High humidity needed in a Humidor, there's gonna be movement somewhere.

This is a dry fit to make sure I'm on the money....I'm on the money.

I wanted to seam this wood to utilize the sap wood up the middle. This veneer is now going to be applied to a 1/2" 7 ply birch substraight.

I use a cork panel covered in masking tape for a caul.

Now I place a 1/4" thick aluminum plate in the vac bag, then I place my pieces in the bag and top them with the cork and a towel to allow the air to flow around the piece.

n the mean time I leave the frame mocked up and drum sand it to the proper thickness.

Here's a pic of how it will come together. At this time I mark where all the Dominos will intersect the panel and the frame.

Just sizing up. You'll notice the corners are rounded to soften the piece up. It's still at the mock up stage. No glue yet.

Here's the lil locomotive that could. This is my Excell-1 vacuum that makes all this possible.

Here's what the first veneer attempt looks like. It's still at the mock stage at this point.

Here are the alignment marks for the Domino. When adding a Domio to the center I have to make them fit loose otherwise the 4 sides won't go together.

A pic of the Domino plunging the plywood, veneered center panel. BTW this is all the same to make the bottom just no veneer.

Here's The opposite plunge on the frame. Notice in the lat pic to this one, the width of the plunge cut is larger in the last one.

Time to glue it up and get ready for the next step.

Now I sand it all flat.......Maby a little too much. More on that later.

Using my vacuum block as a guide, I noe dado a groove for the wood inlay. This cut runs down the center of the frame and the veneer to forgive any variation between the two and to snaz it up a bit.

Once I'm done with the groove I use a chisel to square up the corners.

Using the cut off from the frame which I know is dead on, I set the angle of my miter fence on the disc sander. I use this to make the miters on the inlay so I can make minute adjustments until it perfect in size. I learned this from one of David Marks shows.

Now the strips are glued in place.

his is what it should look like at this point. UNFORTUNATELY when I sanded the inlay flat. I sanded through the veneer. To save this as best as possible I decided to make a 1-1/2" Maple Burl band between the center and the frame.

Here's the Maple burl frame I made. I had to rout out an area all around the Walnut burl.

Here's the channel I routed out foer the Maple Burl seen in the previous picture.

Here's what it would have looked like had I not sanded through the veneer again.

This was yet another attempt with Carpathian Elm burl that had wrinkled up under the vacuum press. The cork caul didn't apply enough preasure to keep the burl flat so I had to cut out yet another burl.

I had tore it up pretty bad so I had to apply wood filler and call it quits before I screwed up any more that night.

Once the wood filler was dry the next day, I sanded it smooth with my DX-93 detail sander and I was ready for the next attempt.

Back in the bag it goes with a solid caul the same size as the burl. This time I was successful with the Carpathian Elm Burl in the middle......But I now screwed up the Maple Burl.

I'm not going to let this POS beat me. Out with the Maple Burl and I made my own Quilted Maple burl thick enough to stop this crap once and for all.

On to making wooden hinges. I bandsaw a piece of Bubinga 7/16 thick to get started.

Drum sand it to 3/8" thick.

This pic is out of order but it's the spanish cedar being pre cut for the inside of the box.

This is the cedar being jointed on my HL 850 E

Back to the hinge. I now route a 3/8" Bullnose to both endgrain sides.

I use a scraper to make sure my bit is cutting flush to the fence.

This is what it should look like.

Next the piece is turned vertical on the fence to make a 3/4 round over.

The additional material is then removed with a dado bit to give me the flat side of the hinge.

At this point it, once again, went all wrong. The router bit was a little dull and decided to desrtoy this attempt.

This is how it's supposed to look before it blows up.