I have had only one humidor since high school - I paid $20 for it from a catalog with free shipping.  Needless to say, it's a piece of junk and I am embarrassed to house my fine Cubanos in it.  So, off to eBay I went!  I found this up for bids:

Originally this was one of a range of special cabinets launched by Cubatabaco in 1971.  It was designed to contain 125 cigars, 25 each of the Montecristo Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5.  

It was modeled on a very old style of presentation dating from the early years of the 20^th century. It was designed as a box for retail to an individual customer. Scans from original Habana catalogue:

In my opinion, it's the finest humidor ever designed and I needed one.  This one went for over $900. Ouch! Partagás re-made this humidor to celebrate the 155th Anniversary of the Partagás Factory.  This will run you $9,000 if you can find one (on a positive note, it does come with 200 cigars...)

Every good project starts with a plan. I drafted the layout based on the dimensions provided in the original catalogue.

The layout is transferred to a template which will be used to shape the final materials.

I decided to use western red cedar for this project - I found a distributor online and purchased 12' of 1" x 12"  The templates are used to transfer the layout onto the stock.

Here are the top and bottom cutout; afterwards, the edges are routed.

Next the various parts of the individual drawers are cutout on the band saw.

The drawer components are glued - it's very important to ensure the pieces are perfectly square or they will not nest well.

All of the individual drawers are stacked for finish sanding and shaping.

Next, the front latch is worked on.

Then, the bottom compartments can be affixed to the base - these are stationary.

The last components are the feet for the base. These are cut on the band saw, shaped by hand and glued to the base.

Once all the components are finished, sanding begins.  Start with 100, then 150, then 220.  The top section has been sanded with 100, the lowers are only up to 40.

After 150 sanding, one final fitting and inspection is conducted.

The last step prior to finishing is to sand everything one last time with 220 and apply the stain.

After all the stain has been applied and allowed to dry, the finish coat can be applied.  Here's the first coat.

Here's what it looks like after the third coat.

And here is the finished result in "all it's glory..."