I would have to agree with Waxing Moon Humidors, simply because you stated cleary 'something nice that will last".
Ed will take some fine Hardwood and put together a box that will seal perfectly. I have not done anything with mine
yet, so I can't tell you how well they hold humidity, but I am guessing pretty well. I was not a fan of the grain on
the wood used on mine, but I chose a quirky wood in the first place, and it is still a nice box. You are not going to
get a hundred dollar humidor, but the lid isn't going to fall off, either. You will always be able to get what you paid
for it if you sell it, but it is more of an heirloom anyway, so it will likely never leave the family. I would send a private
message to WaxingMoon and get him started in building you one. Check this forum for the thread. I will not link to it.
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Thanks!

DAmn fellas.. Now what to do with this? I cant throw it away, its in perfect condition. Maybe Mark it down a tad more?
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I would have to agree with the waxing moon humidor if you want something nice and longlasting and the $$ isn't an issue and then for the beads I myself use http://www.shilalabeads.com/default.asp . Now i personally don't care on looks but wanted space so i bought 2 air tight coolers and some beads to keep it well humidified and I can keep over 15 full boxes and still have room in both of them and the coolers only cost me 20 a piece.
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I would agree with everyone else -- Waxing Moon is great. However they are not inexpensive. If you are first starting out, I would go with something more common. Several here have had problems with hinges on Treasure Dome's and others have not.

If you can find one (any humi) at a good price, give it a shot... If the hinges break during the warranty period then you can get your humi replaced or maybe even your money back. If it breaks outside the warranty period you can probably fix it with some good glue and a clamp.. Just my :-)
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Thanks for all the help guys. One question if my humidor only requires 2.5 ounces of beads is it ok to put a 4 ounce bag in?
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You could if you keep more then half the bag dry.... But why not just put in less?
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What? You want to keep about half the bag dry no matter what so that the beads can absorb excess humidity from the air.

The only problem with putting more beads in than the calculated "correct" amount is that they take up room that could be occupied by smokes! Having more beads than the "correct" amount will help compensate for swings in humidity (such as when you open the humidor).
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Because they come in 2 ounce or 4 ounce bags. The Shilala's beads.
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Personally, given a choice between the two options, I would go with the four ounce bag to keep a better equilibrium in my humidor. Currently in my vinodor I actually have more than twice the recommended amount just because, as often as it runs during these summer months, I want the humidity to come back up as fast as possible.
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I and some others have put more beads than required in for the shilala beads but in no way do you add water on the beads, If I need to raise the humidity I put a 1/2 cup measure cup of distilled water in the cooler and slowly raise the humidity. there is a faq section I believe on the site stating if you want more beads how much more to add versus the required measurement.
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Just letting him know not to soak the bag. I have heard of people doing that before...... But this is a much better explanation then I gave....lol
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That is new to me.... I don't know if that's a common practice or just Shilala's instructions. I mist my beads (different brand).... Am I doing it wrong?
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I believe the HCM Beads melt upon water but there are beads out there you add water to
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Where did you hear this?
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You can mist HF and similar beads. You do not mist Shilala HCM beads.

Please be careful when making these kinds of statements as it is not true.

The HCM beads do not melt when wet. They get hot. This is NOT a chemical reaction but rather due to the friction of the water racing through thousands of tiny pores in the beads. If you should get your beads wet the worse thing that is likely to happen is that seal on the bag is likely to break and leak the beads out of the bag; the bags are sealed using heat.

This is all spelled out clearly on the website, in the instructions included with the beads and in a number of posts here and on other sites.
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Waxing moon humidors are not expensive for what you are getting. I know people that have spent hundreds of dollars
on crappy humidors...they either break, won't hold a steady RH, get outgrown. If they had bought the quality box from
the start they would have a nice humidor. Mine is really big and I did not feel it was priced all that high. PLUS, don't
forget, most aficionados in the kneaux use coolers to bulk store their smokes and use humidors for their smoking stash.
You can get a small Waxing moon humidor made that will hold a few week's supply and not spend all that much at all.
I am not going to say they are CHEAP, but they don't break, warp, leak, or look cheap. The reason they call it a
desktop is because a good one blends in easily on a desktop. Not a giant station wagon of a box. That's the job of
your cooler. dos centavos.
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The thing that used to make me the maddest out of all the bonehead threads on cigar forums were where people ordered
a 35 dollar humidor and then complained that the lid fell off. Or that it was a POS. Or that it looked better in the
pictures....SOMETHING. I know that starting out it seems a waste to buy something that costs you your first
4-8 boxes of cigars worth of fundage. But man, it's nice to look in your humidor and see a light sheen of real plume that
is created by your cigars being PERFECTLY cared for and super-stable. Elie Bleu humidors where you get a tiny
desktop for 3000 dollars, now THAT'S too expensive. You can do much better for MUCH less. But you know what?
In the end no one is gonna care which box you get, as long as you are happy and don't photograph it empty.
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My point was that when you are new to cigars it can be overwhelming to spend money on cigars, lighters, cutters, humidification along with an expensive desktop humidor. If you have the money to do it all, great, I did not, so I bought an inexpensive but decent humidor. It seals pretty well and I like it -- it does the job.

Maybe it does cost more in the long run to do it this way, but for me managing my cash-flow has to be the priority.

One day I would like to have a Waxing Moon humi but it's likely to be bit of a wait for me...
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The dome is 170 bucks. That isn't real cheap but chap amongst the custom ones. None the less I have this one that I'd like to get rid of now. My lid hasn't had any issues since I've been using it.
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Don't worry, Michael, I was directing my response to the original poster, not you. I understand that sometimes
it's economics over sensibility. Most times, actually.
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