Humidity in my house during the winter months usually drops to something around 20%. My glasstop Bally humidor struggles to maintain proper humidity. When I was using Heartfelt beads, I’d have to rehydrate every few days, and even with Shilala beads, I’d watch my hygrometer drop a few % every other day.

Scott’s thread last year inspired me, but it also intimidated me: many of you know that Scott’s a craftsman—got lots of cool tools, builds lots of cool stuff. Me, on the other hand—well, at 47 I finally got my first Craftsman toolchest a few months ago for Christmas. I know which end of a saw to use, but I’m pretty much spatially challenged.

The humidity problem finally pissed me off so much that a few weeks ago I decided to fix this problem for good. Snapped some pictures to show how an amateur can do this project and get good results, and thought I’d share my experience with you. No doubt, others are having the same problem with their glasstop. Hope this helps!

First I moved my stock to the cooler--here’s an empty Bally II, getting ready to be disassembled

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The easiest part of the job was removing the piano hinges on the lid. Be careful to hold the lid while you’re unscrewing. I unscrewed from the lid first on both sides, then removed it from the base.

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There are slim pieces of wood (not cedar, look like cheap firring strips or something) loosely attached to the side of the lid by staples or something. They keep the hold-downs in place against the glass. Since they’re pressed into staples inside the lid, you have to pry the first piece off. I used a thin chisel. Once you get the first strip off, the other three come out pretty easily.

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Mark the inside of these strips so you know how to re-position them when you put the lid back together.

Below these strips are more thin strips of wood that support the glass. These are glued to the glass, and you need to very carefully pry them off without cracking the top. This was the most delicate part of the whole operation. Move the chisel slowly along the underside of the wood. They’re only glued along a small section, so they shouldn’t give too much resistance. Again, mark the underside in a non-conspicuous location so that you know where to reattach them.

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Once the glass is exposed, use the chisel to scrape as much of the old glue as possible.

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Note the gaps between the lid & the glass. No wonder this humidor leaked. I’m about to fix that problem

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using fishtank silicone. I picked this tube up at PetCo, I think it was a couple bucks. It smells like solvent when it’s going on, but once it hardens the smell goes away.

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I ran lines of silicone all along the cracks and beneath where the hold-down strips went.

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I then repositioned the hold-down strips of wood, and clamped them with the 2 clamps I own. If silicone oozes out along the exposed glass, you can use a razor knife to trim it once it dries.

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I did this on all four sides, leaving the clamps in position for about an hour before moving on. If I had more clamps, the job would have been done faster, but I wasn’t in any real hurry. I then reattached the woodstrips by pressing them in to the exposed staples on the inside of the lid.
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The next big area of leakage was around the inset hygrometer. I don’t have any pictures of this, but what I basically did was cut a circle of wood out of a piece of 3/8” plywood, run a bead of silicone along the underside and pressed it into the hygrometer cut out hole inside the box. I then ran silicone along the seam. It got a little messy and didn’t clean up well, but once the humidor is back together you won’t be able to see this anyway.

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Not too pretty, but it's fixed!

All of the silicone completely firmed up in 24 hours and then I left it to air out for an extra 24 hours.

For the next week, I put a bowl of steaming water on a small rack inside the humidor and left it overnight. After 7 days of this, I put my sack of shilala beads in there with the water bowl and left all that alone for another 7 days.

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The result?

Rock solid humidity at 65% in an empty humidor.

I can’t wait to put my cigars back in there this weekend!

Hope this helps some of you with leaky humidors and limited skills like me!
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Very nice!!!
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Why not use clear silicone?
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That was my first choice, but I couldn't find any in the fishtank aisle. :-) None of the silicone is visible once everything was reattached, so it worked out. Except for the hygrometer piece and that was only because I got sloppy.
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Looks good and nice work.
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Very nice.
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Fair enough! Nice work too.
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Great tutorial! :-)
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Good job
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Nice work Gerard...up for another....because unlike you I don't own a craftsman anything and certainly no clamps...
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Very nice. I just put a bead of clear silicon around the glass and the hygrometer. Not as pretty but it worked.
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:-) :-)
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Very good work! Thanks for posting this -- it's always nice for people to have a reference on fixing a humidor. Allows people to see how big or small a job it really is!
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So of all your "stock" fits easily into the cooler? :-) Very interesting info.
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I'm looking at trying to make it to Bailey's/shedherf next Thursday. I'll let you know--if so, I'd be happy to pick up your humi and give it a shot. I have plenty of silicone left over.

:-) Uh, nonono! Not at all! Nope!
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Thanks for the do-it-yourself project...much appreciated.:-)
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Good Work - you may have found a previously undiscovered talent!:-)
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:-)

You wanna try on a domed Humi next? I'd been using it for a couple years but I got too angry at the RH fluctuations.
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