SeanTheEvans Wineador Build Thread

Since I'm actually doing this, I might as well start my own thread and show what I've done. So far, it's been way easier than I thought.

Around July I bought a 32 bottle wine cooler on eBay - basic no name brand, but there were a few models and I ended up spending a few extra bucks to get a cool trim I liked on the front, rather than just the basic black or gray square. Here are stock photos - they currently sell on Amazon under "AKDY" 32 BTL

I figured it would be cheaper than buying a newair/whynter, and it was larger. It also had more height for shelving, and I'm an organizational freak, so 7 drawers is massively appealing.

It's thermoelectric, and has two interior fans for moving air built in, so I'm not too concerned about adding anything. The built in thermostat isn't exactly "on point" either, but that's okay with me, since I rarely turn it on anyway.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._SL1500_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._SL1500_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._SL1500_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._SL1500_.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._SL1000_.jpg

keep the pictures coming, looking forward to seeing it stocked! Just added you to the first post of my wineador information thread under the builds list!

So it took way longer than I thought to get out the smell that came with it. Plastic odor. Never had it with any tupperware or coolers after a decent cleaning. Ran it outside, ran it inside, ran it full of newspaper, with a baking soda scrub, did all these without running it. Took a few weeks. Never really killed it off completely, but once I started putting in empty boxes, cedar took over. Pretty much since then, been transferring from coolers into here as I find ways to fit more and more. Most of my cigars are organized by size or brand in those giant Asylum boxes (and lids). Other boxes are re-purposed as well, most using whatever fit and stacked best. Knew it would be a while before the drawers came into play, so here it is, pretty maxed out.

These are my three (look closely, one small humi on top of the wood humi) end-game cigar storage units. I still have a cooler in action, but hopefully after drawers, the wineador be capable of holding EVERYTHING. Although I'll keep the two humis in-use. The small top one is for infused, and the other is... well, I like it. Holds about 120 robusto-sized cigars, but I expect to fit more. It comes advertised as 100, so I'm pretty happy.

Look inside the wineador, and you might catch a glimpse of how I use my beads. They are in small plastic test-tubes with tiny holes drilled all throughout. Cost was less than $5 for the tubes, it just took a little time and help from a friend who owned a drill press. All together I have 2lbs of HF beads, some are in the large humi, some in the wineador, some in the cooler. The infused is run on Boveda alone.

As you might also notice, I keep 65% beads, and there are plenty of 62% Boveda in there. They are constantly "recharging" from the beads, so they stay really fresh, and are kind of my "backup" as well, for if I ever forget to monitor and my beads dry completely, I doubt I'll drop below the 62% for quite a while. With my current setup, it seems like stay steady at 63%, which happens to be exactly what I was aiming for. Yay!

Top and bottom don't have variance, but I also don't run my cooler. Haven't used it in the summer yet, so I'm sure that will be an adventure-to-come. Right now it's 65F, which is where it stays most of the time. It's currently in a basement (notice the wall), so not much fluctuation in general. I have a dehumidifier so it doesn't get damp, and the room only really drops the mid-40s in terms of humidity, so that's not awful either. For a while ambient temp/RH sat at 65/65 and I thought about saying "fuggit" and just considering it a walk-in. Problem was those damn changes, haha

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps0kw6yuvx.jpg

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psgnsp3puc.jpg


Just for fun, I see about 6-7 cigars/packs in there that CAN be identified from the picture. How many can you find?

Looks great Sean! It appears you are already almost out of room. Better just order the 2nd one now

Quote:

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Originally Posted by projectsunfire

Looks great Sean! It appears you are already almost out of room. Better just order the 2nd one now

---

nononononononono

This one is going WAY overbudget with the fronts I'm planning on putting on, so another is not an option. And with 7 drawers, I honestly expect to have more than plenty of space. We'll see, but when I look at that wine fridge now, I see boxes and cracks between boxes, which are all places where cigars COULD be.

so with that - I present my first mock-up drawer. Thanks to @Demuths1770 for the idea, your thread really motivated me to just do it. I had the spare wood, a friend had the tools, it took an hour tops to cut these to thickness, then nail it all together. Thanks to @Ilroy for the comments in that same thread that lead me to the design

So the slats are 1/4" thick, 14" long, and 2" wide. The walls are 2 3/4" tall (wide), 3/8" thick, and 13" long for front/back and 10" long for the sides. Everything was cut with a table saw or miter saw. Nailed it together, you can notice the split at one corner. Nailed the box together, then flipped it and lined up the slat and nailed them into the frame. Really easy, and if I use brads as suggested, they'll be smaller and easier too. Surprisingly sturdy, can go at least 3 cigars high without worry, and considering my preferred size of cigars, I might be able to fit 100 or more per drawer. Haven't done that test yet, haha

Also, with the wine cooler I have, you can't pull the racks out without opening the door like, a full 180 degrees. I'm going to attempt, with the mock-up, to cut along where I laid my pencil, in hopes that without the rungs on the door side, the drawer will slide out, but then stop when the rear rung gets stuck. This would be great if I can actually get it to work out, as having to bonk open the chiller and remove drawer to survey gars isn't optimal.

With the finished product, the plan is to bevel the slats on the ends, give a smoother finish and more refined look, maybe do different cornering, depending on how crafty I'm feeling. Surprised how good super basic looks though.


slats (bottom)

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps8jdmxqcq.jpg


see the split :(

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps0umwvinj.jpg


shot from above

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psnlc6c89u.jpg


where I plan to cut

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psuervxwcg.jpg



will follow up with an attempted "cigar count" for the drawer, along with a shot of it in the wineador

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SeanTheEvans

nononononononono

This one is going WAY overbudget with the fronts I'm planning on putting on, so another is not an option. And with 7 drawers, I honestly expect to have more than plenty of space. We'll see, but when I look at that wine fridge now, I see boxes and cracks between boxes, which are all places where cigars COULD be.

so with that - I present my first mock-up drawer. Thanks to @Demuths1770 for the idea, your thread really motivated me to just do it. I had the spare wood, a friend had the tools, it took an hour tops to cut these to thickness, then nail it all together. Thanks to @Ilroy for the comments in that same thread that lead me to the design

So the slats are 1/4" thick, 14" long, and 2" wide. The walls are 2 3/4" tall (wide), 3/8" thick, and 13" long for front/back and 10" long for the sides. Everything was cut with a table saw or miter saw. Nailed it together, you can notice the split at one corner. Nailed the box together, then flipped it and lined up the slat and nailed them into the frame. Really easy, and if I use brads as suggested, they'll be smaller and easier too. Surprisingly sturdy, can go at least 3 cigars high without worry, and considering my preferred size of cigars, I might be able to fit 100 or more per drawer. Haven't done that test yet, haha

Also, with the wine cooler I have, you can't pull the racks out without opening the door like, a full 180 degrees. I'm going to attempt, with the mock-up, to cut along where I laid my pencil, in hopes that without the rungs on the door side, the drawer will slide out, but then stop when the rear rung gets stuck. This would be great if I can actually get it to work out, as having to bonk open the chiller and remove drawer to survey gars isn't optimal.

With the finished product, the plan is to bevel the slats on the ends, give a smoother finish and more refined look, maybe do different cornering, depending on how crafty I'm feeling. Surprised how good super basic looks though.


slats (bottom)

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps8jdmxqcq.jpg


see the split :(

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps0umwvinj.jpg


shot from above

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psnlc6c89u.jpg


where I plan to cut

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psuervxwcg.jpg



will follow up with an attempted "cigar count" for the drawer, along with a shot of it in the wineador

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Looking great, Sean! Can't wait to see it all together.

lookin good kid

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SeanTheEvans

nononononononono

This one is going WAY overbudget with the fronts I'm planning on putting on, so another is not an option. And with 7 drawers, I honestly expect to have more than plenty of space. We'll see, but when I look at that wine fridge now, I see boxes and cracks between boxes, which are all places where cigars COULD be.

so with that - I present my first mock-up drawer. Thanks to @Demuths1770 for the idea, your thread really motivated me to just do it. I had the spare wood, a friend had the tools, it took an hour tops to cut these to thickness, then nail it all together. Thanks to @Ilroy for the comments in that same thread that lead me to the design

So the slats are 1/4" thick, 14" long, and 2" wide. The walls are 2 3/4" tall (wide), 3/8" thick, and 13" long for front/back and 10" long for the sides. Everything was cut with a table saw or miter saw. Nailed it together, you can notice the split at one corner. Nailed the box together, then flipped it and lined up the slat and nailed them into the frame. Really easy, and if I use brads as suggested, they'll be smaller and easier too. Surprisingly sturdy, can go at least 3 cigars high without worry, and considering my preferred size of cigars, I might be able to fit 100 or more per drawer. Haven't done that test yet, haha

Also, with the wine cooler I have, you can't pull the racks out without opening the door like, a full 180 degrees. I'm going to attempt, with the mock-up, to cut along where I laid my pencil, in hopes that without the rungs on the door side, the drawer will slide out, but then stop when the rear rung gets stuck. This would be great if I can actually get it to work out, as having to bonk open the chiller and remove drawer to survey gars isn't optimal.

With the finished product, the plan is to bevel the slats on the ends, give a smoother finish and more refined look, maybe do different cornering, depending on how crafty I'm feeling. Surprised how good super basic looks though.


slats (bottom)

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps8jdmxqcq.jpg


see the split :(

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps0umwvinj.jpg


shot from above

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psnlc6c89u.jpg


where I plan to cut

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psuervxwcg.jpg



will follow up with an attempted "cigar count" for the drawer, along with a shot of it in the wineador

---

looking really good! im hoping by the beginning of march starting my drawer build or sooner depending on weather and if i have garage space at my brother in laws. i still have to run and get the wood sometime soon too so i have it on hand

Looking good! I wish I had time to DIY my drawers, between work and our almost 2 year old I can't remember what spare time is...

Just curious. That cooler is thermoelectric, and not compressor, right?

Sent from the Mothership using Tapatalk

Sean cant wait to see how this all looks when your done. Looks great so far.

Getting a wineador up and going is the best decision I ever made for cigar storage.
One of the best parts for me has been that with the wineador full and having 2lbs of
heartfelt beads in it I only have to recharge them about once every 9 months or so.

Wow, every time you guys post pics of wineadors and such my jaw drops at the amount of sticks you fellas have. Lol I just counted I have 16 total. Dont get to smoke them much in winter, plan to in summer just started this side of the board. You guys usually but boxes all the time, or a few sticks here and there, everyday lol. They look great love watching the builds. well done!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chewbacca

Just curious. That cooler is thermoelectric, and not compressor, right?

Sent from the Mothership using Tapatalk

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Thermoelectric - but I never run it, haha

Okay - so at this point, I've put in the drawer and it fits cigars wonderfully. It slides in and out as well. Hasn't been a diff in RH switching from boxes to the drawer in the space, and it holds WAY more cigars drawer-style.

So.... instead of coughing up $200 or whatever for Spanish Cedar. What happens if I just make a bunch more like I already did out of whatever wood I have lying around? Is this going to be a problem? I have plenty of SC inserts from boxes and such that I can line the wood with that if I want to, but honestly, I have a ton of beads and boveda in there.

Thoughts? Suggestions? It literally took like 15 minutes to make the mock-drawer, and we shaved the wood down to desired thickness all the slats and walls. I figure if I do 4 or 5 more, it'll at least make my storage easier, and I can always slap veneer fronts on if I want it to look nicer. Drawbacks to not having real SC? The smell? It smells like cigars in there, and in my coolers. I imagine as long as the other wood isn't gross or pungent, it should be fine too?

I would be very hesitant to using anything but Spanish cedar. Some of the reasons would be.

1- smell... other woods are going to impart their unique smell into your cigars especially if you have any in longer term storage. Honduran mohagany is probably the only other wood I would let my cigars permeate with as it has little to no smell. The wonderful smell of the SC is one I am ok with infusing into my cigars. American red cedar can be used but it has a much stronger odor and many believe it can overpower the cigars.

2- humidity... Most other woods will increase the issues with humidity control. They don't do as good of a job at helping regulate humidity.

3- tobacco worms... It is claimed that the smell of the cedar helps keep the tobacco worms at bay. I don't know if I buy into this because every cigar beetle problem I have seen have been with cigars in cedar humidors. Is it possible the problem could be worse if other wood was used. Well maybe.

Finally. I would guess that the average wineador can have from $2000 to $5000 and up in cigars in it. I wouldn't let saving $200 put my stash in any amount of risk.

Just my two cents on the subject.

When I built mine I think I had about $80 worth (and that's up here in the land of higher prices and taxation). I'm sure if you look around you could probably get it cheaper from a US vendor. Theses guys were recommended to me so maybe check them out Bristol Valley Hardwoods . I think I paid around $5 a piece for 2' x 1/4" planks 3 and 4" widths from Langevin Forest. pretty cheap stuff

Thank you for the ideas for mine!!


Now to find some scrap wood to build my shelves..


The Troll

slap on the cedar strips, for sure

Waited to by the Spanish Cedar Wood. Found a local supplier I could pick up from directly. Cost me less than $30 for the amount of wood I needed to make not 7 (as I originally planned), but 8 drawers for this beast!

Pictures to follow. It has been quite a weekend. Picked up wood Saturday - Built shelves Sunday - Started seasoning today - Will update tomorrow!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SeanTheEvans

Waited to by the Spanish Cedar Wood. Found a local supplier I could pick up from directly. Cost me less than $30 for the amount of wood I needed to make not 7 (as I originally planned), but 8 drawers for this beast!

Pictures to follow. It has been quite a weekend. Picked up wood Saturday - Built shelves Sunday - Started seasoning today - Will update tomorrow!

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Super quick work there...looking forwards to seeing the pix.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the results.

Well, chop-chop young man we're waiting on the finished product. LOL! Looks really good so far!!

Noice......Well done

So this is what the mock-drawer looked like full - I decided to add another drawer, making it 8 to my wineador, but cut out 1/2 inch on the depth, to allow for air circulation (which won't really be happening) and also allow room for fronts to go on later should I choose, along with handles.

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psy0jpo4ce.jpg


And this is the pile of wood that cost me $50 and a quick detour on the way to visit my mom this weekend. The guy at the place was real nice too. Diamond Teak was the Spanish Cedar supplier, and I picked up 10 Board Feet locally in Sellersville, PA. I only ended up using a little over half of the wood.

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psq9ooqrvf.jpg


Decided to make the slats for the bottoms first. Ripped the 1 inch thick wood into 3rds for the slat thickness. At this point figured I was making 7 shelves, 5 slats each. 2 Long ones, and 3 shorter. This was because I noticed that the door had to be open 180 degrees to pull the shelves out if they had slats that extended on both sides. So now the first 3 on each drawer only extend on the left, not the right where the door is hinged. The door only needs to be opened 90 degrees now to allow the drawer to come out, and it stops once it reaches the 4th slat, which extends on both sides. Pretty nice, the design is simple and suits me.

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...pslwc1a5kk.jpg

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psw8ycfvt0.jpg

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psznnv8dee.jpg


Luckily, right after starting to rip the slats, I realized that there would be a LOT of sawdust created here. So we put down some plastic to catch it all! Any suggestions of what I should keep the dust in if I want to hang it in pouches or whatever around my coolers/humis - not sure what would allow the smell to permeate but wouldn't leak dust everywhere. Also, should I spritz it down a bit?

Then after the rips, cut down wood to make the first 4 boxes.

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...pstmeyegdu.jpg


But then Mark mentioned his new table router, and that we could make the boxes a little nicer if we want to bevel the edges. It was a lot better looking!

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psipe8x0ub.jpg


Starting to put the boxes together:

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psgbszn3pr.jpg

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psq0pf4ede.jpg


Here's a finished box, top and bottom:

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psese5eyt1.jpg

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psdy1yawan.jpg


Here's all of them, before I cut the notch for the top drawer to fit in (there's a Temp indicator that drops down from the top a bit)

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps2nlul0wf.jpg

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psd6nydt8j.jpg


Here's the finished stacks from either side so you can see the slat differences noted earlier:

Left
http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...pscsgrnt7s.jpg

and Right
http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psy0j2a9e7.jpg


and here we go with all of the drawers finally in! (Top notch cut) You can see here how far they extend out before "catching" on the rear 2 slats. Enough to browse, but not enough to shift weight and fall out or anything. Yay!

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...pskiq7hanv.jpg



I'll add some close-ups as well once the seasoning process is finished, to show a bit more of the work that went into the drawers. They are a very simple design, and are a bit wobbly still until they go into the wineador. Once in, completely stable though. Held together with some really fine nails/staples - we used an airgun for that. The drawers are just nailed together at the frames, and the slats onto the drawers. We thought about reinforcing the tops at angles in the back, but realized we didn't have space to do it above the drawer, and didn't want to sacrifice 'gar room.

NEXT POST- ONWARDS TO SEASONING!!!!!

Also - due to the length/pictures in this post - please don't quote it when replying - makes it a real B to read through the thread, ya know?

So now for seasoning.... I have no more patience, since I've waited a year to get my act together and buy the wood for this project- so this is my seasoning setup for the last 2 days, lol

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psu6ht9u56.jpg

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psyrwzonfm.jpg

What do you guys think? I have dishes of DW in there, with sponges, but also a humidifier running keeping the bathroom at a nice 98-100% humidity. I was going to ask what your opinions were on this process, my way of "speed-seasoning" without soaking the wood; but I've removed them from this scenario already, and they're holding 75-80% in the wineador all day now. Looks like I'll be adding some dry beads and Bovedas to bring that down a bit before adding cigars into it tomorrow.

SO EXCITED!

Fantastic work Sean! Very impressive and I'm sure a hell of a lot cheaper than what I paid for my drawers.

That is an odd looking picture of a cat in the bathroom though

Quote:

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Originally Posted by projectsunfire

Fantastic work Sean! Very impressive and I'm sure a hell of a lot cheaper than what I paid for my drawers.

That is an odd looking picture of a cat in the bathroom though

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lol, that's actually a print that used to hang in the bathroom at my first job. Took it when I left, now it hangs here.

It's called "Where's that Ball?" and this is what it really looks like

http://www.mcgovernwildlife.com/wheresthatball-u.jpg

Great job Sean now you've the fun of filling it with smokes...more pix pleeez.

Oh...best to order the next Wineador...since you have all the wood left needed to make the next set of .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by allusred

Great job Sean now you've the fun of filling it with smokes...more pix pleeez.

Oh...best to order the next Wineador...since you have all the wood left needed to make the next set of .

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Honestly, this is supposed to hold all of my personal stash as far as randoms (along with the humidor on top and the tiny infused humi on top of that, in the earlier pictures), so I don't think I'll end up making another. Perhaps if I had more space (another location) I could deck out my decommissioned 150qt cooler with the remaining cedar as shelving or something. That would be nice for box storage.....

Those look amazing! Great Job! I'll place my order with you once I start my wineador project! LOL!

That looks awesome!!!

So left drawers in alone overnight, still reading 79-80% in there, so added in my (mostly) dry beads today. Just one tube a shelf. Will probably add another when I get around to it. Hopefully that will help bring it down to an acceptable range. Will also toss in my 62 Bovedas as the RH drops, to help it finally settle in before I start adding the cigars.

This will give me a fantastic opportunity to sort through my stash :devilgrin:

Great work Sean !
8 drawers - that thing is a monster, but you know it's still not big enough, right ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SeanTheEvans

Decided to make the slats for the bottoms first. Ripped the 1 inch thick wood into 3rds for the slat thickness. At this point figured I was making 7 shelves, 5 slats each. 2 Long ones, and 3 shorter. This was because I noticed that the door had to be open 180 degrees to pull the shelves out if they had slats that extended on both sides. So now the first 3 on each drawer only extend on the left, not the right where the door is hinged. The door only needs to be opened 90 degrees now to allow the drawer to come out, and it stops once it reaches the 4th slat, which extends on both sides. Pretty nice, the design is simple and suits me.

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/z...psznnv8dee.jpg

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So you put the slats on the narrow edge to rip them down thinner? Isn't that kind of a dangerous cut?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rocket Scientologist

So you put the slats on the narrow edge to rip them down thinner? Isn't that kind of a dangerous cut?

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Not sure if the ones in the picture are fully cut (just re-checked based on table saw measurements in the photo, and those are the finished slats, they weren't ripped any thinner than that), but we cut 1 in thick slats twice, into 3 equal thicknesses, a little over 1/4 inch, as the saw cuts off some. Watched a few videos on ripping wood, some guys are amazing at it, can get long boards incredibly thin. These are as long as I ripped, and we had a "wood pusher", a long wooden block with a notch to fit onto the wood you're sliding through, and a long handle - to keep my body far far away from the blade. Having someone on the other side to receive it made the whole job easier, along with our pusher.

Here's one of the videos we found, lol, those pieces look super-thin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR-WMVAG7EY

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WNYTONY

Great work Sean !
8 drawers - that thing is a monster, but you know it's still not big enough, right ?

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So I took my first shot at "reorganizing", fitting all the stuff from the old setup (and the overflow) into the new setup....

Not successful. The debate now is to re-re-organize it and make more fit... or time to sell off some stock.

In the end, I was really surprised at my breakdown of cigars. Had a bit more of some than I expected, fewer than expected of others.

Two wine coolers seems like too much though. And I would want them to be identical, so it still wouldn't allow much room for boxes (although I DID dedicate a shelf on this one to Tatuaje Boxes... another way I can make a BIT more room. Maybe fit my lanceros...), which is probably what I need more of.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SeanTheEvans

So I took my first shot at "reorganizing", fitting all the stuff from the old setup (and the overflow) into the new setup....

Not successful. The debate now is to re-re-organize it and make more fit... or time to sell off some stock.

In the end, I was really surprised at my breakdown of cigars. Had a bit more of some than I expected, fewer than expected of others.

Two wine coolers seems like too much though. And I would want them to be identical, so it still wouldn't allow much room for boxes (although I DID dedicate a shelf on this one to Tatuaje Boxes... another way I can make a BIT more room. Maybe fit my lanceros...), which is probably what I need more of.

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Ha ha ha - you already have the "extra" wood !!!