So I have a couple of 50 cal cans that I want to use as humidors for my brothers in law.  Apparently spanish cedar is pretty expensive and hard to source so I thought about cadavering old cigar boxes for the cedar.  I have a few empty Oliva boxes and my local store gives the old boxes away for free.  The cigar box cedar is fairly thin, but is it thick enough to use as the lining of an ammo can?  I figure that if it's good enough for boxes from the factory it should be good enough for a humidor.  

Any other ideas?

Please make sure you clean them...and clean them again! Let me know if you need any tips on effectively doing that.

Not every cigar box is made with Spanish Cedar. As you mentioned...it's not cheap. Could be a variety of other woods and/or a Spanish Cedar veneer over some other plywood type wood. So getting some solid, real Spanish Cedar would be best case scenario.

You can get Spanish Cedar online from sites like eBay and Amazon. Also I've ordered many times form Woodworkers Source...just Google them. They sell by the board foot or square foot. Get 1/4" thick if you can. The challenge is getting it in heights tall enough. Spanish Cedar trees (not really Cedar trees at all...but I digress) aren't big. So 2-4" height of each piece is probably the most common size. Anything much taller than 6" has got to be "glued up"...this just adds to the cost.

I have Spanish Cedar DIY kits for ammo cans (already cut to size and ready to assemble) if you'd like a quick and easy fix.

If you haven't thought about humidification yet, I would highly recommend 1-2 Boveda packs at 69% humidity level - that's the only humidifiers I use in mine for the last year or two.

Good luck with the build - they make outstanding humidors!

Thanks, man. I’ll try to Frankenstein one from old premium brand cigar boxes and see how it holds up.

Most of the humidors I see are veneered with the spanish cedar. Do you really need a full 1/4” to get the desired effect?

Technically you don’t “need” any Spanish Cedar.

We use it in humidors for several really good reasons (I’d be happy to elaborate) BUT it’s by no means required. So no SC, scrap SC from cigar boxes or premium 1/4” solid wood SC like I use...you’ll be fine regardless as long as you’ve got a good seal and the proper hardware.

Make sure you season those cans with whatever wood you opt for, before adding any cigars. Grab a Boveda 84% seasoning pack and save yourself a ton of headache.

Yea most every mass produced humidor you’ll find on the market (99.9% of which are Chinese imports) are junk wood with a thin SC veneer on top. Because it’s dirt cheap and easy to make.