Forgive me if my questions don't address your exact questions.
What type of cedar? I would guess it isn't Spanish Cedar. I would also expect this to complicate your humidification issues as well as the stability of the chest.
Regarding the leaks... if the chest was full and you had sufficient beads... I wouldn't expect small leaks to be too big of a deal. If you didn't want to seal the chest, maybe you can rebuild it to be a little tighter?
I would love to see pics
