I have been wanting a mirror for my living room for some time now and finally decided to make one using my Glowforge. I wanted a mirror close to 24 inches in diameter but after doing some shopping for one that size either online or at a walk in store I found nothing I liked or want to spend big money on. So I went to work with this design.
I first had to figure out how large of a panel that I could buy and not have to purchase a 4 x 8 foot sheet of plywood. I ended up buying a 2 x 2 foot 1/2 inch oak plywood panel. In reality the panel did not measure exactly 24" x 24". Not even close so I decided to make my mirror 23" in diameter.
From there I laid out a pretty intricate series of mirrors that you see in the photo above. I liked something with more of a futuristic design so I thought this design fit my ideas very well. Originally I had laid out the design with all of the mirrors glued on to a simple wooden circular panel. I wanted more depth in the design so I planned on offsetting all of the mirrors from the panel using 3D printed parts. So the project progressed from there.
I purchased my 1/2 inch plywood panel and used my Circle Drawing Guide that I designed and made on my Glowforge to draw out the 23 inch circle on to my plywood panel. (Check out another post about the Circle Drawing Guide).
Here’s how the panel turned out after using my circle drawing guide, cutting it out with a band saw, sanding the part and adding four coats of varnish. Very pretty don’t you think?
I next made a simple frame that I mounted on to the back of the finished circular panel so that it could be hung up and also offset from on the wall when it was mounted for use.
Once the glue that held the frame to the panel had dried i turned the assembly back face on my workbench. There I taped a paper template that I had cut out so that I could place the spacers and mirrors in the locations that matched my computer design.
I 3D printed plastic offsets for the mirrors and glued them on to the circular panel using JB Weld epoxy resin glue. Once these had dried in place it was just a simple task to glue the mirrors in place on to the offsets using the paper template as a guide to get all of them lined up pretty accurately. Once the mirrors had dried in place I pulled the paper guide off of the piece and it was ready to hang on the wall.
This project turned out pretty much how I planned it. I had made early modifications to the design in my CAD software before I started the build. This helped in solving problems before I spent either time or money and not getting what I wanted at the end. So I am very happy with the how it all turned out. Having the mirrors made in acrylic reduced the cost and weight of the assembly. Also trying to get mirrors cut the way I have them with the Glowforge would have been a pain using glass mirrors.
Beautiful! What I like is that when you look at it hanging on the wall, it almost looks like it’s a round mirror covered with wood, rather than the mirrors being on top! Great optical illusion.
is!