Happy post turkey day to all!!
Being an avid and creative recycler (some may say ‘dumpster-diver’), I recently scored some large broken shards of a thick, old, etched mirror. The shards are now in sort of amoeba-like shapes and I would like to give them a new life by fabricating some kind of sculptural wood frames. My idea is to build a frame out of one board each per shard to hold the mirror shard along the broken edge only, matching the break in the glass by pattern cutting a piece of wood and inserting the mirror into a groove in the wood, then doing a bit of carving and metal inlay on the wood for visual/sculptural interest.
The question is: What would be the best way to solidly anchor the mirror fragment in the wood groove?. My hope was to have the polished and rounded remaining edges of the mirror shard exposed. Thus wood will only be added along the broken edges. Therefore, the frame will need significant strength both to hold the glass and allow mounting on a wall.
From past experience with mirrors I failed by using liquid nails and adhesive caulks because these products show in the mirror even when only applied deep in a groove or slot. Of course, I also have wood movement in mind and want to avoid any further breakage of the mirror shards due to differential rates of the wood and glass moving during the seasons.
Any good ideas? Thanks in advance for replies.
sawick
Replies
So are you planning to reconstruct the mirror but with wood filling the cracks and missing pieces?
Charles,
No, my design idea and hope was to marry one piece of glass to one piece of wood in a sort of free form sculptural way. Where on one side the glass edge would be exposed and the other edge would be wood grooved to accept the glass thickness. I just can't quite figure out how to hold the glass mirror pieces (which are thick, heavy, and fairly large) in a matching groove in wood. Further, since a mirror is best used by hanging on a wall, Such joinery must be able to hold up under what are essentially shear forces. That is, the weight of the mirror would be a constant downward pull on the wood and in the groove holding the glass.
sawick
You know, I saw this post days ago and passed over it, saying "well, I ain't gonna be any help" . . . but today saw the little ad for "raycrete" in a Highland tools catalog. They claim it will bond almost anything, and have this little example of wood, metal, glass, etc there next to the product picture. It might be worth a gander.
Thanks RW. I will check out "raycrete". Another product I am researching is Franklin Tite bond which is a white aliphatic resin glue they claim that dries clear and bonds to anything. Thus, I hope will not show in the joint between mirror and wood.
Again thanks
sawick
What's wrong with epoxy? It seems like it would be perfect.John E. Nanasy
Howdy Spoke!
Yes, I considered epoxy but became perhaps overly concerned about differential movement between the wood 'frame' and glass mirror. I want to do this project correctly right from the start so that is why I am open to all input via this forum. Clear epoxy might just be the trick. Just received the router slot cutting bit in the mail today and will start laying out the project tomorrow. Thanks.
sawick
Give some thought to using silicone sealant. It will allow for a small amount of wood movement and will definitely stick to (clean) glass. I worked with a church to make stained glass windows by sticking bits of colored glass to fields of clear glass and it worked great. Still holding after many years. We used the GE brand of sealant.
Jim, Thanks for the tip about silicone. I had thought about that product before but was unsure of its durabilty, especially in a shear load situation. I plan to start on cutting out wood to match the mirror shards tomorrow, so maybe back with more questions. Thanks.
sawick
Mirrors are typically fixed to sheetrock with silicone caulk -- don't use the acetic cured, it may attack the silvering of the mirror.
Ian,
Thanks for the good advice. I had not considered the acetic component of most silicone based caulk/adhesives which very probably would interact negatively with the old mirror silvering. The next design challenge (which confronted me yesterday) is how to balance the freeform sculpture like nature of this project so it hangs reasonably on a wall. That is, the mirror shards tend to be heavier than the wood holding the shards. Thus, when I put wall mount hardware on the wood, the mirror then hangs at a crazy level on a wall. While this makes the piece still very interesting visually, it is practically useless as a mirror in function. Back to the drawing board I guess.
sawick
If silicone doesn't work, you might look at 3M 5200. It is a marine sealant / glue that stays "rubbery" after it has cured. It will glue wood to metal, metal to metal, plastic to wood, wood to wood, wood to metal, etc. - you get the idea. It is a polyurethane based adhesive that is about the thickness of silicone caulk when it comes out of the tube. Regular 5200 sets up in 24 hours and cures in 7 days. Fast cure 5200 sets up in 1 hour and is fully cured in 24 hours.
Regular 5200 comes in white, tan, black, and mahogany colors. Fast cure comes in white. Both can be had in 3 oz tubes or 10 oz (caulking type) tubes. I've used it a number of times and it stays stuck to whatever you put together with it.
In my RV, the manufacturer just splooged dots of clear silicone on the back of the mirror and stuck the mirror to the bathroom door. Worked great until someone broke the mirror - then I had one heck of a time getting it off the door.
A heat gun usually does it because the silicone is thermoplastic -- it takes a time to heat the glass sufficiently so the method isn't recommended if you want to save the mirror as the heat usually cracks it.IanDG
just a warning, form experience, 5200 is about the hardest thing i've ever tried to remove. definitely not reversible...
A fine piece of piano wire or the smallest guitar string can easily slice through 3-M foam mounts as well as most RTV products, IF the cured film is thick enough!
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