A Hand Mirror

Stuart Ablett

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Tokyo Japan
My wife's birthday was today, Monday, I had asked her what she wanted and she could not give me a good answer. Finally she said she wanted new pillows for the living room..... how romantic :rolleyes:

I wanted to make her something, she has more than enough bowls, so what to make....? I remembered that I bought a round bevel edged mirror a while back with the idea of making her a new hand mirror, the one she had was cheap and the handle had broken off it.

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This is the kind of thing you usually see with a turned hand mirror, and this is a beautiful example, but not what I wanted.
The mirror I'm using is 148mm in diameter or about 5-3/4", with the above design I was afraid that the mirror would be too heavy to hold for any amount of time.
To have enough meat on the round piece that holds the mirror to put the handle into it would have to be fairly substantial, I would go a different route.

Here is what I started with....

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Some nice curly maple from my stash and the mirror.

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First I drilled a 35mm hole in the front side of the blank and mounted it on the spigot jaws on my chuck, then I made it round.

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Next I turned a tenon on the back side of the blank

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I flipped the blank over and changed the chuck to hold the tenon and started to remove some material.

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I wanted a nice gentle curve on the back, but I knew that this would be worked on again when I went to turn off the tenon later.

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I made the face fairly flat and then I marked out where the recess would be for the mirror,
I wanted a tight fit, but not too tight, as the wood will move with seasonal changes and I did not need a busted mirror.

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Getting more material removed

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Now I need to shape the inside more. I decided to leave a flat area near the edge of the recess for glue and mounting the mirror,
but in the middle I'd try to thin the blank down so I have a consistent thickness the follows the curve of the back.

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OK that is very close to being done, The wood of the blank is about 1/4" thick

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Lightly sanded and then a coat of sanding sealer applied, I did not want to leave unfinished wood,
as the blank might warp if one side is not finished the ther other side is.

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Test fit, yep it fits, and you can add this to the many uses of duct tape :D

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I put the vacuum chuck on my lathe and then I used the Oneway tool to mount my chuck on my Oneway live center to place the blank on the vacuum chuck just right.


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The rig in the picture before this one works well, but if you have a dimple from your live center from before that works too.

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Removed the tenon and did some sanding

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Sanded to #600 and applied some sanding sealer to it as well.

I got the bright idea of starting this project at about 4PM on Sunday after doing a bunch of things on the Honey To Do List,
(we washed and hung all the drapes in the house) as well as few other things. My time was limited, so I did not take any pictures of me making the handle.
I turned the round part and left a square block on the one end, I roughed out a slot in the block and then I got busy with various hand tools

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I think it turned out well, took WAY too long, but hey, it is for a very special lady!

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With the mirror mounted

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The back side of the mirror.

I got to bed about 1 AM, kind of early actually, and left it wrapped up on the table for my lovely wife,
she was thrilled and was showing it off to our daughters when we Skyped this morning.

Mission accomplished, oh, now she says she needs a stand for the mirror, I can't decide if I'll use the same wood, or go with something darker to contrast it...?

The hand mirror needs more finish on it too, I ran out of time so it only has a very light coating of lacquer over the sanding sealer.

Cheers!
 
Nice! Lovely piece of wood and well treated. Excellent little howto as well!

Man I need to jury rig a vacuum chuck one of these days... maybe I'll get that litle pump next time I'm at HF...

Careful now, she'll probably want a new dresser or vanity to place it on :D

:rofl: Its funny cause its true.
 
Very nice work, Stu.

My vote for the stand would be to match the wood used for the mirror. Makes the mirror and stand look more like a set, and not two separate pieces being used together. Contrast can be good when it's used judiciously in a single piece, but it doesn't work as well artistically (IMO) when the contrast is between separate pieces in a 2-piece set. ;)
 
Same wood, Stu. It is a matched set, not an afterthought. I am with Vaughn. I have seen very few pieces that used contrasting woods and did it well.
 
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