How Would You Attach Wood to Glass?

Vaughn McMillan

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I have a project coming up to add wood molding frames to large bathroom mirrors at the house my sister and BIL recently purchased. The purpose of the frames is to hide the edges where the silvering has worn away. Ideally, the frames would attach to the wall and simply overlap onto the mirror. But since the mirrors are flush with the backsplash and in some cases almost flush with the walls on either side, we've decided we want to just glue the wood frame to the glass, with the outside dimension of the frame matching the size of the mirror. What glue would you use to attach the frames? Would regular ol' Liquid Nails do the trick
 
Talk to a glass shop. There are special adhesives for this job. Most are intended for adhering mirrors to walls, so they should easily hold a frame to the glass.
 
I went onto the Loctite website and they had this nice selector.

I want to bond Wood to Glass

They have a bunch of nice choices to choose from

I would guess that other manufacturers would have similar selectors

I like LORD adhesives. https://www.mcmaster.com/66195A31/ This product can bond wood to glass.

Nice that you ask this as I am thinking of a couple of wood to glass projects
 
Thanks for the suggestions, gents. Good call on painting the back of the wood black too, Rennie. Looking through the various lists you guys posted, it seems something clear would be the best bet for hiding the glue, too. I'll find a local glass shop and have a chat with them as well. :thumb:
 
The one in our bedroom I framed, I just cut the rabbet around the edges for the mirror and tacked up with my 18 gauge nailer into the surrounding drywall/studs, no glue to the mirror. I did pocket screw the corners of the frame after making sure the rabbets were of the right depth...
 
If you are going to created a frame around the mirror why don't you just make a rabbet the same depth or slightly deeper as the thickness of the mirror and then use turn buttons. I have mounted glass panels using these and they work great. You can use as many as you feel are necessary to secure the mirror. I agree with the flat black paint on the inside of the frame.
 

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Never tried frames around mirrors and my suggestion will/could be expensive and messy, but I make a lot of wood stems for wine glasses and when I fit the bulbs to the stems I just use 5 minute epoxy... haven't had any seperation to date... since you'll need more than 5 minutes to do a large frame, the 15 or 30 minute might work better, and you'll need some apparatus to hold the frame in place while the epoxy sets...

I did use a liquid nails on the trim when I put in the new shower and redid the bathroom a few years back and find that some of the trim is now separating from the walls, assuming due to the moisture in the bathroom... there is no vent or windows in it.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, gents. Good call on painting the back of the wood black too, Rennie. Looking through the various lists you guys posted, it seems something clear would be the best bet for hiding the glue, too. I'll find a local glass shop and have a chat with them as well. :thumb:
In recent years a whole slew of new adhesives have come along. I believe your search will find exactly what you need.
 
I use Goop to attach glass resonators to wood turkey calls. A few dots of this stuff should hold a frame piece in place and still be removable with a solvent. I use the marine version (even though it doesn't specify wood), but the regular Goop all purpose stuff should work just as well. I texted my son-in-law, the glass guy, to see what he would use and am awaiting a reply.
IMG_4424-C.jpg

OK Son-in-law says foam mounting tape along with some mirror mastic, or hot melt glue and some silicone.
 
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If you are going to created a frame around the mirror why don't you just make a rabbet the same depth or slightly deeper as the thickness of the mirror and then use turn buttons. I have mounted glass panels using these and they work great. You can use as many as you feel are necessary to secure the mirror. I agree with the flat black paint on the inside of the frame.
The rabbeted frame would be my preference, but the glass is sitting on top of the vanity backsplash, so at least on the bottom of the mirror there's no space for the frame to make contact with the wall itself. I'll try to get some pics to better describe things next time I'm over at their house.
 
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