Magic Mirror

Commander · Nov 16, 2016

One of my friends recently asked me to assist him with building a "magic mirror", which basically consists off a piece of glass with one way laminate on it placed in front of a flat screen monitor/TV. This enables you to use the glass as a mirror, but what ever is displayed on the monitor will be visible through the mirror.

I wasn't going to make a build thread as it is a fairly simple miter joined frame, but I managed to have a blond moment when attempting to round the edges of the frame on the router, the guide bearing managed to slip off of the wood (I had forgotten that due to the substantial recess I cut in the back to accommodate the glass and monitor the overall thickness was much reduced giving the bearing almost nothing to push against)and cut a rather bad hole in the otherwise completed frame.

The damage.

After consulting with my father in law I decided to cut out the damage and glue in a replacement piece of pine:

After filling

After paint

And just for interest sake, here is the back of the frame with corner pieces to strengthen the corners as well as backing plates to keep the TV/Monitor from falling out.

Monitor installed

I was pretty happy with the end result, and very relieved that I was able to repair the damage caused by my momentary laps of judgment.

End result!

Robert · Nov 16, 2016

Interesting idea. Usually with monitors you are trying to avoid reflections

Tusses · Nov 16, 2016

so .. is that a pic of you on the screen ? or a pic of you taking a pic of you on the screen ? :lol:

Commander · Nov 16, 2016

Tusses":2ts8xsi2 said:
so .. is that a pic of you on the screen ? or a pic of you taking a pic of you on the screen ? :lol:

:lol: Indeed!

Robert":2ts8xsi2 said:
Interesting idea. Usually with monitors you are trying to avoid reflections

That is actually my friend, I'm pretty camera shy myself

And I'm pretty sure that almost qualifies as a selfie!

:lol:

Phil · Nov 17, 2016

Robert":26eb0d88 said:
Interesting idea. Usually with monitors you are trying to avoid reflections

My thoughts as well.
A couple of years ago I stayed at an hotel in Porto and was booked into one of the executive rooms.
Switched on the TV, grabbed a beer and went for a shower.

There was this huge mirror on the one wall in the bathroom (behind the basins) and right in the middle of the mirror - a TV screen!

Commander · Nov 22, 2016

Not too long after doing the magic mirror on of my friend's acquaintances saw it and was apparently rather impressed. He approached me to also build one for him, however after meeting with him it turns out his requirement is rather different so it needed a new design. He also didn't like the wood look of the original, which means MDF is just the ticket!

Due to the possibility of this becoming a production run it was imperative that the box be as simple, quick and cheap to make as possible, while still being a quality item and looking good. It is also necessary that the TV be easily removable for maintenance.

Here is the basic assembled box, the TV actually bolts to the board in the middle using the standard VESA mount points. The board then slides in under the bracket on the left and bolts down into metal inserts on the right hand side. The inserts should stop the holes from wearing out even after repeated removal and re-installation of the TV.

The box itself gets bolted to the wall via the 4 rectangular pieces in the corners. Basic assembly is with glue and screws to make sure the unit is strong and rugged.

Here is a closeup of where the TV bracket slides into the box, the edge is rounded to allow for the board to come out even when mounted flush against the wall.

Here is a close-up of the other side where the TV bracket screws to the box frame.

Here is a pic from behind showing the TV installed in the box. I later added 2 strips of wood over where the TV mount bracket sits to stop it from sliding out when not installed against a wall (this is a demo unit so won't actually be installed as it will be used to demo the concept to potential customers, more on that later)

Here is a photo from the front, all painted up and TV installed. (sorry for the poor quality).

The keen eyed will notice that there is no mirror on the unit :lol: :lol: . After my discussion with the guy we decided to rather go with a floating mirror instead of a framed mirror, however the mirror he had already made up was the same size as the TV, which posed a slight problem. All I could do was then build a frame for the current mirror, but without the "wood look".

I decided to follow roughly the same method as with the previous frame, mitered the strips and glued together. Before gluing up I cut a rebate in the back of all the strips.

I added the triangular off-cuts the the back of the frame on all 4 corners to stiffen up the frame. I also filled n all the holes and imperfections before sanding down.

The idea is that the mirror will clip off of the box to allow easy access to the TV and also the box (for mounting purposes). To that end there is a hook on top of the box that corresponds to a hook on the mirror. There is also 2 strips on the side of the mirror that fits over the box. When all three surfaces engage properly the mirror sit straight and secure on the box. The mirror will be secured to the box with a screw from either side through the strips on the side directly into the box. This will be adapted when we have the full size mirror and I will look into adding a lock of some sorts.