Thread: Something for the ladies

I have put together a work in progress here of some make-up mirrors I have made for girls and ladies in our family here and overseas.

The thinking was to as accurately as possible cut a jig that would be used to then route out the shapes accurately for inserting into the hand mirror frames. I made the template from MDF that I then burnished for a smooth edge.

The idea is to fix the small timber discs to the template with double sided Norton heavt duty tape (used for holding down carpet etc) - it's good.

Then put this onto another jig that will alow safe operation of the router and keeping the timber true and square (I wonder if I should have put this in jigs section - but here it is).

Trim the timber to the circular jig.

Then using the handle simply use your sander to shape the timber disc - the principle is essentially the same method used for jewel faceting.

The sander cover is left open for rapid change of paper. Rough shape with 150 grit then using 180 then 240 then finally 320.

Then put the holder into the bench vise apply some burnishing oil and wet sand by hand gently using 320 grit to get a paste of oil and timber fines. Give the surface a single wipe with a soft cloth to remove excess oil and then burnish with an orbital sander and 1200 grit white paper.

The timbers I have here are rose mahogany, mulga (that's damn hard stuff) and flame myrtle. SWMBO and I were most impressed with the myrtle - but hey variety is the spice of life.

For a final personal touch I scrolled names into the timber. On the back of the mirror behind the scrolled name I coloured the mirror back so it showed through the name - dark blue or black looks a lot better than the white mirror back.

These are a populare item and certainly a handy size for international posting or taking along as gifts.