Sawdust on the Floor

It’s at this time in any woodworking project that I have very mixed feelings. Part of me is very happy that the current project is nearly done, while the other side of me is sad that the project is nearly over. After devoting so much time and effort to this project, I’m not sure I want it to ever be done. If you’re a veteran woodworker, then I am sure you understand, and if you are new to woodworking, just wait you will soon understand. However, looking at this from a different perspective, the sooner I get this one done the sooner I can start on the next one. So I guess I better get busy and wrap up this arched top mirror project.

The construction portion of the arched top mirror is done, all of the woodworking is completed, all of the glue has dried and is set up. All that remains is to apply finish to the mirror and hang it up on the wall. So let’s get going on the finish work. Using a combination of random orbital sanders, hand sanders, block planes and riffler files, I perform a complete sanding and detailing of the entire project, including the back of the mirror.

Most of the woodworking books and articles I have read on finishing recommend that you sand your project to at least a 220 grit. From my experience I have found that is too fine if you are applying anything other than paint to your project. As you sand with progressively finer grits of sand paper you are actually polishing the surface, which in turn closes up the pores in the surface of the wood. If the surface is closed up too much, then your finish material will not penetrate the surface. Or in other words, the stain will just float on the surface. I stop sanding the bare wood at 180 grit sand paper. I feel at this point the stain can penetrate the surface evenly. Later as I apply the top coat of polyurethane, I will sand the surface with up to 280 grit between coats of poly, but at this point the surface is already sealed.

Before I start applying the stain, I want to take care of one more detail. Turning the mirror over, I make a cardboard template of both the bottom and top mirrors. These I will take to my glass shop so they can cut the mirrors to the proper sizes. I do this now, as I know that it will take a couple of days for the mirror to be cut, and I can use those days to allow the finish coats to dry.

This mirror is stained with the same stain as the rest of the kitchen cabinets, a combination of General Warm Cherry and General Antique Cherry. We came up with this combination by a lot of trial and error combinations, but we feel that it is right for our application. We found that the General stains need a little more attention to detail when you apply it, than some of the other brands that we have used in the past. We applied the stain with disposable brushes, making sure that all of the corners were well covered. After letting the stain set up for a couple of minutes, we wiped off the excess stain. This is where the difference comes in. Be very careful when you are wiping the stain off of an area where two opposing grains meet, such as the rail and stiles of the frame. Any excess stain that is left on the opposing grain will dry looking like scratches in the surface of the wood. Take the time to wipe up in both directions, and everything will be just fine. There is one other thing about General stains that we found. Let them set up for at least two days before you attempt to apply a top coat of polyurethane. We found out the hard way that if you rush the stain, it tends to just wipe off when you apply the top coat. The stain seems to take a while longer than most to penetrate the wood. So you may being asking why we stayed with this brand of stain, when others are much easier to apply. Well the truth is very simple, we like the finished look that it provides.

When the stain had dried for a couple of days, we started to apply top coats of General Wipe on Polyurethane. I am not a chemist, so I can’t offer any empirical data on this but I don’t like to mix the stain and top coats from different manufacturers. These products were designed to work together, so which ever brand of stain I use, I also use that brand of top coat. Even though we applied the polyurethane with a foam brush, several coats of polyurethane were needed. We sanded the surface between each coat, with the sand paper getting progressively finer until at last the finish looks acceptable to us. Now all we have to do is mount the mirror and then hang it on the wall.

When I got the mirror from the supplier, I made a dry fit to ensure the fit, and a little tweaking of the arched area was required. I choose to use glass retainer hardware to secure the mirror to the frame. This hardware is mounted to the frame with some small #4 wood screws. I pre drilled holes for these screws about every 6 ” around the frame. After cleaning the mirror surface, I carefully inserted the mirror back into the frame, attached the mounting hardware and locked the mirrors into place.

Mounting the mirror to the wall should have been a simple task, however I spent a couple of days scouring the local DIY and hardware stores for just the right hardware. I figured that the best way to mount this to the wall was to drill equally spaced holes into the frame of the mirror and run wood screws though these into the wall. I could find shiny screws, brass screws, and even stainless steel screws, but what I wanted was some large #10 or #12 black wood screws. I finally found what I was looking for in a salvage yard. While there I also found some black washers that I could install between the back of the mirror and wall, to make up the offset created by the retainer hardware.

I placed the holes in the frame so that most of the screws were into studs in the wall, the others went into drywall anchors. I managed to scuff up the edge of the screws while I was putting them into the studs, but a little black paint took care of that.

So after several week ends of work, a lot of trial and error, and a much larger scrap bin, the mirror is finally done and installed. Was it worth the trouble and anguish? Absolutely, it does the one thing that all well designed projects do, it looks like it’s always been there. And along the way I added some more woodworking techniques to my to repertoire!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our arched top mirror project. If you would like to build one of your own and have questions, feel free to contact me at jerseywoodworker@gmail.com.

Related posts:

1. Woodworking Project – Arched Top Mirror Part 3
2. Woodworking Project – Arched Top Mirror Part 2
3. Woodworking Project – Arched Top Mirror Part 1
4. Woodworking Projects – Hall Mirror