Hi guys, welcome to TECHYDIY.
My name is Nigel
and today I am going to build an infinity mirror
with a modern style.
The design works really well as a table lamp.
It's powered by a safe low-voltage power supply.
It uses LED lights
and best of all it looks great!
So keep watching and I will show you how it's made.
Before we get started, let's have a quick look at
how an infinity mirror works.
It consists of a two-way mirror at the front,
a normal mirror at the back,
and lights in between them.
A two-way mirror is a partially reflective mirror,
which means that it reflects some light
and allows the rest to pass through.
The light bounces between the mirrors
with the two-way mirror allowing some of the light
to pass through each time
and this creates a series of reflections
with diminishing intensity
leading to the illusion of the
lights fading into the distance.
So now let's have a look at some of the parts required.
Firstly we have a normal acrylic mirror sheet.
This is European a4-sized
which is 210 x 297 millimeters
and 3mm thick.
in the US 8" x 12" x 1/8"
would be a good alternative.
Secondly an acrylic two-way mirror sheet
the same size as the normal mirror.
This has a very thin reflective aluminium foil on the back
and it reflects approximately 80% of the light.
An alternative is to use a clear acrylic sheet
along with some silver reflective window film.
If you want to see how that's done
then I have put a link to my other infinity mirror project
in the video description
along with all of the
parts and tools used in this project.
The base is a block of pallet wood.
Some self-adhesive 12-volt white LED tape.
You can buy this in specific lengths or on a reel
and it can be cut at the marked positions.
A 1 meter length of aluminium strip
which is 11.5mm x 2mm
It should be slightly wider than the LED tape.
To power the LEDs I have used
a 12 volt 1 amp DC power supply
and a DC power connector
and finally some flexible and enamelled copper wire.
Moving on to the build, the first thing to do is
cut the wooden base to length
and route a couple of slots in it
to hold the mirrors.
So to start with I
squared off the end of the wood with a mitre saw
measured 297 millimeters
which is the width of the mirrors
and then cut it to length.
Then I routed a couple of slots
in the top face of the wood
using a 3 mm or 1/8" straight bit
going down to a depth of 19mm or 3/4"
and then sanded the base smooth.
To mount the LEDs
I have used a rectangular frame
made out of aluminium strip,
which was formed using a simple jig.
The corners were radiused
To make it easier to mount the LEDs
and this was accomplished with
discs at the jig corners.
The disks were cut from a plastic kitchen chopping board
using a 15mm diameter hole saw.
I then drilled four holes into some scrap wooden board
and bolted the disks in place.
To secure the end of the
aluminium strip ready for bending.
I screwed a piece of wood to the bottom of the jig.
I then punched a hole in the end of the aluminium strip,
screwed it to the wooden block
and bent it around the jig.
I cut off the excess
and then checked that the corners were square
and the dimensions were equal
The next job was to
mount the frame to the base.
So I made some additional holes
in the bottom of the frame
using a hole punch,
which is an alternative method to using a drill.
I countersunk the holes,
so the mounting screws would sit flush
and then screwed the frame to the wood
using a ruler to keep it straight.
I cut the length of LED tape,
removed the backing
and applied it to the outside of the frame.
and then I drilled two holes in the center of the frame
The width between them, being the same
as the contacts of the LED strip
and this is because wires are fed through
these holes to power the inner LED strip.
I then unscrewed the frame from the wood,
marking the edge of the frame in the process
and then marked where the
wires for the outer LED strip
would be located.
Drilled holes through the wood
at the marked locations
and countersunk the holes.
To make it easier to pass the wires through.
Using stop blocks on the router table
and a 6mm or 1/4" straight bit
I cut a slot between
the two sets of holes on the bottom of the base.
I also drilled larger holes at either end
to make the wiring easier,
However this step proved to be unnecessary.
To accommodate the power supply cable
I drilled two holes through the side
through to the slot.
That was everything I needed to do with the base,
so I applied some lacquer
and while that was drying,
I soldered two length of enamelled copper wire
to the contacts on the outside LED strip.
I tested the LEDs and then
applied a little hot glue to the solder joints as insulation
and then inserted a length of flex
through the hole in the side.
Pushed the enamelled copper wires
through the two holes in the top
and then screwed the frame back into position.
I stripped the insulation from
the ends of the flexible wires
and also from the enamelled copper wires
I tinned the stripped portion of the enameled copper wires
and then soldered the flexible and
enamelled copper wires together,
making sure that the striped side of the flex
was connected to the negative side
of the LED strip.
Then used heat shrink tubing to insulate the joints
and then pushed the free ends
of the enamelled wires
through the center holes,
once again, checking that the outside
LEDs are working.
I cut another length of LED strip
to fit around the inside of the frame
and then used a pin to make holes
in the contacts at the center of the strip
I removed the insulation from the wires
and installed the LED strip onto them,
making sure the polarity was correct.
The backing from the center of the LED strip
was then removed and the
strip applied to the inside of the frame.
I soldered the wires to the contacts and
then cut the wires flush.
The remaining backing
was then removed from the LED strip
and the strip applied to the inside of the frame.
The flexible wires were screwed
onto the DC power socket
with the striped wire
going to the negative side.
The power supply was plugged in to test
everything was okay.
To protect surfaces,
I cut some felt to size and
glued it to the base.
The next job was to install the mirrors
into the base.
They both come with a protective covering
and this was removed
apart from the last 3/4"
which are left in place,
to protect the surface during insertion.
.The full mirror goes in at the back
and then the two-way mirror at the front
with the acrylic side facing forwards.
To tell which side is which,
you can place a straight edge
against each face,
the side with a gap is
the acrylic side
is the foil side.
and the side without a gap
so that's how to make a modern infinity mirror.
The only thing left to do now is plug it in.
Thanks for joining me.
Please give the video a big thumbs up,
subscribe to the channel and leave a comment.
I am Nigel and you've been watching TECHYDIY
See you again next time.