Deep Hole in a Small Box, a Different Take on the Infinity Mirror.
Introduction: Deep Hole in a Small Box, a Different Take on the Infinity Mirror.
First off I must give credit for the inspiration to these two Reddit posts, this is the first one I saw and this is the one that inspired that first one.
Having seen these I knew it was something I wanted to make. I hope this Instructable inspires you to pick up the tools and give it a go.
I completely messed up my first attempt by trying to use some beach and ash offcuts that I unsuccessfully jointed, this is version 2 and so much better.
The final product is impressive, even if I do say so myself.
Supplies
Most of the supplies will depend on the size of the box you're planning to make.
I used some really nice B/BB plywood, this is such a great material and so different from the 'normal' plywood you get from the big box stores. Very few (if any) voids and with the B grade face it's pretty much blemish free. It's a little heavier and quite a bit more expensive, I would say it's worth it for any 'public' facing project.
The size of the box I made was determined by the mirror that my wife was throwing out, this was used as the bottom mirror.
You'll need enough wood (ply) to make the four side of the box to a height of about 325 mm (13 inches).
I decided to go for a bulkhead light for the inside of the box as I thought this was in keeping with a mine shaft. You'll also need a length of mains cable.
The bottom mirror is a standard mirror but the top is where the 'magic' happens.
Step 1: The Bottom Mirror
To reinforce the bottom mirror I mounted it to a piece of 4 mm plywood using some double-sided carpet tape.
This gave a total thickness of 8 mm, you'll need to remember this measurement for later as this is the size of the router bit you'll need for the rabbet.
Step 2: Make Your Ladder
I had originally planned to get an old ladder and chop one of the rungs off. After searching Gumtree, Facebook marketplace and local skips I didn't manage to find anything cheap enough (free).
I wasted so much time looking around, it actually took me less time to make a quick single rung ladder.
Using a couple of 70 x 50 mm pine offcuts and an old broom handle I knocked up a little single rung ladder.
I distressed the pine by knocking it about with a hammer and painted it black to add to the mine shaft authenticity.
The height of you ladder will be determined by the space between your two mirrors, you want to make sure the ladder is tight up against the top mirror as any large gap will ruin the illusion. 787
You also want to make sure the rung is in the middle for the same reason.
Step 3: Making the Box Sides
As I do with most projects I drew up the basic plan first. I've attached the Sketchup file of the plywood layout.
For added strength I decided to join the sides using super sized finger joints, to do this I made a quick jig, this allowed me to make multiple blade passes on my table saw, these were also at an exact 90º.
I started by measuring the end of the long sides and dividing it by 5 to get the size of the fingers. These were then marked out on both ends of the two longer sides. Once I had made the cuts to make the fingers I then used the cutouts to mark up the corresponding fingers on the short side pieces.
Using the cutouts to mark up the second pieces ensures that the fingers line up.
I dry fitted the box together to ensure a good fit before the glue up.
Step 4: Routing the Slot for Top and Bottom Mirrors
Using an 8 mm router bit mounted into my router table I routed a slot for the bottom mirror around the bottom of each of the four sides. In the shorter sides this slot was stopped before the edge, so I was not visible from the outside.
In one of the short sides I cut a 50 mm hole, this is centred around the bottom mirror slot, it's to allow the mains cable to pass past the mirror, through to the light.
Again, another dry fit, this time with the mirror in place.
I then routed a slot all around the top edge of each side, this slot was 4.5 mm deep as I was planning to use a 4 mm top mirror. The slot was cut to half the width of the sides, this gives the top mirror enough area to rest on.
All the top slots were stopped to line up with the corresponding slot on the joined piece. 599