DIY Replacement TLR/SLR mirrors

[Sethasaurus]

This may be well known already but I thought I'd share in case anybody is in need of a (almost) zero-cost front surface mirror.
Having the need for a replacement mirror, I came across the following :
Making your own front surface mirror

So I've just gone through the process of stripping the protective paint from the back of a 1mm thick mirror taken from a makeup compact. It actually works very well and the reflective surface looks to me like the same quality as the other side (if used as a normal mirror). The paint was quite stubborn and in the end I found that leaving the paint stripper to sit on the surface and having some patience was better and easier than scrubbing at it constantly to get little bits off.

I actually sent one mirror away already to be recoated and it's fairly inexpensive, but in the meantime, I thought I'd try this approach, which cost me nothing except a few teaspoons of stripper, which I had already.

Now to cut the glass!
- 1mm glass doesnt behave the same as thicker stuff. If you use a standard diamond wheel cutter, the pressure tends to shatter the thin glass. Apparently, the best method is to use a tugsten carbide tipped scriber, dipping it in light oil before each line.

A couple of pics:
Standard mirror, taken from compact:

Reverse side with protective grey layer:

Rear surface stripped of coating:

 

[Sethasaurus]

Sorry about the crappy mobile phone shots. You can see the depth of the glass at the upper right side of the mirror in the first pic.
In the last shot, the reflection comes directly from the metal surface coated on the back of the mirror.

 

[ic-racer]

Nice. I didn't know you could do that. Good to know. I was heartbroken in 1975 when I mowed lawns and saved all summer for a brand new Yashica 124G ($115 USD at the time). It arrived to me with a broken mirror and it took months of phone calls and waiting to get it fixed.

 

[michaelbsc]

You can bet I'm going to try this with a few of the cheap old 620s I need cleaned up.

 

[DWThomas]

Wow -- whoda thunk it! Thanks for this bit of insight, I have an old Flexaret III that might be a candidate (once I unstick the slower shutter speeds!)

 

[Sethasaurus]

Yep, all those first-surface mirrors, right under our noses
Actually, I think the original link I posted was for a large reflector for a projection TV.
I've seen other people do the same thing with acrylic mirrors. The plastic is obviously easier to shape. I think they used them for laser displays.

 

[Sethasaurus]

Sorry about the crappy mobile phone shots. You can see the depth of the glass at the upper right side of the mirror in the first pic.
In the last shot, the reflection comes directly from the metal surface coated on the back of the mirror.

Oops! The thumbnails are in reverse order..

 

[BobD]

From The Land List:
"old unwanted/discarded plastic Polaroid cameras using SX-70 or 600 film (i.e. OneStep or Pronto! models) can prove to be a very inexpensive source of front-surface mirrors for optical projects.."

Dead Link Removed