Definitely would - I’ve seen some pretty large ones. If you look up infinity mirror tables there’s heaps, here’s one:
If you want it really tough, you could make it out of Polycarbonate sheet - might be a bit pricey though. If you go 1200x1800 this is a common standard material size for sheets of anything so you might even be able to save yourself from having to do any cutting.
Seems like Polycarbonate should fit the bill with any non-delibrate damage (short of scratching it up with a knife). But yes, expensive, at least online. I’ll make some calls.
Could I just use a Bunnings mirror film and apply it to some wood and it will act as a mirror for the backing? Might be more economical than sourcing an actual mirror to then be backed anyway?
Also, do you get a better effect if the two mirrors are closer or further apart from each other?
I’ve put far too much thought into infinity mirrors during my build of an infinity mirror hypercube, I’ll have to grab some photos of it when I get home.
@Tim has also gone deep with the infinity mirror effect on his LuMa 1 disco ball, so it seems we at Core have a weakness for infinity mirrors.
Regarding materials, you should be aiming to maximise reflection while also minimising distortion.
Reflection doesn’t have to be perfect, mirror window tint from Bunnings over some 3mm clear acrylic panels was enough for me to get an illusion about 8ish reflections deep. This is with cheap mirror film on both sides, for a 2D infinity mirror panel one side doesn’t need to be partially transparent so you can get even better reflections.
Distortion is a little bit trickier to manage, if your mirrors aren’t perfectly flat (they won’t be) then you get a slight warping of the reflection, sometimes it’s called the funhouse effect.
Tempered glass will introduce a lot of funhouse warping to your reflections whereas standard glass does not. Polycarbonate and Acrylic sheets are probably somewhere between those two extremes.
Given you are trying to go as large as possible this will likely be your biggest hurdle to overcome as smaller setups like mine and the LuMa 1 are too small to notice this warping.
For the cost of the window mirror tint, it is absolutely worth experimenting with to see if you can get the results you need. Applying it without bubbles is a bit of an art form in itself but once the sun goes down and the lights come on a lot of your mistakes are hidden anyway. https://www.bunnings.com.au/pillar-products-1-2-x-2-4m-mirror-tinted-window-film_p3961896
If the warping with the mirror tint is too much, then you will need to look at sheets that come fabricated with mirror tint already on them, this is about where I got distracted by other new and shiny projects and haven’t yet returned to my next infinity mirror upgrade.
This just changes the effect, you will be somewhat limited to how many reflections you can get, so a bit of spacing does make it look deeper with the same number of internal bounces.
PS. If you decide to go 3D one day there are some very cool builds out there.
Funny you should mention cubes/3D shapes… I’m considering one now!
I was thinking laser cutting with finger joins with 30cm sides as that seems economical with Bunnings 600x900x3mm acrylic mirror sheet. Would that be strong enough or should I print a structure for the acrylic to slot in to?
Full disclosure: it’s for a Christmas light display
I got home and totally forgot to get some photos of my cube, I’ll set a reminder to take some more.
I’m not sure what you mean here, acrylic does an ok job of supporting its own weight when it’s oriented straight up and down, if it’s mounted parallel to the ground though you may find the middle bows or sags and warps your reflections a bit leading to a bit of a fish-eye distortion.
Again the biggest acrylic I’ve used is 165mm squares hot glued into a frame so I’m not sure about supporting a larger sheet as acrylic is pretty heavy.
Ahh I see, thanks for the photo, again I don’t have much experience on that scale so I’m not sure how well it would work.
I’m not sure how you would estimate or measure the amount of bowing and sagging that occurs outside of building it and checking after the fact.
The peice was 230mm wide(into the box) and spanned 300mm.
For one of my projects I had 3 fastening points (M4 bolts and there was quite a bit bowing when you put a force on it, keeping it supported on all 4 edges will help a ton though!
EDIT: Excellent point! Take a look at @Oliver 's calculator instead for a much more accurate calculation - left this here for any other keen makers
As for estimating you can use a deflection calculator much like the ones civvies use on beams: Beam Deflection Calculator
Most calculators will spit out a pretty low number though!
Pro-tip, for small deflections it’s accurate to just calculate things separately and add them up, so you can calculate your plate under it’s own weight, then add the deflection for something on top of it - assuming the stress is less then what it would take to break it.
3 Likes
And you can get our latest projects and tips straight away by following us on: