This pattern has two sizes of a hand mirror. The small mirror is a little over 6.5" tall and the large mirror is almost 10" tall.
I use a plastic mirror that I buy from Amazon. It cuts great and the mirror finish is not bad at all. I include instructions on how to cut the plastic mirror on the scroll saw.
In the photo above I painted the back of the mirror red so it shows through the fretwork.
To cut the mirror I use my sandwich method. The mirror is sandwiched between two 1/8" thick pieces of plywood. This makes it easy to cut and clean. Make sure you leave the protective film on until the mirror is completely finished.
We all have bad days in the shop.
We all have days when our best efforts come up disappointing. You go into the shop ready to cut a pattern and the blade just does not want to listen to where we want it to go. Maybe you cut a blank piece of wood too short for the project. You install the blade upside down. Just silly unfocused mistakes.
There are a few things we can do to get back on track.
Sometimes taking a break can realign the stars and get our mojo back. I'll be honest though, most of the time I don't want to take a break. I want to get the project finished.
When I decide to push through a bad day I try these things. I normally sit on a stool to cut. When things are going bad I stand up for a while and cut. I don't know why this helps but it does. Just a different perspective of the pattern I guess.
Another thing I will do is clean the area around my saw. I guess this is kind of taking a break but I feel like I am getting something done and the clean workstation motivates me to do better work.
I have become convinced that these "Bad days", are just a loss of focus. Maybe we did not get a good night's sleep or something outside the shop is bot