Round Wooden Mirror Frames

I have now made several round wooden mirror frames, for which I used wood such as cherry, purpleheart, lacewood and maple.  The main jig used for the frames is a router trammel arm and the use of accurate cuts.  I designed the frames using AutoCAD, which allowed me to determine the exact angles and number of cuts (and therefore number of pieces) needed.  The diameter and  width of the mirror determines how many pieces of wood are needed to make up the polygon.  The polygon is glued together and then cut into a circle with the trammel arm.  The CAD drawing for one of my frames is shown to the right.

The CAD drawing is also useful to calibrate your saw, as you can print it to scale, then cut it out with a sharp knife, lay it beside your saw blade and adjust it until you have the correct angle.  The correct angle is critical, because a number of cuts are made, and even 0.5 of a degree will make a big difference, and you will end up with a gap when you line-up your final pieces.  Its also important to ensure you know what side of the wood you want to show - as you need to make sure your saw doesn't chip that side.  A straight, perpendicular cut is very important if you don't want small gaps and openings between the pieces.

Once all the pieces are cut, layout the polygon and find which pieces fit together the best.  If you find that you do have gaps between pieces at the joints, you may have to add small longitudinal inlays.  These inlays can add a nice touch to the mirror and different colored wood should be used as accent.   The mirror to the right is made of cherry (with varnish oil and beeswax finish), with rosewood longitudinal inlays.  If you find that only a few joints need inlays, you can only apply inlays at some of those joints and other joints such that there is balance to the overall frame.  You may have to place inlays on perfectly good joints just to achieve this balance (see photograph to right -- lacewood with several coats of shellac and beeswax buffed to a high shine; inlays are poplar)

The polygon pieces can be glued together with biscuits and biscuit jointer or pocket screws.  If the mirror is small (less than 28-25 inches in diameter) you could probably get away with pocket screws only.  Anything larger I would use both fastening methods.  You could also employ more complicated end grain fastening such as dovetail keys or finger joints.  Just remember that these joints will be seen along the edge of the mirror once you cut the circle out.

Once the polygon frame has been glued together and dried, you can start to cut the circlular frame out.  If you have used pocket screws, make sure your router clears them.   I won't cover how the trammel arm is made now, as I would consider that another topic which is common in woodworking.  If you do want details on the trammel arm and routing the frame, let me know in the comment section and I'll do so.

Use a rabbeting router bit to cut a rabbet on the inside of the frame to receive the mirror.  Some wood chips easily, so several shallow depth passes with the router should do it.

Once you have cut out the frame, sand and finish the mirror with your choice of products.  I prefer an oil and shellac.  You need to find a mirror supply company that will custom cut mirrors for you that can be placed in your frame.  For a 35" 5mm mirror I recently paid $77 CDN.

If you have any questions or would like certain details, you can post them in the comments and I can address them.