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Old 10th Mar 2022, 3:04 pm   #1
BakeliteBear
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Default Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

I am the proud owner of an illuminated (mains light bulb!) Walligraph bathroom mirror. Unfortunately, the mirrored surface is flaking away.

Has anyone any experience of having mirrors resilvered? Thank you.
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Old 10th Mar 2022, 3:34 pm   #2
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

There are companies that re-mirror Newtonian reflector mirror's for telescopes, but they won't be overly cheap.
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Old 10th Mar 2022, 4:26 pm   #3
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

I've had concave mirrors (back-silvered), 15" diameter as used for arc lamps, so they run rather hot, resilvered - very satisfactory.

Unfortunately, it was a very long time ago and I've no recollection of the company! But there certainly are people who'll do it.
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Old 10th Mar 2022, 5:01 pm   #4
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

You can get mirror re-silvering kits.
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Old 10th Mar 2022, 5:08 pm   #5
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

Wow! that looks dangerous to be in a bathroom being mains, getting it re-silvered with the 'un-silvered' light hole might be a problem.
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Old 10th Mar 2022, 5:14 pm   #6
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

Try removing the silver from a new (cheap) mirror. Wouldn't take much to do, apply thick tape, cut circle, clean with something, mechanical/brasso. Don't remove the tape.
 
Old 10th Mar 2022, 5:17 pm   #7
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

Quote:
that looks dangerous to be in a bathroom being mains
Properly bonded to the rest of the metal in a bathroom, no more dangerous than an electric shower.
 
Old 10th Mar 2022, 6:12 pm   #8
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

Quote:
Originally Posted by bluepilot View Post
You can get mirror re-silvering kits.
Has anyone used one?
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Old 10th Mar 2022, 6:16 pm   #9
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cruisin Marine View Post
There are companies that re-mirror Newtonian reflector mirror's for telescopes, but they won't be overly cheap.
I was really looking for a man who 'does mirrors' in his shed. You know, the one all the antique dealers use. There is always someone - it's just finding them!
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Old 10th Mar 2022, 6:19 pm   #10
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

Quote:
Originally Posted by lancslaz View Post
Wow! that looks dangerous to be in a bathroom being mains, getting it re-silvered with the 'un-silvered' light hole might be a problem.
I think it would be possible to convert it to 12V.

If I can get it silvered I can possibly grit blast the backing away for the hole. I think that that was how it was done originally.
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Old 10th Mar 2022, 7:09 pm   #11
David G4EBT
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell View Post
Quote:
that looks dangerous to be in a bathroom being mains
Properly bonded to the rest of the metal in a bathroom, no more dangerous than an electric shower.
There's rather more to it than that.

The IEE specify three zones as to electrical appliances in bathrooms - Zone Zero, Zone 1 and Zone 2. Electrical equipment for use in bathrooms also has an 'IP' rating, for mechanical and water ingress protection. Zone 0 is anywhere inside a bath, basin or shower itself. It’s defined as ‘any area within a bathroom that can hold water’. Any fitting or appliance used within zone 0 must be a maximum of 12 volts 'SELV' (Safe Electrical Voltage) and fully protected against both partial and total immersion in water (minimum rating of IPX7).

This explains the regulations:

https://www.drench.co.uk/blog/how-to...ectrical-zones

I would have thought that the mirror which is the subject of this thread doesn't come close to complying with present day regulations and would fail on ingress protection alone, which I suppose is why all such mirrors presently on sale are LED ones powered from batteries below 12 Volts. EG:

https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
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Old 12th Mar 2022, 6:56 pm   #12
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

I have read that the standard 'silvering' used on mirrors is not suitable for bathrooms.

An additional moisture proof layer is required.
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Old 18th Mar 2022, 8:59 pm   #13
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

HWMBO had a new bathroom mirror, the sort with a built in LED light and a radio. (its all 240V).
The mirror silvering has already started going brown at the edges, so it looks a bit tatty.

Good idea to feed it with 12V, you might be able to retain the lampholder as you can get low voltage led repro lamps that have BC and ES bases from ebay.

SELV = Seperated Extra Low Voltage ie the system cannot put dangerous voltages out due to insulation failure, unlike some 'other' sources of low voltage.
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Old 19th Mar 2022, 11:03 am   #14
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

Quote:
Originally Posted by BakeliteBear View Post
... I was really looking for a man who 'does mirrors' in his shed. You know, the one all the antique dealers use. There is always someone - it's just finding them!
It might have to be a rather well-equipped shed. If the 'silvering' is to be applied either by electroplating or by wet chemistry then it is likely to have to be a multi-step process. Whoever does it will first have to put masking in place to make sure that the metal only goes where it's supposed to. Then they'll have to clean the mirror and apply either an electrically conductive layer (for plating) or an activator (to prep the glass for wet chemistry). Finally they'll have to deposit the metal. I'm assuming the OP will be the one who paints the back to protect the metal from degradation. This all sounds like at least half a day's work for someone who knows what he/she is doing and who has invested in the kit and chemicals. I'd expect that to cost a 3-figure sum.

I used to use aluminised mirrors a lot at work. They were all coated by vacuum deposition. For small ones (up to maybe 150mm diameter) we had a technician in a workshop with the required cleaning expertise (this really matters - a speck of dust will, over time, create a hole in the coating which will then spread) and a vacuum chamber with a simple evaporative deposition rig in it and a monitor to check when the coating was thick enough. If we needed anything larger coating (we had metre-sized optics) we sent them away to people who had the same kit on a larger scale. It was a 2-stage process - clean, then deposit - no intermediate layers, no chemicals to manage, no waste to dispose of. The simplicity made it relatively cheap.

There are, of course, commercial re-silverers. A moment's Googling came up with these folks https://www.antiquemirrorglass.com/works/restoration. I've no connection to them at all, they were just the first on the list. They talk about £200 per sq metre, which sounds about right (I imagine they may have a minimum charge too). I also imagine they won't be wildly more expensive than everyone else who's doing this. If they were then they'd be out of business.

EDIT: By the way, I wouldn't try removing the coating using grit-blasting, unless you can accept the light coming through 'frosted' glass. We had a bead blaster at work which we used to create frosting when we needed a light diffuser. The best way to remove aluminium coating is to use weak sodium hydroxide solution to dissolve it away. We occasionally did that too.

Cheers,

GJ
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Last edited by GrimJosef; 19th Mar 2022 at 11:10 am.
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Old 19th Mar 2022, 12:33 pm   #15
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

This method looks quite simple if you like spraying.
https://youtu.be/4kx3jtNl0yE
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Old 20th Mar 2022, 12:34 pm   #16
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Default Re: Resilvering Mirrored Surfaces

Quote:
Originally Posted by McMurdo View Post
HWMBO had a new bathroom mirror, the sort with a built in LED light and a radio. (its all 240V).
The mirror silvering has already started going brown at the edges, so it looks a bit tatty.

Good idea to feed it with 12V, you might be able to retain the lampholder as you can get low voltage led repro lamps that have BC and ES bases from ebay.

SELV = Seperated Extra Low Voltage ie the system cannot put dangerous voltages out due to insulation failure, unlike some 'other' sources of low voltage.
If you replaced the bulb holder with a SBC type, there's plenty of incandescent 12V bulb choice in the automotive arena.

I suspect that having a good few watts there would be helpful to stop any condensation forming on the mirror!
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