Two
way mirrors were too costly. A 2' by 2' two way mirror costs $55.
An option which was used by Spookdawg is to apply a mirror film
call Gila Privacy Film on an ordinary piece of Plexiglas.
See the Plexiglas and the mirror reflect side by side further down..
Click on an image to see a larger one
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First
I bought a 2' by 2' piece of two way tint from an auto store for
$10.
Then I found a 3' by 15' roll of Gila Privacy Mirror Film for
$29 at Lowes.
Since after using a 2' by 2' piece I figured I could use it for
other projects I decided to go with that instead.
The
question was: How well would this film work?
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These
are the items I used to apply the Mirror film to the Plexiglas.
A
spray bottle
A bottle of Gila Film Aid
A squeegee
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Here's
a picture of the film as it comes out of the box. (Or stealing
Keeba's line...Here is the film as it is found in Nature.) It
has a backing that obviously must be removed before applying.
Since
the Plexiglas is 2' by 2', I cut the film to be be somewhat larger
and then trimmed to fit once I had everything looking the way
I wanted it.
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I used the
Gila Film Aid which acts like a cleaner for the Gila film to clean
the Plexiglas. Just mix some of the concentrate with bottled water
and apply to the Plexiglas. Then spray it again to make sure the
side of the Plexiglas is completely covered. After removing the
backing from the film, place the +2' x+ 2' piece of film over
the wet PlexiGlas. Make sure that you don't have any dry
spots before applying the film!
Getting the
backing off of the film can be a pain. An easy trick is to place
a piece of tape to the corner of the film and another piece of
tape to the corner of the backing. Then simply pull them apart.
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After carefully laying the film on the back of the Plexiglas,
spray the outside surface of the film so the squeegee has something
to slide against. I took the squeegee and really went over the
film to get out all the air bubbles. When I was happy with how
it looked I trimmed the film around the Plexiglas to size. Don't
be too concerned about tearing the film. It is quite strong.
But it is important to get all bubbles and bumps out from under
it. A good approach is to begin from the center and move out
to each of the four sides so you don't have so far to go to
reach an edge.
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Here are the
two mirrors side by side. The framed plate mirror on the left
and the Plexiglas with Gila Mirror Film on the right. As you can see, the reflections
are very close.
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