Perhaps the idea of creating a mirror with your own hands will seem unusual to you, since nowadays you can buy a mirror of any shape in a furniture store, but, nevertheless, creating a mirror at home can be an exciting activity that will bring you pleasure and practical benefits. Knowing how to make home mirrors will help you in the event that you need to repair any optical and light devices containing mirror elements.
It is necessary
Potassium hydroxide, silver nitrate, ammonia, formalin solution, distilled water, rubber gloves, glass, cuvette
Instructions
Step 1
To create a mirror-like surface, use the method of chemical silvering of glass. Thoroughly wash and dry the glass surface, and then degrease it with fifteen percent potassium hydroxide solution. Heat distilled water and dip the glass in warm liquid. Prepare distilled water and rubber gloves for handling reagents.
Step 2
Prepare two silver plating solutions. For the first solution, mix 1.6 g of silver nitrate with 30 ml of distilled water, and then add twenty-five percent ammonia to the solution dropwise. Drop into the ammonia solution until the precipitate dissolves. Add 100 ml distilled water.
Step 3
Then prepare the second final solution - mix 5 ml of a forty percent formalin solution with the solution obtained in the previous step, and pour the resulting mixture onto the glass, after placing it in a special flask or cuvette. Wait until the end of the reaction and after two to three minutes rinse the mirror with distilled water.
Step 4
Dry the mirror at a temperature of 100-150 degrees in an upright position. After two hours, cool the mirror and cover the mirror surface with clear varnish from a spray bottle.
Step 5
Apply an opaque paint of any color to the glass if you decide to mirror the inside of the glass. For silvering the outer surface of the glass, use a special bath with a silver solution, into which the mirror is lowered for 5-10 minutes.
Step 6
After coating the mirror film with spray varnish, be sure to dry the mirror horizontally and handle the fragile silver film with care.
