supporting mirror in medicine cabinet

[Nancy Reilly]

I am seeking some advise as to the best way to support a mirror in a medicine cabinet door. I have built the recessed box and it is flush with the surrounding sheetrock. The face frame will be 3/4" thick and I plan on installing it with a 1/2" reveal to serve as a stop for the inset mirrored door. Ideally this door would be 3/4" thick. I had hoped to reuse the glass from the old medicine cabinet which is 1/8 " thick. It had been sandwiched between a rabbeted lip of trim and a 3/4 " plywood back, making the resulting door about 1" thick. I would love the overall door thinner. How thin can the plywood be? Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Lee Schierer]

I 've made two medicine cabinets with mirrored doors. I used a simple frame like you would make for a raised panel except the groove for the panel was a rabbet open to the inside. I simply set the mirror in place and used some glass door retaining clips to hold it there.http://images.rockler.com/rockler/images/32887-01-200.jpg

The mirror you see was recycled from the large 1/4" thick plate glass mirror that used to cover the entire wall above the sink. I took it to a local glass company to cut it for me. I think they charged $1.00 per cut and gave me the left overs. Because the glass was thick I didn't use any backer material behind the mirrors.
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~us71na/BROOM4.JPG
This vanity is now over 15 years old.


For your thinner glass I would put a piece of 1/4" ply behind it to give it some backing. Make sure the finish is cured before getting the back against the mirror.