Hall of Mirrors

Butcher Shop Front Hall
One of the requirements of a butcher shop for USDA inspection is that there be goodly separation between the work rooms and the outdoors. This means an entry or hall so the meat cutting room which must be sanitary does not open directly to the outdoors where vermin scoot about. Our front hall serves that purpose.


Front Main Electric Three Phase Breaker Box
The front hall also serves as our electrical control center. It is a dry room isolated from the acidic sanitizing cleaners and water that are used multiple times a day in the processing rooms to maintain sanitary conditions. The acids and bleach are very hard on electronics – thus never the twain shall meet. Or at least I’ll minimize their interaction through isolation.

The top photo shows the amazing job of grinding Ben did with assistance from Hope. In the upper right of this photo you can see what the brick arches looked like after I built them but before we cleaned them. Not very pretty at that point. One of those things we had to wait to see revealed. Slowly patience is rewarded.

Will Revealing Electric Cabinate Cover
To provide an extra level of isolation Will fabricated stainless steel NEMA 4 cabinets that go over the wall insets, the cabinets, where our breaker boxes are housed. This provides one more level of isolation to make the breakers last longer.

Pulling Laser Film
The reason for the stainless steel is so they won’t rust. We have used a lot of stainless steel in building the butcher shop because it won’t corrode. Rust is not just a structural issue but also a sanitation problem.

The laser film protected the polished surface of the stainless steel while Will cut, bent and folded it on his wooden metal fabrication machine and then welded the pieces together. The last step is to remove the protective plastic sheet revealing the mirrors.

Mirror Revealed
The reason for the mirrored stainless steel is that in addition to being extremely cleanable is it is simply cool, bouncing the light around the hall so it is bright with just the outdoor light coming in the front. No artificial lighting is needed much of the year and in the dead of winter a little LED lightning at the ends will make it well illuminated.

Revealing the Opposing Mirrored Cabinet Door
Not only is the door a mirror, but it is Ferritic Stainless Steel which means you can stick a magnet up on it for posting a notice. More importantly, the doors close with magnetic clasps that are embedded around the rim within the concrete, snapping closed with a gentle satisfying click. More coolness that means no mechanical latches to wear or break. I love magnets.

Reflecting on Our Ways
Will in the center is holding the two mirrored cabinet doors such that they reveal the iCutter and Bathroom respectively on opposite sides of the hall from where they appear.

The ceiling is an adobe cement fiber plaster on a ferrocement catenary arch framed with segmented arches of brick at the ends and flat arches over the east west doorways.[1, 2, 3]

Infinity of Reflection
Of course, no hall of mirrors is complete without an infinity of reflections. Because there are three mirrored door cabinets, all which can be adjusted to 180° of angles each, you can setup all sorts of interesting patterns with doors, people and lasers. What fun!

(We’re just pretending these are mirrors to hide the real secret to building the butcher shop: our clone army!)

Front Mirror
Checking out the front door mirror that covers the electric main. The mirror doors of the cabinets are hung on small barrel hinges just like the bathroom door.[1, 2]

Hope, Hobbes and Hobbes with Magic Mirror
Hope with tigers reaching into wonderland…

Outdoors: 63°F/40°F Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 65°F/62°F

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