
A giant whiteboard for $14 plus nails - melling
https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2019/07/07/a-giant-whiteboard-for-14-plus-nails/
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jen729w
Here's my top-home-tip. This one fixes your cabling nightmares.

Actually two tips. First, if you want a giant desk just buy an unpainted door.
Ta-da! 2m long desk for $100. Prop it up at either end with IKEA drawers.

Now, to make your cables neat. Buy a roll of Velcro, the stuff we use in data
centres to neaten cables. Buy a bunch of small screws, 10mm is big enough.

Cut a piece of Velcro about 10-15cm long. Screw it, through the center, to the
underside of your desk. Repeat as required.

Gather cables neatly, secure with Velcro, bask in glory.

~~~
dangrossman
IKEA's table tops are $9 for 40", $22 for 47", $29 for 59", $47 for 78". The
finishes are better than they were long ago too. The metal legs that fit any
top are $4 each. If you're not near an IKEA, they ship anything under about 4
feet in length for $9.99 -- you can double up 4 feet table tops to make longer
ones.

~~~
Dylan16807
Though that kind is hollow. They have solid fiberboard but it caps at 59
inches and it's more than double the price.

~~~
_jn
Ikea's “Gerton” tabletop (90€ / $100. 155×75cm = 61×29.5”) is really, really
nice — it uses ≈5cm-wide beech hardwood strips glued together and reinforced
across the width with some metal . It works with Bekant legs (if you have a
10mm wood bit and some masking tape handy), which are also available as
sit/stand legs (that's 430€ / $350, though. the non-adjustable ones are a lot
cheaper.)

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proee
My advice is to splurge and get a magnetic whiteboard. I recently bought a
huge one at office max for around $150.

Having a giant "magnet board" is quite wonderful. You can hang papers, play
with magnet "things", and even purchase magnetic whiteboard pens and erasures
that magically stick to the surface - so you never lose them.

Back in my college days when I was broke, I did use these exact shower boards
a few times. As mentioned by the author, they tend to not erase well and you
end up resorting to using nasty cleaner chemicals.

~~~
ifoundthetao
Yeah, that was my exact experience too. They're nice for a while, and they can
make great Kanban boards, if you're into that. But I only got a couple years
out of them (which is honestly fine, for their cost). If I were a bit more
clever, and still needed those types of whiteboards, I would have engineered
something to make it easier to remove them from the wall, without having to
redrill holes.

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atombender
Used this in an office at one point. Cheap, but lots of flaws. We used screws,
but even so, the boards started buckling over time, probably because of the
weight; I suspect some good epoxy glue is the only way to avoid that. Also,
with some markers, the writing became permanent after a while. Another minus
is that you can't get them in sizes as large as magnetic whiteboards.

I can recommend whiteboards from Best-Rite, like this one [1]. Comes up to 8x4
feet (243 x 122 cm), easy to hang, porcelain is easy to wipe off, has a good-
looking frame, and being magnetic, you can attach things (magnetic tray,
eraser pad, markers) to it. But not as cheap, obviously.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Best-Rite-Porcelain-Markerboard-
Silve...](https://www.amazon.com/Best-Rite-Porcelain-Markerboard-
Silver-2029C-25/dp/B003U7H2CY)

~~~
busterarm
I put some cheap molding up at the top and bottom of the board so that it slid
into place and was held up by that.

Worked perfectly.

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cbisnett
When we moved into our current office we wanted huge whiteboards since we end
up using them for all kinds of notes, illustrations, todo lists, etc. We
looked at large boards and they were terribly expensive to ship and a pain to
mount. We also looked at whiteboard paint and things similar to what’s
mentioned in the article but found lots of issues with erasure, ghosting, and
staining over time.

We ended up using custom printed ThinkBoard [1] stickers. We were hesitant at
first but the price is relatively cheap for the size and we got them printed
with our company logo with a high transparency value so it wouldn’t distract
when writing over it. I can honestly say that they are amazing! We put up 2 so
far. One is ~12ft x 4ft and the other is ~16ft x 5ft. We’ve been using them
for over a year and have no staining or ghosting issues and we regularly leave
things on them for weeks at a time. One swipe with the included microfiber
cloth and it looks as good as the day we put them up. It’s basically just a
big sticker so it’s pretty easy to install with 2 people. I’m not sure yet how
the wall will fare when we peel them off but I imagine it won’t be bad. We
also sanded the wall behind where we stuck the second board to remove any
paint bumps or inconsistencies and it’s really slick. I wouldn’t say it’s
required but if you have a little time and a sander I would recommend it.

[1] [https://www.think-board.com/](https://www.think-board.com/)

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tbenst
Unfortunately, these work very poorly. It takes considerable effort to erase,
even with cleaning solution, and often leaves a permanent residue. As a better
solution, I would suggest the whiteboard stickers/film/vinyl that can be found
on Amazon.

~~~
postpawl
I’ve had better luck with the stuff called “marker board”:
[https://www.lowes.com/pd/23-75-in-x-3-98-ft-Marker-Board-
Har...](https://www.lowes.com/pd/23-75-in-x-3-98-ft-Marker-Board-Hardboard-
Wainscoting-Wall-Panel/3042205)

One of the links in the article is “shower board”/“tile board” and is not made
to be used as a whiteboard. It won’t be long before it starts to ghost or
stain.

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jmpman
Buy an old sliding glass door on Craigslist, paint one side white. Remove it
from the frame and mount it on your wall. High quality glass whiteboard for
cheap.

~~~
edejong
Bonus points: paint it black on the other side with spray paint and use light
markers.

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plorg
At work we had a 4'x4' powder coated sheet of aluminum hung up in one of the
engineering offices as a white board. It worked fine for about a year. We
moved out of the office for some construction and when we moved back in we
took some markers from another marker board. I drew a diagram to illustrate an
idea, and when I tried to erase it it wouldn't come off. We tried a few more
markers, and it seems that for the same family of Expo markers some colors
erased from the powder coat and some didn't. The usual solutions (denatured
alcohol, overwriting with an erasable marker) didn't work. Only acetone would
take off the green, yellow, and purple marker. And the acetone seemed to
literally peel off a layer of the powder coating under the marker, marring the
surface and ruining it for further writing.

I guess you live and learn. We got a proper whiteboard to replace the metal
panel.

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cbanek
I've done this, and gotten the nice people at Home Depot to cut the large
board into 2 or 3 smaller sections. Since the board is very thin, this makes
it fairly light. I don't bother with screwing them into a wall, but instead
use the lightness and portability. I can literally move a whiteboard into
someone's office, draw on it, and then take it with me. You can lay it flat
down on a table and have everyone draw on it. It's also insanely cheap. While
I wouldn't give up my glass (white)board, I do like having extra space I can
draw on and move around, especially for important ideas/pictures that need to
be captured later on in better ways.

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iFred
I fucking love whiteboards.

So much so that I had my office desk partially covered in a whiteboard
sheet[1] and used that with fine tip dry erase pens in lieu of of and paper.
The collaboration that took place was off the charts.

[1] amazon.com/dp/B00NC1D5YM

~~~
cellular
I did this too: [https://youtu.be/OtbXS2W_cbM](https://youtu.be/OtbXS2W_cbM)
But I used a board covered with laminated white stuff (It came that way as
part of a merchant display). It is the greatest top ever!

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baldeagle
I have this product mounted on my wall with mirror brackets. We run our
household calendar on it (using 1/4" electrical tape). For the price, you can
afford to 'refresh' it every year and still be doing pretty well. It does get
damaged pretty easily, so refreshing may be needed every few years.

Mirror Clips: [https://www.homedepot.com/p/Prime-Line-1-4-in-Mirror-Clip-
wi...](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Prime-Line-1-4-in-Mirror-Clip-with-Screw-
and-Anchor-U-9278/203032957)

Board: [https://www.homedepot.com/p/EUCATILE-32-sq-
ft-96-in-x-48-in-...](https://www.homedepot.com/p/EUCATILE-32-sq-
ft-96-in-x-48-in-Hardboard-Thrifty-White-Tile-Board-HDDPTW48/205995949)

1/4" electrical tape: [https://www.amazon.com/Pack-Graphic-Chart-Black-
Matte/dp/B00...](https://www.amazon.com/Pack-Graphic-Chart-Black-
Matte/dp/B00LBG8PEK/)

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sbr464
I’m a fan of whiteboards, definitely, but I’ve found that I like those giant
3M Post-It note style boards with sheets of paper. (I’m not in sales either).
You can easily keep or make rows of boards as needed.

Although you can take a photo of a whiteboard to save it before erasing, it’s
interesting to see the hard copies of the physical sheets after a few years of
work.

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WheelsAtLarge
Rust-Oleum 241140 Dry Erase Brush-On Kit is another possibility. It's a bit
more expensive but it's more flexible.

~~~
flukus
Did you get the magnetic kind? How long does it last? I've been thinking of
covering a few walls of the house like the kitchen with this stuff.

~~~
WheelsAtLarge
I painted a relatively small spot, nonmagnetic, about 3 x 2 ft. I never
thought about how long it will last. I just figured it would be as long as
other paints, many many years with possible touch-ups. Call the company's
customer support and ask.

The way I see it. It's relatively cheap so it can't hurt to try it.

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busterarm
I've done this before. The melamine erases okay, but not as well as commercial
whiteboards.

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bsenftner
I've been doing this since the 90's: go to any home building supply store and
purchase a "shower wall", same thing described in the article. I remember my
first one was far larger than my entire wall, and it was $7. I just used
screws to mount it. I also did this at a visual effects company when I was
hired, the staff thought I spend a fortune covering my office walls with
whiteboard, but after I explained the entire studio soon was all whiteboards.

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cellular
Add this for fun:

[https://sites.google.com/prod/view/wbr/home](https://sites.google.com/prod/view/wbr/home)

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rmm
We panel the inside of all our 20/40” container offices with this when working
at our remote sites. Makes life easier being able to just start writing
anywhere

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catchmeifyoucan
Did this at my house. Bought 4 panels, and stood them up from floor to
ceiling. Best purchase ever. Sometimes erasing the board can get dirty.

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Jaepa
I picked up the habit or writing on windows in college, and never really
stopped.

Luckily my office has 3 8' windows, and a glass wall.

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JoeAltmaier
Been doing this for decades. FOrget $100+ whiteboards. For < $20 have a 4X8
sheet or cut it down to any size you like.

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eimaankhan786
Best Article, Best Post and best website

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gingabriska
Too bad there is no Homedepot and Lowes in India.

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adamnemecek
I Fucking hate white boards. I think the thing I hate the most is that it's
impossible to insert lines. When I code, I generally edit all over the place,
with a white board you can't do do that.

~~~
platz
I think if you're writing code on a whiteboard, you may be doing it wrong.

~~~
adamnemecek
OK what is it for then?

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NegativeK
Diagramming? To-do lists? Math?

doodling writing funny quotes giant reminders meetings schedules announcements

~~~
adamnemecek
Why not use a piece of paper?

~~~
jrace
A whiteboard is much easier to erase and reuse.

