
Whiteboard Alternative – The Bamboo Board - charliepark
http://imulus.com/blog/george/opinion/whiteboard-alternative-the-bamboo-board
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noonespecial
Instead of working and working to get a decent surface finish with paints, we
just get a big piece of lexan and put it over whatever we want the backdrop to
be (usually just the wall of the room).

Lexan is clear, scratch resistant and super easy to erase.

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dwc
I see 4ft x 8ft sheets of "polycarbonate sheet from LEXAN" for US$167.00 at
Home Depot. Is that comparable to what you're using? What's your source?

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charliepark
Something I did was to get a 4' x 8' board of something called either "shower
board", "melamine board", or "hardboard" (depends on the store you're in).
Here it is at Lowe's:
[http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=16605-46498-3...](http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=16605-46498-300).
It's around $13. They're not as nice or durable as "real" whiteboards, but
they work _surprisingly_ well, considering their low cost.

In a Lowe's or a Home Depot, you can have them cut the board to a custom size,
usually for $0.25 a cut (or free if you're polite). So I had them cut the
board into three panels, each 48" x 32". (Also makes it easier to transport
than a single 4' x 8' board.) And then I got some "mirror clips"
(<http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KAKT1O/>) for $2 or so (for a four-pack).

So for less than $20, you can have three mounted boards, each one being a
pretty good size. And, actually, I only got one four-pack of clips, and kept
the other two boards mobile, for moving around from one room to another.

So $15 for a mounted whiteboard and two mobile whiteboards. It's hard to beat
that. (But I do think the bamboo boards look awfully nice.)

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tmoertel
We use shower boards at the startup where I work, and we not only mount them
on walls but also cut them into smaller whiteboards that we can carry around
in "decks." We might take a blank deck into a conference room, work out a
design on several mini-whiteboards, and then carry them back to our offices to
refer to when coding.

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pasbesoin
When I want a record of a whiteboard, I simply take a picture of it. Guards
against accidental smear/erasure, too.

Not that taking them back and perhaps continuing to mark them up doesn't make
sense, too.

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michaels0620
How is the readability from a distance? Between the grain of the individual
boards and their color it seems like there is less contrast and more "noise"
when compared to a generic white board.

They do look nice though.

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Groxx
Very pretty, and I love the idea, but the video implies to me that erasing
might be difficult. Note how much they had to wipe to erase _brand new_
writing. Either that's a bunch of grooves, or it's just a fair bit harder to
erase than e.g. a normal whiteboard.

Use an old (red!) marker. Leave it on for a month. _Then_ erase it and show me
it erases well (with alcohol cleaners is fine, whatever works). That's real
world use, not write-now, erase-in-seconds. Until then, I trust nothing but
glass to actually erase, and have yet to see anything but glass beat standard
whiteboards.

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gwillen
I know of at least one temporary dry erase surface that works well. It's a 3M
dry erase "sheet" that comes in rolls. You can buy it from American science
and surplus:
[http://www.sciplus.com/search.cfm/scategory/SFM/term/whitebo...](http://www.sciplus.com/search.cfm/scategory/SFM/term/whiteboard/srch.fp/1)

I have a 6' x 10' surface of it on my bedroom wall, and it works great, even
for erasing old marker.

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pjungwir
Could you tell us how easy it is to erase after leaving a message up for a
week? I've seen whiteboard alternatives that erase fine at first, but are
impossible to erase if you don't get to it in a day or two.

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pacaro
even with the old overwriting trick?

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pjungwir
Good trick! I'll try it the next chance I get. Still, it'd be nice to know I
wouldn't have to resort to such measures.

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jasonkolb
Pretty cool, but iPad + Paper + stylus has almost completely replaced physical
whiteboards for me. The ability to save/send/flip thru drawings is a killer
feature that physical whiteboards can't deliver.

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pvidler
I tend to use whiteboards with a team who are all in the room with me, rather
than as an individual (although I'm thinking of installing one in my home
office, just to see how useful it would be). The iPad is less useful in this
case, although I suppose you could get a big TV screen connected (or apple
tv). Also, there are apps specifically designed to take and share photos of
physical whiteboards…

The real killer for me is still the lag. Handwriting is just painful, although
perhaps simple diagrams are not so bad? It seems to me that an Android tablet
could distinguish itself by providing both very low lag with something like
the Wacom accuracy. The iPad is unlikely to ever reach the ideal 1 ms lag -- I
suspect the retina displays have relatively high response times (but have no
evidence).

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mikeash
There's a lot of variation in responsiveness between different apps. Have you
tried Penultimate? You certainly may be more discerning than I, but I've found
it to have almost no lag.

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pvidler
I think I must have very nearly every app of this type in the app store. All
have noticeable lag with a jot pro stylus, though some are reasonable when
just using a finger -- I guess the lag simply can't be seen in that case.

I find handwriting with my fingers to be a bit unnatural, unfortunately; it
tends to break my flow.

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mikeash
That's really too bad. Although I'm happy with Penultimate, it's unfortunate
that various sorts of latency rarely seems to be considered for consumer
electronics.

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maxmcd
If you're looking for an attractive alternative to whiteboards, chalkboard
paint or glass have always been good options.

~~~
gcb
Indeed, isn't glass in front of the bamboo easier, cheaper and more proven?

Heck even faster. 5 days in startup time is like... Weeks.

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georgemorris
Yes, we could have done glass. We considered grabbing recycled shower doors.
Ultimately this solution felt better so we went with it. Still might try the
shower door idea in the future.

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pacaro
Cabinet grade plywood would work too, it already has a great surface...

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brandoncapecci
Never sacrifice function for form.

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miles
Magic Whiteboard is pretty cool too:

<http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/>

It's basically a roll of big white sheets that stick to walls without
adhesive. They're also erasable/reusable.

Took off after appearing on Dragon's Den (a TV show where entrepreneurs pitch
their ideas to investors):

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QvguJJNilA>

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quesera
Those are great if you're bunkered down in a hotel conference room or
something, but they really don't compare to a proper whiteboard. Erasure, in
particular, but also size and wall imperfections..

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miles
Of course, they're no match for a permanent whiteboard - just another neat
tool for startups who present in random places.

The article also mentioned that there's now a clear version of IdeaPaint,
which is great news:

<http://www.ideapaint.com/work/products/#ideapaint>

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quesera
Yep, still grossly expensive though. $225 for 50 square feet compares
favorably to high quality whiteboards, but not to paint.

Yes, high tech engineered polymer coating, I know. :)

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nkurz
It's less than half that price at Lowe's Hardware:

    
    
      8 oz (10 sq ft) = $30
      17 oz (20 sq ft) = $50
      29 oz (40 sq ft) = $100
    

Free shipping on the larger two sizes.

I haven't used it yet, but I'm about to go to Sherwin Williams to get the
recommended primer to stainless so I can paint whiteboards on the front of
commercial freezer doors.

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Tooluka
Another writing board variant: <http://habrahabr.ru/post/132863/>

Disregard text (or put it into some translator Ru->En), just look at the
pictures. Basically the board is some hard base with blue paper on top of it,
and all that covered with glass sheet. Write on it with white markers. The
target was to make the board very similar to the blueprint.

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georgemorris
Huh, it works wonders. I'll add a video to my blog post to show you how easy
it is. Don't be a hater.

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platzhirsch
The critique was meant for using such a solution in long term or how long do
you already use it?

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maratd
This is a really really bad idea. I have one. They do not work well. It is
_extremely_ difficult to erase.

If you're looking for something different, they sell paint that can turn any
wall into a chalkboard/whiteboard.

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quesera
Did you make it yourself with the same whiteboard repair fluid that the author
used? That seems to be the key, though I've never tried nor seen the product.

I've used glass over (x), but it's heavy and expensive in large sizes.

The cheapest portable whiteboard option is the laminated MDF sheets they sell
at Lowes. $15 for a 4x8 foot sheet.

The whiteboard paint is merely OK...it's difficult to erase, unless your wall
is glass smooth.

Chalkboards are beautiful but create way too much dust for use near computers.

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maratd
> Did you make it yourself with the same whiteboard repair fluid that the
> author used?

No, it was an expensive thing off of Amazon. This thing:

[http://www.amazon.com/Three-Seattle-Channel-Inches-
Bamboo/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Three-Seattle-Channel-Inches-
Bamboo/dp/B0038LKA2G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1340985739&sr=8-3&keywords=bamboo+whiteboard)

I'll probably leave a shitty review when the thing pisses me off again.

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estel
Isn't this a completely different product from the OP? I don't see why its
erasing properties would be at all related.

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maratd
Well, they're both bamboo. If the OP's coating works better than whatever is
on my thing, that's great. Just sharing my experience.

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Anm
'cept, now that we get down to it, your experience was not "I have one"

