

How to Make a Whiteboard for $4 [video] - theschwa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBMUI-Mj_YU

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z8000
Wow. This really did not need to be 7 minutes long. A short textual
description (even a tweet) would have sufficed.

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noss
People in a hurry should add #t=5m58s to the youtube link, that is where he
uses it.

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fragmede
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBMUI-Mj_YU#t=5m58s>

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jacquesm
<http://rumkin.com/reference/whiteboard/surfaces.php>

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wglb
There is one missing: Glass. In one corporate office, we had glass walls. I
taped a large sheet of white paper on the _outside_ of the glass wall and used
the inside as a whiteboard. Probably the most durable surface for that
purpose.

And I have heard of mounting a piece of glass in front of a white wall to act
as a whiteboard.

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joshu
Any sense if plexiglass is as good?

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noonespecial
If you must use plastic, use "Lexan". Its harder and sturdier than regular
plexi. It costs 4 times as much, but ghosts much less and resists scratching
much better.

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mattcrest
We created a sexy setup with plexiglass, glass fogging spray paint, and mirror
hangers. We get lots of compliments.

It cost a hell of a lot more than $4, but it looks a lot better too.

Here's a few pics (pardon the sweet coloring from the iPhone camera):
<http://drp.ly/8Az8f>

You can also get plexiglass pre-fogged, but it costs more. We liked the subtle
background paint color showing through.

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kellishaver
Not a bad idea, but really didn't need to be 7 minutes long.

A while ago, I bought a box of page protectors, slipped a sheet of white paper
in each and put them in 3 ring binders. Now I have dry erase sketch pads.

[http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Archival-Protectors-
UNV21125-...](http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Archival-Protectors-
UNV21125-Category/dp/B001E6C6GK/)

~~~
jamesbritt
Damn clever.

I have a small whiteboard that fits in my laptop bag that I've used for
sketching out things. I would then photograph the board and use Gimp to clean
up the images for long-term saving (if I had something worth saving).

The page-protectors approach is so much more convenient.

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tumult
Haha, it's an ad. I love how he fakes reading the name off of the product
slowly, as if he's never read it before, then proceeds to repeat it, and the
web address where you can buy it.

"I've discovered a product.." Discovered a product.

~~~
gfodor
You _really_ think this guy is pushing $4.00 cellophane wrap? I'm sure he's
getting a huge cut of the "computer nerds who run to Michael's and buy
cellophane wrap to stick it to their wall for a whiteboard" market.

Worse case scenario (if you consider promotion inherently evil) he's a
business consultant or something and the YouTube video serves as buzz for
this. Either way it's a cool hack.

~~~
tumult
Yes, I do think he is pushing it.

Your other two sentences are irrelevant to the fact that this video is a
shitty ad.

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ihumanable
Do you have some sort of evidence that he is working for Highlander or are you
just making an accusation?

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timdorr
Why not just get some tileboard? It's $12 for a 4'x8' chunk at Home Depot:
[http://www.johnmurch.com/2007/10/20/diy-whiteboard-on-the-
ch...](http://www.johnmurch.com/2007/10/20/diy-whiteboard-on-the-cheap/)

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gojomo
Two issues with the $12 tileboard:

(1) ghosting: they erase well when new, and when the ink hasn't been there for
long, but over time they get murky.

(2) mounting: it's not easy to cut to size; it has enough thickness and weight
that mounting tape or small tacks are iffy (and prone to failure sometime
after installation).

The same issues come up for other surfaces short of fairly-expensive true
glass.

 _If_ this 'clearphane' continues to be cleanly erasible after a while in use,
or with ink that's been present for days/weeks, then this is a really neat
idea I hadn't heard before. I'll definitely be trying it out.

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timdorr
Well, for ghosting, they're so damn cheap that replacing them isn't a cost
concern for anyone but those where ramen profitability is a lofty goal :)

But perhaps you could combine the two? Tileboard for a solid white back and
this cellophane for a covering to protect against ghosting. Sounds like a
winner.

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raphar
Nice idea. The problem I see with his demonstration is that He is going to be
in big trouble with the clothes he hangs in that door at the side. (unless he
wears all black) nobody noticed?

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xcombinator
A very good idea. I made myself a blackboard of wood with a very expensive
paint so I can use color chalks. I love it, but is bulky and heavy, and dusty.

I will try this need method.

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Shamiq
Text version?

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rudenoise
1\. Get hold of some clear cellophane (the stuff used in the video is for
gift-wrapping fruit baskets and the like)

2\. Use pins/tacks to attach a top corner to a wall, unravel to desired width
and pin/tack the far top-corner

3\. Use a sharp blade to trim, then tack bottom corners

4\. Tile surfaces and repeat for wider coverage

5\. Use white-board pens and eraser as normal

Bingo!

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cturner
It may require properties of the specific cellophane he's using. The thing
that's interesting about the video is how clean the erase is. He calls it
Clearphane by Highlander. They have a ridiculous website,
<http://www.highlandsupply.com/>

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azzleandre
After filling out their form all I got was an SQL Error. This must be some
secret-ops-CIA-type of Company...

But if this thing works, it is exactly what I'v been looking for over the last
years.

IdeaPaint got me hoping. Their idea: Paint your wall with whiteboard color.
The Problem is: You can't enter the room with the painted wall for a couple of
days until its dry. Some students foundet the company, because during their
time on campus they felt whiteboards were rediculous expensive. So they
dropped this product on the market, for the exact same amount of money per
whiteboard-m²... but its so easy! Ah I forgot, you have to paint your wall...

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jamesbritt
"After filling out their form all I got was an SQL Error. This must be some
secret-ops-CIA-type of Company..."

Weird. I filled it out using the same single character for every field and it
worked fine. They apparently do zero validation of input.

Anyways, this may be handy:

<http://www.highlandsupply.com/PDF/FilmSection.pdf>

