WhiteBoardFilter: Help me construct a standing whiteboard that's BETTER than the one on House.

June 19, 2009 3:15 PM

What is the best way to design and construct a standing whiteboard?

I'm interested in constructing a whiteboard for my academics and have the following preferences:

- Moderate cost of construction
- White tileboard for the board itself (although I am flexible and can consider galvanized metal or glass)
- Some type of wood for the frame or anything that can be cut at a Home Depot
- minimal ghosting after erasing

Now to the questions:

Do you have any suggestions for -
1. What materials to use?
2. A plan of action/easy layout to follow?
3. Keeping costs low?

Thanks in advance!

posted by anonymous to Grab Bag (5 answers total)

Best answer: Instructables.com has several DIY articles that may give you some ideas. Just search for whiteboard. I like the one which is just a glass picture frame with white poster board instead of a picture. If it's a wood frame it would be easy to construct a stand.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 3:52 PM on June 19, 2009

Best answer: A cheap easel like this would save you the trouble of building a stand.
posted by orme at 4:04 PM on June 19, 2009

I have seen frosted glass used to great effect -- it looks good, is fairly durable as long as it is securely mounted (you could probably use those bathroom mirror mounts), and, unlike regular whiteboards, can actually be cleaned completely. There might be problems with weight, if you want a really big surface, of course.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:17 PM on June 19, 2009

The advantage of glass is that it is stiffer than almost any other surface you can reasonably get. This stiffness is important if the board is not to be mounted directly against a wall as the flexing and boinging of a free-standing whiteboard without any substantial and heavy backing is going to make it unpleasant to write upon (your marker tip will push the board away as you start to write and boing back when you lift the marker tip).
posted by bz at 6:18 PM on June 19, 2009

I went with a cheap easel and small chalkboard combination, where the chalkboard is attached to the easel with velcro. Unfortunately, there is not much weight resistance countering the force used to write with chalk.
posted by BearPaws at 4:23 PM on February 21, 2010