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Comment by noonespecial | Hacker News Reader

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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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?

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.... 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.)

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.

A strange branch in the evolution of paper.

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.

The Home Depot stuff is way too thin. It will flex and bend when you try to write on it.

We got a bunch of 24" X 48" X 0.375" sheets from Online Metals (ironic, I know) and hung them up everywhere. They were a bit pricey and you could probably do with thinner but they look and work great.

http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=7459&step=4...

Edit: Just for info: Lexan is a brand name for polycarbonate plastic sheets. Plexiglass is acrylic. Lexan/polycarbonate is much harder, scratch resistant and more or less shatter proof. Plexi is soft, scratches easily and snaps into big jagged shards when bent too far or hit with something.

How does it compare to glass? After using a glass-front whiteboard, I find it almost painful to use anything else.

But make sure you do something about stiffness rather than just screwing it into the wall's studs. We got something similar to Lexan and it works, but it ripples a bit when you draw - not enough attachment points. (Also, not magentic, if you care.)

What a cool idea! Thank you.

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