Slightly OT - Drywipe Surface

[Rob Bowman]

I like to use a whiteboard (aka dry wipe board) which has a feint grid on it. They're great for sketching out (then quickly rubbing out and resketching) ideas of all kinds (geometric or "wordy") . I've been ringing around and googling trying to find one here in the UK, but the ones with printed grids are about £150 for the size I want (about

4'x3' would suit me).

So, I'm going to make one. My idea is to make up a framed "picture", where the "picture" is a sandwich of (in order from back face to front face):

backing paper backing board graph paper "sheetstuff"

What should the "sheetstuff" be? It needs to be transparent (obviously!), smooth so that you can wipe it off easily, scratch resistant, fairly inexpensive, lightweight and shatterproof.

Commercial boards are either melamine or, for the high quality ones, enamelled steel, with a printed grid.

At a pinch, I could use melamine and draw on a grid. But then again if my drafting skills were sound enough to get good results this way, I probably wouldn't need a board with a grid!

Any suggestions?

Cheers, Rob.

[John Manders]

Melamine doesn't work as a white board. We tried it once and the dry marker stayed on it. Your composite board looks OK. Try Perspex as the front sheet.

John

[Xane "MegaWolf" T.]

[CW]

A good CAD program will take care of all your problems.

[Denis]

I picked up a used 3' by 2' white board at a government auction and it was only about 8 to ten US dollars... You might want to check that out first...

[Rob Bowman]

I like to use a whiteboard (aka dry wipe board) which has a feint grid on it. They're great for sketching out (then quickly rubbing out and resketching) ideas of all kinds (geometric or "wordy") . I've been ringing around and googling trying to find one here in the UK, but the ones with printed grids are about £150 for the size I want (about

4'x3' would suit me).

So, I'm going to make one. My idea is to make up a framed "picture", where the "picture" is a sandwich of (in order from back face to front face):

backing paper backing board graph paper "sheetstuff"

What should the "sheetstuff" be? It needs to be transparent (obviously!), smooth so that you can wipe it off easily, scratch resistant, fairly inexpensive, lightweight and shatterproof.

Commercial boards are either melamine or, for the high quality ones, enamelled steel, with a printed grid.

At a pinch, I could use melamine and draw on a grid. But then again if my drafting skills were sound enough to get good results this way, I probably wouldn't need a board with a grid!

Any suggestions?

Cheers, Rob.

[Rob Bowman]

CAD is great for many things, but developing ideas isn't one of them!

[Rob Bowman]

Apologies! I have sinned most heinously. I reposted this message again today because I thought it hadn't got through (can't see any of the thread in Forte Agent). I am temporarily using google to post until I can discover why I'm ignoring myself! Of course this means that noone will see this because your'e all filtering out google posts! Talking to nobody and not even being able to hear what you are saying is a most curious feeling. I think I'll just have a little rest ... maybe a stiff Gin as well. Please ignore today's repost.

[BRuce]

easy Rob, we hear you and not everyone is filtering google. "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!"

BRuce

Rob Bowman wrote:

[CW]

If you know what you are doing it is. I've been doing for years, professionaly.

[Henry St.Pierre]

Rob, You might try Plexiglas over the graph paper. If dry markers don't mark the Plexiglas, a grease pencil can be used. Regards, Hank

[Wood Butcher]

I've found that it is not the surface that makes it dry erasable as much as it is the pens. The pens I've tried will mark & erase on most non porus surfaces, including Plexiglas, poly- carbonate, glass, & Formica. How about going to your local plastics shop and trying your pens on various scraps to see if it works and then buying a sheet?

Art