-
Chalkboards and whiteboards – What do you use?
Hi,
Can people please tell me which materials they use to provide white boards and blackboards for cafes etc. I tried just writing on reynobond with a dry wipe marker but it doesn’t clean off easily at all. I heard that black banner vinyl can be used to make a blackboard or a blackboard element within a sign, is this true?
Cheers
Ramjam -
14 Replies
-
You can get a black board vinyl, i’ve never used it so i can’t tell you how good it is, you could also use blackboard paint.
I’l do a search on the boards as it has been posted about before
-
Drywipe Vinyl:
http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … oard#15604
-
Blackboards
http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.p … board#7059
-
Hi!
This may be of no help…but here goes:
For dry-erase board I go to my DIY store & buy this whiteboard that is called Marlite. It is also called Abitibi Board or Thrifty White.
It is about $9/4×8 sheet. It is used in bathrooms as a wallboard and is about 5cm(?) thick (5 of those little notches on a metric ruler)
Smooth as a baby’s bottom. 😳
Anyway…clean it with window cleaner, Apply vinyl, then wax it really good
with aerosol furniture polish. You can write on/wipe off till your heart’s content! Just clean periodically & re-wax.
I use it for industrial signs in a big glass factory where they record hourly output.
And, at the same DIY store, you can probably find chalkboard paint. Good Luck!
Love- JILL
ps
If cutting marlite to size (cuts like butta) make sure you mask the cut area with tape & wrap the bottom of your saw guide with tape to avoid scratching the surface. Trim out the edges with a wooden frame or buy the edge molding they sell for this @ the DIY store. -
there is a company in Bury St Edmonds who have a pattented dry wipe board system which is brilliant for the sign trade.. the company is the bury box co. i dont have a number but contact name is either john or adrian. they even do full colour prints on them.
-
Ruth,
I use either dry wipe white vinyl for smaller areas or if you want a certain area as drywipe within another sign. It seems pretty good at wiping clean.
I have used the blackboard vinyl but its not really very good in my opinion. The stuff I used is like sandpaper textured to work with chalk.
Much better than that is a sheet material called Chalkboard I think which is a smooth “high pressure laminate” sheet. I get it from Cox or Amari plastics. You can use solvents/cleaners on it no problem and it also takes vinyl well. It comes in 1.5mm single sided and 3mm double sided I think. The only trouble I have is cutting the stuff as it’s really hard and brittle so I tend to get them to cut to size for me. Having said that it does cut ok on a cnc router.
Hope that helps,
Nigel
-
For dry wipe board, I use high gloss foamboard (forrex top) works a treat and a lot cheaper and easier than buying the special films
Andy
-
We built a chalk board in our kitchen that was just painted with Rustin’s Blackboard paint, the board itself and the surround was made from MDF and then trimmed with timber. The whole thing probably cost about £25 (sorry Jill, can’t work that out in dollars due to my recent mullet encounter 😉 ) but it is quite an interesting design, would work well in some shops/cafes. I’ll post a piccie of it later when the cameras recharged 🙂
Cheers, Dewi
-
quote Jillbeans:about 5cm(?) thick (5 of those little notches on a metric ruler)
You do make me laugh Jill…sounds just like one of my customers comments the other day. They wanted to have some company logos to fit themselves and said they should be about “the size of a normal ruler” !
P.s. the little diddy ones are called Millimeters (theres 1000 of them in 1m) so I guess you mean 5mm for your sheet – 😆
P.p.s. love the new hair look !
Nigel
-
Thanks Nigel…
It’s been so many years since I tried to learn the metric system. 😳
I have always been horribly bad with numbers. But I am a good speller!
That is an old pic. I just posted it so you UKs could see how truly odd I am.
At least now I know what those little doohickeys are called!
Love…JILL (<( -
Awwww, there was me thinking that was an Xmas piccy 🙁 And I was considering that pink mullet cut! 😕 Ah well, I shall have to stay with the ‘just-got-out-of-bed’ look 😉
I have problems coverting imperial to metric, I know the 2.54 theory, but its far too complicated when you’re trying to get a mile when someones giving you 25.4mm! 😉
Cheers, Dewi
-
I have to add even if its abit off topic….living over here for 14 years where everything is metric, its so much easier! and thats from someone who had learnt just imperial in school.
You divide everything by 10, instead of miles per gallon it litres per swedish mile (10km). Liquid measurements are deciliters 10=1litre, you buy petrol in the UK in litres you buy vegetables now in kilos. 1m = 1000mm 0r 100cm couldn’t be easier. It seems in the UK its still a mixture after so many years??
Even bolts and nuts M10=10mm M8=8mm etc etc none of this Unified fine or unified course or British standard fine etc.
Its only been 30 years since decimilisation, where ponds and shillings became units divided by 10 🙂
Travelling in Europe always seems to go quicker in kilometers than miles 🙂
-
Don’t you ‘Mericans use 10″ feet??
If that makes sense LOL
Goop!!
-
Mentioned earlier in this thread about the chalk board we built in our kitchen. It’s not the most fantastic example but considering the cost to build it and the fact we use it daily, its been well worth the effort.
I’ve blurred the blackboard bit just because it has our day to day rubbish on and a cunning plan for taking over the world 😉
I have the idea/plan we used if anyones interested, its quite a simple construction.
Cheers, Dewi
Log in to reply.