Fast, Cheap & Easy

When I’m woodworking & working with a design (or modifying an existing one) it seems the project always comes up with “opportunities” (I call them problems) to work out.  Sometimes they are very simple and sometimes they require a lot of thought.

With that, I’m a visual person; especially when it comes to working out problems.   And it’s not only in woodworking, I’m like that at work too.

Last year my boss & coworker started to chuckle when they saw me hang up a 3’ x 4’ whiteboard in my cube.  Asking questions like “whats that for?” & “who paid for that?”  They figured it was just a toy and after a week the $70 work spent on it would be for not.

But several months and several of their worked out “opportunities” later they figured it was time both of them get one for their cubes as well.

Well at home this had me wanting (I call it “needing”) to put a couple of whiteboards in my garage/shop but I wasn’t willing to spend $140 for them!  (I mean come on, that’s going to cut into my music, DVD & book fund.)

So while surfing the web at lunch one day I was looking at whiteboard paint and reading the horror stories of it and having to apply it and whatnot so I clicked on. Then just a few clicks later I came across what I considered gold.

It was a Mythbusters shop tour where they asked Jamie (the owner of M5 Industries, where MB is shot) about all the whiteboards everywhere.  He went on to explain that he and alot of other companies make their own whiteboards from the same materials as glossy melamine shower/tub boards.

With that I grabbed a whiteout pen and went to Lowes to test this out.  Once I found the boards (located in the paneling section of the store) I did a small test on the corner of one and it worked perfect.

After smiling at the fact that it worked (and looking over my shoulder to see if a worker noticed my “test”) I went and grabbed a plywood cart loaded 2 of the 4’x 8’ sheets, had them cut in half & picked up some construction adhesive.  $30.52 later I had 4 whiteboards & the means to hang them.

So far I’ve hung 2 of them up in the garage. Where the other two will  go is still a guess at this point.  (Maybe I’ll mount them to some fiberboard to make them study & portable.)  But the next time I can’t figure out my “opportunity” I won’t be able to say that I can’t visualize it!

(Forgive me for the photos.  It’s a 3g iPhone.)

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May 11th, 2010