Building a Whiteboard

Recently we began renovating our workspace and decided to put a whiteboard on one of the walls. After looking at options and prices, we decided that we could build our own according to our own needs.

• 6 mm MDF. We bought a 2.4 by 1.2 meters (4'x8') sheet but it was too large for our space so we trimmed it to 1.80 by 1.10 meters. (Also, we couldn't get it into the car without cutting it)
• White paint
• Six 1/4" screws
• 5 mm drill bit
• Two part white board resin

- Make the holes for the screws that will support the mdf. We decided to put 3 on top and 3 on the bottom of the mdf but we think that screwing the 4 corners will be enough.

- Sand a little bit all the mdf surface. Clean it and be sure there is no dust left.

- Take a paintbrush and apply the white paint. If You see any bristle in the surface, take if off immediately. Once the paint is dry it is difficult to take them off and it can damage the painting.

-Let it dry perfectly.

We choose to make a white board but you can paint your mdf the color you want, since the resin is transparent you can choose another color.

Now the white surface is prepared we just need to follow the instructions to apply the resin.

It is recommendable to use a primer before painting the mdf, however we didn't and it worked fine.

We have a resin in two parts:

1. Catalyst
2. Resin

The resin kit comes with a paint roller, gloves, a white board marker and a microfiber cloth. Additionally you will need a tray to put the resin while applying

The catalyst is the small pot and the resin is the big one. You have to mix catalyst and resin in the big pot.

Once you hace mixed the resin and the catalyst let it rest for 5 minutes.

After this 5 minutes you will only have 30 minutes to apply the resin. After this time, the resin begins to get sticky

While the resine rest, we wrap the paint roller with maskin tape and then we remove it, this is just to be sure there is no dust in the paint roller so we can get a smooth finish.

- Be sure the surface is clean.

- Wear gloves!!

- Put the resin in to the tray

- Soak the roller in the resin, take the excedent off in the tray and apply to the white surface.

The parts already covered with the resin looks like wet, so you can check if there is some missing spot.

For the corners we used a clean paintbrush because the paint roller was not good to reach them.

Once you have applied resin to all surface you have to wait 7 days (according to manufacturer) in order to use your new whiteboard

After 7 days the blackboard is ready to use!

- Make sure the resin is not dripping, this could cause bumps in those parts. If you notice that it drips, pass the roller again.

- Instructions does not say anything about applying a second layer BUT as the resin dries it start to get sticky, so do not apply a second layer as this could cause the surface not to be smooth. This is why it is important that the entire surface is well covered since the beginning and in the 30 minutes after you mixed the resin and catalyst.

- Do not take off your gloves at any time!

- Do not try to wash the roller with water, you will not be able to reuse it. If you try to wash it, the resin gets even more sticky and is really hard to remove. Maybe thinner could work, we did not try this. The same with the tray and the brush. Once the resin is dry it could be removed from tray if you want to reuse it.

- We decided to apply the resin before mounting the whiteboard on the wall. We thought that putting resin on the screws would complicate the process of moving the whiteboard in the future as the resin could be damaged.

-Work in a ventilated room, the smell of resin is strong and it could make you dizzy.

Hope you enjoyed and that you can make your own whiteboard.