How thick do I need acrylic for making a whiteboard?

[Mar]

I've worked at places where they've made their own massive whiteboards out of sheets of partially opaque acrylic mounted to the wall on stand off mounts. I'm wondering if anyone here knows which thickness I would need to avoid flexing in a sheet of 4x6 or 4x8.

It will look like this except without any mounts directly in the enter of it. Only perimeter:

[mr2mike]

The commercially made ones appear to be 1/8" thick.

Depends where you're supporting it in the middle as to the thickness and flexibility.

The cheap one in my office seems to flex a little.
The pic you posted seemed overkill.

I'd say 1/4" is fine with very little flex if it's mounted directly against the wall.

[CanmoreOrLess]

FYI... I've worked in places that have painted an entire wall to use as a whiteboard. Was very impressed the first time I saw this, worked just like a whiteboard should. Google search, plenty of options, too many to post:

whiteboard paint canada

[carson blocks]

Acrylic will likely flex unless you go stupidly thick or use a ton of those supports. I've seen glass used as well, and the simplest solution I've seen lately was huge sheets of white poster paper that were laminated. You could erase and use as a whiteboard, or if you had something you wanted to capture for a while, you just roll it up and tack a new one up in it's place.

[AndyL]

Work uses 10mm for a ~8'x8' - center pegs - it flexes like crazy - you'd have to go thick for it to be solid - at which point the pegs wouldn't work...

¼" glass is probably your best option - pre drilled and tempered...

[Crazyjoker77]

At my work we just use 3M VHB tape(the stuff they use to hold windows into skyscrapers) on 4x8 3/8" sheets. If its in a spot where aestics is important they will just put trim around the edges to cover the tape and put 4 wall colours shims that are just slightly thicker than the tape which gives it a nice feel to write on.

there are even a few that only the 2 strips of tape down the side leaving the top and bottom open so you can slide a map or drawing behind it and mark it up.

Those standoff look like they would be anoying as hell as they protrude from the wriiting surface.

[The_Rural_Juror]

I would like to have two entire walls converted to whiteboard. Can anyone do this on here for a reasonable price?

[Mar]

I've used one with standoff mounts when I worked downtown last year and I specifically asked the thickness so I could do it myself but I have since forgotten what they said it was. The acrylic they used was great but I can't remember it it was 1/4 or 3/8.

[frozenrice]

You can get sheets of markerboard laminate and glue it to whatever kind of backing you want (like plywood). You can get it through any building supply place that has access to Pionite laminate (the same stuff that laminte countertops are made from).

[Mar]

Thanks, I really want the clean look of acrylic on mounts. It's for a client's board room.

[dirtsniffer]

If you want to space the supports further apart use a material with a higher bending stiffness like polycarbonate (Lexan) a 4'x8' sheet should be fine with the corner supports.

[Mar]

That makes sense, maybe my previous employer used lexan. Is that more expensive?

[TYMSMNY]

Lexan is a better solution, Glass is the best as it won't stain.