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2 years ago ::
Sep 21, 2011 - 7:11AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Sep 20, 2010
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I recently got a 2 foot by 3 foot dry erase board (white board) from work. I worked at a Borders, and when we closed there was an unsold board that I was allowed to take home.
Once I pop off the pen tray (think the chalk tray at the bottom of school chalk boards), and rework the edging of the board with some plastic framing trim, I want to put a permanent 1" x 1" grid on the board so that I can lay it flat on the table, use dry erase markers, and use that as a more dynamic game board instead of using premade maps, maps drawn on paper, or dungeon tiles.
So the reason I'm making this post is that I'm looking for suggestions for how to put a permanent grid on the board. My initial thought is to use a T-Square and a black sharpie marker to draw the grid, but I'm not sure if a sharpie will really be permanent on the slick glossy surface of the board. So would this strategy work, or is there something else that I should try instead?
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2 years ago ::
Sep 21, 2011 - 7:15AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Feb 20, 2011
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I would test a single sharpie line and see if it rubs off after 24hrs. 1/8" black tape is commonly used on white boards and should work. Not sure how much $ that will cost for the full board. You can get it at Staples or Office Depot.
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2 years ago ::
Sep 21, 2011 - 7:26AM
#3
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Date Joined:
May 13, 2009
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I tried this as well, but sharpy doesn't work. The lines are too thick and it's impossible to actually draw walls because you can't go over the Sharpy unless you make the lines even thicker.
What I found worked best in the end was actually to just place dots at every corner. That lets you draw in the actual walls between dots where you need them, and remove them easily.
However odds are pretty good that the sharpie will still come off after a while. If you run over the spot with dry-erase and then rub it off, you'll take the sharpie off as well. (It's actually a trick to get rid of sharpie on whiteboard, if you do it a few times)
Must say though, that I find an actual battlemat to work far better then whiteboard when it comes to squares; I haven't really found a way to make whiteboard work for maps. It's awesome for keeping data (surges, hp, powers, etc) though!
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2 years ago ::
Sep 21, 2011 - 7:34AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Feb 20, 2011
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Must say though, that I find an actual battlemat to work far better then whiteboard when it comes to squares; I haven't really found a way to make whiteboard work for maps. It's awesome for keeping data (surges, hp, powers, etc) though!
This, tbh. I understand wanting to use the free board but wet-erase battle mats work wonderfully, are easy to transport and you don't have to worry about accidentally rubbing off the ink, unlike dry-erase. Put that board to work as your initiative tracker.
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2 years ago ::
Sep 21, 2011 - 7:46AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Sep 20, 2010
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I got a dry erase battle mat from my game shop and it works pretty well, the only problem with a completely white dry erase board is that it doesn't have a way of making a grid. Some have said electrical tape works, but I don't know personally.
Ant Farm
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2 years ago ::
Sep 21, 2011 - 8:22AM
#6
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What about scoring a grid into the whiteboard with a utility knife? I bet once you've used it a few times and the dry erase marker dust gets into the grooves, it will make nice, thin black lines. (Though I've never done this, only speculating.)
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2 years ago ::
Sep 21, 2011 - 8:54AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Mar 10, 2011
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What about scoring a grid into the whiteboard with a utility knife? I bet once you've used it a few times and the dry erase marker dust gets into the grooves, it will make nice, thin black lines. (Though I've never done this, only speculating.)
I had thought last year about building something like this, and scoring with a utility knife was one of the ideas I came up with then for marking a grid on a dry-erase board.
I'm not sure if moisture would cause the lamination to separate from the backing over time, but that's the worst-case scenario I could think of.
Another possibility might be to draw the grid with a stylus of some sort that will press a groove into the surface without cutting through the surface; this wouldn't absorb the ink leaving the thin black lines, but it might work just well enough to work with, without breaking the surface of the dry-erase board and endanger its integrity.
And, another possibility might be to draw a temporary grid, and use a push-pin to poke holes at each intersection, for a sort of hybrid between cutting lines as described by Iserith, and marking corners as described by Pluisjen; the holes should be fairly easy for everyone to see, but the board surface would still be in one piece.
In any case, a large dry-erase board seems like it would make a great gaming table top 
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2 years ago ::
Sep 21, 2011 - 9:40AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Sep 20, 2010
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What about scoring a grid into the whiteboard with a utility knife? I bet once you've used it a few times and the dry erase marker dust gets into the grooves, it will make nice, thin black lines. (Though I've never done this, only speculating.)
Hmm, now that's a great idea. Something I didn't even think of. I'll have to consider that or the push pin idea.
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2 years ago ::
Sep 21, 2011 - 10:06AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Feb 20, 2011
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FWIW, this is the tape I was referring to: Cosco Art Tape
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2 years ago ::
Sep 21, 2011 - 10:18AM
#10
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I had thought last year about building something like this, and scoring with a utility knife was one of the ideas I came up with then for marking a grid on a dry-erase board.
I'm not sure if moisture would cause the lamination to separate from the backing over time, but that's the worst-case scenario I could think of.
Definitely a cause for concern. I'm not sure how they are constructed, so couldn't say. Try Googling this topic up. I bet other forums or older threads on the WotC forums have other suggestions.
Even if it does peel apart after a year, hey, it was still free! We used to make battlemats in high school using a big poster frame and graph paper inside it. Dry erase markers wipe right off a poster frame. One multilevel PVC frame later (and it could fold down for storage, too!) and we had a multidimensional gaming platform. Now it's an online interface for me.
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