Has anyone done this? We have a used dry erase board that the owner of a local thrift store gave me and it's HUGE, takes up the entire wall in the classroom, so that's AWESOME and oh so handy! Buuuuut....It needs either reconditioning or refinishing. It doesn't clean up well. I have to be careful to clean it EVERY day and not leave things written on it too long. I'm not sure why, but it stains. So, I've read about people reconditioning them with WD-40 anyone tried it? Also thought about using the dry erase paint, but it's a BIG board, so that would be a pain, but if it worked, it'd still be cheaper than replacing it with another board that large. So has anyone tried either?
We bought the white shower board from Home depot it is $11 for a 4x8 sheet of it. Then you use turtle wax to wax it and use it just like a dry erase board. We cut it with a circular saw into two smaller ones. They have lasted almost 2 years. I am thinking it is time for new ones, but for the price it is cheap enough to replace and not worry about it. I say that to tell you that you can use wax to wax it and that might make it work better, and clean it too. While you are at it you can wax your appliances, and shower too. It makes them easier to clean too! ( I need to do that again, note to self)
Well, there is a handy tip I'd never heard of! Someone else mentioned the shower board, hmmmm, I may try WD-40, car wax and then if those don't work just buy shower board....
I have a large whiteboard that is now ... um... 13years old. When I find it difficult to clean, the first thing I do is wash my erasers! It usually means the markerdust has collected on them, impairing their usefulness. The next thing I do is clean the board with pure rubbing alcohol (not with wintergreen or any other ingredients in it) and a soft cloth, buffing it with a clean area until it's completely clean. This has worked for 13 years!
I love it when I really do wax my stove and shower. They stay cleaner much longer. But I will forget that, and not rewax them. It last a few months if you don't use a strong cleaner on them. I heard about the shower board on here and it took me a year or something like that to actually buy one. Now I use it every day. The actual Expo brand markers work better then the cheaper ones too. I am not one to by name band anything either.
I used the WD-40 and it worked well. Just don't overdo it. A little goes a long way or else you'll have a very slippery board and you'll have the opposite problem of markers not wanting to write at all. One other thing that I have discovered is that I have to use the expo brand markers. All of the cheap ones I had were very difficult to erase and would stain my board.
I have a new eraser and I only use expo markers. It was a used dry erase when I got it though. The WD-40 had not worked as well as I had hoped, so I may be buying shower board soon...
Did you maybe try dilute chlorine bleach? I tried this once, but it didn't do well and seemed to make it worse afterward. Did you try the rubbing alcohol? Windex or all-purpose glass cleaner? Since it was used, maybe someone already tried stuff on it they shouldn't have? I have a smaller one for writing assignments on, and have found that while wet-erase markers are good for gridding off columns and rows that don't erase when you erase the contents of the grid that are written with dry-erase, if left up all year, they leave permanent shadows. Funny thing is, the black lines I made the grid with have left pink stains! I also have had the problem of off-brand dry-erase not erasing as well as Expo. Once in awhile, I invest in some real Expo board cleaner, which does a marginally better job than plain alcohol.
I have used the expo cleaner, board guys cleaner (don't waste your money on that one), windex and clorox wipes. Even the WD-40, which made it shiner and smoother, still doesn't make it erase without staining. It erases where I wrote very nicely but then there is a cloud around it whatever color I wrote in, so once I erase you can see what was written there but it's like a photo negative... weird...
Clorox wipes are awful for mine! Residue makes the markerdust stick even tighter! I got it about the photo negative thing... When mine does that, is when I wash my erasers then spray with the Expo cleaner and wipe/buff with a soft towel. That usually gets it for awhile. Ugh! Sorry you're having a hard time with this.
Photo Negative effect explained. Black marker dyes/pigments are a collection of colored pigments. Some are staying behind and others are not, when you use a given solvent to clean the board. Experiment: Take strips of card stock or drawing paper and draw a line across them, then put strips into small jars of water with a solvent in them. be sure the mark is such that it is above the water level at the onset. as the capillarity action of the paper fibers draws the water and solvent solution up the paper, the pigments will separate and leave colored smears or bands on the paper above where the original black line was drawn. Try rubbing alcohol, or nail polish remover, ammonia, or a degreaser detergent as solvents mixed in the water. Run three side be side experiments with an extra plain water as a control. This way you can see if different solvents give different results with the pigments. You might need to try more than one type of black marker for optimum results. This might also work by having a printer print a solid black band on a page of paper. You do not need much solution, may be a tablespoon with a few drops of a single solvent, mixing solvents can potentially make harmful fumes. Use EYE Protection and wear hazmat suites as needed. Your Stove range hood is not a fume hood if it is only a recycler. Do not let children sniff solvents or drink them. Some items mentioned above might cause rats to die if injected by the Kilogram on a daily basis. Check the MSDS sheets for all materials involved. Give copies of MSDS to your neighbors and let them know to put duct tape on the cracks of their doors and windows the day you do the experiments. Obtain any required lisences, materials handling permits, and disposal measusres in advanced from appropriate agencies on the local, state and federal levels. Notify FEMA of potential additional levels of emergency service needs as well as the nearest medical trauma centers and local first responder agencies. Have your lawyers draw up permission slips if needed. Label all containers as needed and do not have food or drinks on hand that may be confused with experimental fluids. If living in NYC, do not have containers that hold more than 22 oz on hand.
