Suggestion: Coated Draftboard

Ponoko has a cool new material: MDF coated with a black or white “paper-based laminate” on one side.

Obviously you could do the same with Draftboard. It would be a cool addition to your :proofgrade:Proofgrade lineup! And of course you could do more colors, not just black and white. :smiley:

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As someone who uses lots of proofgrade I like this suggestion. Would be great for those times when you need a finish but don’t need to pay for a wood vener…

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Yeah, I would expect the price to be somewhere in between plain Draftboard and Proofgrade plywood.

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Johnson Plastics has similar material; although I haven’t tried it yet.

EDIT: Here is the black material from JP: Black 1/4" Duro Laserable Wood

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I like this a lot (bookmarked).

Ha! Your edit popped up right as I was going to ask for a linky.

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Aha. Those LaserBits Duro laminate sheets do look exactly like what Ponoko is advertising. (In fact, I’d be willing to bet that this is what Ponoko is using.)

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And while I was replying with one. :slight_smile:

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I only knew about it because I placed a fairly large order with JP on Sunday, and almost purchased some of the black and white material, but decided that I was already spending too much–and I don’t have any projects planned to take advantage of it.

As much as people were giving the Proofgrade concept a hard time when it was first announced; because of the MDF core, it seems that JP and a few other providers sell very similar “plywood” with a couple of different core options.

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the JP pieces are significantly less expensive.

$5 for 12/24 as opposed to $12.

plus JP has both .125 and .25 thicknesses.

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I’d hope so. Ponoko provides cutting/engraving services (the price of which is partially factored into the material and partially factored out as a separate time-based cost). JP is just the raw material.

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ah, ok. i missed that.

Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll make sure to pass it on.