I went to Orange and looked around for something metal to use. First I tried magnetic paint which was a dismal failure. It was just never strong enough no matter how many coats I did.
Then I looked at corrugated roofing material. Great cost wise, but the ridges made it kind of impractical.
I looked at the sheet metal they had there but one little 12 inch square was like 4 bucks.
Then an employee helped me look at other options. I finally ended up in the plumbing aisle. They sell "panning" which I guess they use to make pans for under water heaters and such? No idea. Anyway, it was nice and thin and magnetic and a decent sized piece was just a little over 6 bucks. I bought 4 and decided I would adhere them to a piece of luaun I had in my garage (free for me, but about 11 bucks if you go and get yourself some).
I cut it to size (giving a 2 inch border around the sheets of metal).
Primed the edge with spray paint.
Painted the edge with spray paint.
Used this spray adhesive. It works okay but I probably should have roughed up the smooth surfaces a little. The metal seems to lift up a little on some of the edges. By the way, I really needed my daughters help to get the sheets in place after they had been sprayed with glue. It was tricky. If you are off just a little, you can pull the metal up but it will be bent and pretty much unusable after that.
Here is the finished product. I would say it is about 3 ft x 5 ft or so.
The panning has a little fold at the bottom. I thought it worked out perfect because she can stick photos (or whatever) right in the channel without a magnet.
I need to look at it again because I might screw down the metal in some spots just to be sure it is all secure. I probably should have glued it down with liquid nails instead.
looks cool
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