Pen plotter ink suppliers 1

[MarkFry]

Does anyone know where I can purchase ink supplies of different colours for pen plotters? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[swertel]

A pen plotter? Shouldn't that be a museum somewhere?

Now that the sarcasm is over, have you tried the maker of your plotter? Since pen plotters are no longer on the market, supplies are probably only going to be found through the original manufacturer of the plotter. But, I did manage to find one link that may have what you need.

http://www.tms-plotters.com/supplies.html

Scroll to the bottom of the screen.

I don't know anything about the company. Just found them through a web search.

--Scott

 

[MarkFry]

Thanks Scott,
It maybe old tech. and solid fill objects maybe a problem, but it still works fine and for a b&w large format plot you won't get a crisper finish.

 

[RiBeneke]

For black plotting, I have found that the inks used for inkjet printer refills can give a reasonable result. The black density is not great, but it works, and the inks do not easily dry out in the plotter pens.
Of course you have to figure out how to dismantle and reassemble the disposable pens that were produced in the last years of pen plotters.
I have tried the coloured inkjet inks, but their colour is too thin.

 

[blim]

Believe it or not, we still use a pen (originally pencil) plotter too! Although ink supplies are getting fewer and farther between, here's a link I recently found that still supplies ink pens:

http://www.westnc.com/

Good luck!

 

[usaidit]

Thank You
This is my first time on your site and already you have helped without even asking for help but just reading some one elses post gave an answer that I needed on pen plotter inks.

Thanks again
John Butler
Industry educator

 

[trashcanman1]

What plotter do you have? I have an old Ioline 4000. You will be surpised at a solution I arrived at. I plot only occasionally, so liquid ink pens tend to dry out and become useless soon. The fiber tip pens are okay, but NOT if you are plotting detailed work, because the tip flattens out soon. I have tried roller ball pens, and they tend to skip a lot. One day, I was writing with a UNI-BALL micro pen by SANFORD (available at Office Max, Office Depot, etc.), and noticed how smooth and skip-free it was. The point is about .3mm. I wondered how it would do as a plotting pen. Alas, there was no way to mount it on the pen holder (a cup looking device with a hole in the middle for a plotting pen), or was there? The hole was about 1/8" larger than the pen. Being a good engineer, I improvised. I wrapped the pen with ordinary drafting tape several times, till I got a snug fit. I had to make sure the pen stuck out enough, so I measured it against a standard plotting pen in an identical holder. Then I tried it. IT WORKS! The pen just plotted away, no skips, no runs, no errors. I got better results than with roller ball or fiber tipped pens. The pens are available in several colors. Give it a try! Works for me.

 

[swilbert]

I just today bought a dinosaur ink pen plotter and it has a lot of new in the packages colored inks,by rapidoplot,these fit the old round acceptors,this is in reply to the member who is looking to buy these.

 

[RealMark]

This stuff is readily available from West Allis BluePrint (414) 321-1422 and also via eBusiness with

http://www.draftingsolutions.com

where you can also buy the WinLINE Plotter driver for pen plotters in a Windows OS.