Wide format plotter recommendations? 1

[Eng16080]

I’m entertaining purchasing a 36” wide color plotter for my new business and was curious what others might recommend. My volume of printing would be relatively low. For example, I doubt I would ever print over 100 sheets a month. The print speed does not need to be very fast. The plots would mostly be for me to check my own work before emailing a PDF to the client. I prefer looking at the plans full sized as opposed to 11x17.

My budget would be around $2,000 for the plotter. I’d rather avoid a lease, but I suppose I should entertain that as well. I’m just assuming a lease will be more costly. Currently I drive to Staples where I’m paying nearly $10 per sheet. I started thinking about it and that’s only about 200 sheets to equal the cost of a plotter, not to mention lost time driving there and back and the occasional mild attitude from the Staples staff.

I appreciate any feedback.

(Btw, I noticed that Eng-tips has a forum specific to printers/plotters but it doesn’t look very active, thus me not posting this there)

 

[monkeydog]

Since this is for "internal use only" you may want to check ebay for wide format plotters.

 

[fel3]

You might consider using a print shop that specializes in plotting large-format drawings for architects and engineers. They should be much cheaper than Staples* and might also be less hassle than owning a plotter.

We don't have a plotter in our office (I'm the only engineer and I am surrounded by geologists ), so when I have to plot a set of drawings (a rare occurrence nowadays), I use a reprographics company that is conveniently located about halfway between my home and my office. The last plots I made were about 18 months ago and cost $1.60/sheet for black and white. IIRC, the total order was something like five sets of 18 sheets each, stabled and edge bound. I can upload the .pdf files of the drawings through their website or I can drop off a thumb drive. For large orders, they will deliver, but I usually just pick them up. They can also scan large-format drawings, a service I have used twice in the last three years.

* Back around 2016, I had to use a FedEx store for plotting and shipping a set of drawings after normal business hours. Plotting alone was about $8/sheet.

============
"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill

 

[Eng16080]

Thanks for the feedback. Good point regarding checking eBay. I hadn’t thought of that.

Also good point concerning looking at the costs of other printing services. I assumed that other establishments might have similar fees as Staples, but that may be a bad assumption. If there was a local company at only $1.60 per sheet, that would almost certainly be the better way to go.

 

[Brad805]

We have always used HP. I would be careful how old you go with. Finding drivers will become problematic for current software, and HP has some interesting ideas about future licensing.

 

[Jrit]

We've had good luck with an HP T630 purchased 4 or 5 years ago, and its predecessor was also an HP that lasted a decent amount of time. They are 24 inch models though.

 

[jayrod12]

At the office we have an OCE, it's black and white only, but will do colour scanning.

It works alright, but we go through it pretty quick so it needs regular service to deal with toner staining and jamming.

I'd bet it's outside your anticipated price range however.

 

[IceNine]

We've had good luck with the HP DesignJet T520 36" plotter.
Relatively inexpensive, and hasn't required much in the way of maintenance. We've had ours over 10 years.

 

[Eng16080]

All great advice. I found a couple local print shops, so will check what their rates are before buying something.

Jrit, I was looking at the HP T630, which is reasonably priced. Glad to know people like it. While I’d like to print 36” wide, I only really need that on about 1 percent of jobs so it’s probably not worth worrying about. (Maybe better to avoid 36x48 sheets anyway considering the builders just whine about it constantly.)

Good point Brad805 concerning drivers. I remember the pain and suffering we endured at my last company when we upgraded to windows 10 and all of a sudden our reliable printers no longer worked.

 

[Eng16080]

Actually, I believe the T630 can print 36” wide.

 

[phamENG]

Yeah..a printing company is the best bet nowadays. We have one here that delivers your drawings and, if you're a frequent customer, chocolate chip cookies.

 

[LionelHutz]

We've used a couple of 36" width Canon ImagePROGRAF printers. Ran way more pages through the first than it was rated for before it got replaced (it did still work) and have run the new one pretty hard and it's been very good. I don't believe you'll find any new printers that size for $2k.

 

[XR250]

I am happy to have gotten rid of my plotter 15 years ago. I just check drawings on my large screen.

 

[drawoh]

Eng16080,

I strongly recommend two hardcopy output formats...
[ul]
[li]A size portrait (8.5[×]11" with 2mm fonts[/li]
[li]B size landscape (11[×]17") with 2.5mm fonts[/li]
[/ul]

These generate readable prints on whatever printer any of your partners and co-workers have. The drawings are readable on computer screens, even on cheap, crappy laptops. They are readable on cell phones. The 1:1 printed outputs generate readable copies that can be stored in 3-ring binders.

--
JHG

 

[Eng16080]

drawoh, For very small projects where I only need one small sheet, I’ll use an 11x17. For that size, I already have a printer.

For structural plan sets, 24x36 is the standard in my particular market. For my particular work, trying to fit everything on 11x17s would be painful.

 

[Eng16080]

Here's a brief follow-up in case it's helpful to anyone:

I ultimately purchased an HP DesignJet T210 plotter. It's a 24" wide plotter. It arrived on a pallet, and I was a little nervous initially, but it's actually a reasonable size, and I was able to fit it in my small office.

I checked a number of local printing services, and they're all at least $6 per sheet. Considering my typical low number of prints per month (mostly just for internal plan checking/review), the convenience of having a plotter in the same room, and the cost and coordination of having someone else print the plans, the purchase made sense for me. The plotter is obviously not high-end and will inevitably break, but I estimate if it lasts at least a year, it will be worth it. So far, I've had it for about 6 weeks and plotted about 40 sheets. The print quality and speed is about what I'd expect, maybe a little better.

My overall cost per 24x36 sheet is somewhere around $1.25-1.50. Based on that and accounting for lost time on my part coordinating with a print shop, the plotter should pay for itself after about 150 sheets.

 

[milkshakelake]

Congrats on your purchase! Though...I had an HP T-series plotter for about 4 years. You're right to be nervous. It's very finicky. If things aren't aligned perfectly, ink is low, paper is not loaded with scientific precision, or anything is not correct about it at all, it won't print. After a while, it became onerous to print on it. And there are some very specific print settings I needed to do, otherwise it would stretch things out like crazy, shrink things, or not print at all. It takes a lot of babysitting. Maybe the new version and newer drivers are better. Eventually, the cutter broke and I was too fed up with it to fix the part or get a new one.

Everything is submitted online in my area, so I don't need to print anything on Arch D or other large formats. For checking, 12x18 is great. It's a bit better than 11x17. I used to use 13x19 paper, which was excellent, but it's almost impossible to source that size of paper. The 12x18 printer I use is an Epson WF 7720 and 7620. The older one is actually more stable and reliable, and print quality is exactly the same. But anyway, 12x18 is a big leap up from 11x17. And the Epson WF series printers are far better than HP T-series.

Because of my frustrations with printers, drivers, ink $, and having a paper-cluttered office, I made a thread on going paperless:

https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=499949

It's been working out fantastically!

 

[Eng16080]

So far the T210 has worked well, a little better than expected. I've printed 50 sheets with minimal issues, which at the cost of the local print shop means that it's paid for itself about 1/3rd already. I generally only print plans to check them internally. I like to see it at the actual printed size most of the time. I also have an Epson WF 7720 which I use to print 11x17s. It's a good printer for the price.

The local print shop actually has a T210 and they shared the same sentiment as others, that it's finicky. They only use it as a shelf now. They do, however, use a larger HP DesignJet for plan printing. I think it's the HP T850. That seems like a good endorsement if they use it. I'll probably upgrade to that eventually if I have the space for it.

For submitting plans to clients, per my Agreement with them, I generally only provide a digital PDF.