# Plotters...What are you using/have used/recommendations?



## MetalStretcher (Apr 9, 2015)

Hey guys, I figure this is the spot to ask about wide format plotters.

We are looking at bringing our blueprint printing in-house and just curious as to your experiences with the different brands and types.

We just need a basic plotter, 36" wide. Only need to print in black and white.
Would like it to be somewhat fast. We are looking at used, but I'd like to be able to print say 35-50 ARCH E format pages in 10-15mins MAX. 

I've looked into the different brands a bit, and its daunting. ROWE, OCE, HP, EPSON, yada yada. I hear good things about HP, but it's really hard to find the ongoing costs for these things.

How many sq ft can such and such print, what are the cartridge/toner costs?

Right now we are paying approx .55 (i think?) per sqft. I'd like to bring it in house and hopefully get down to around .15-.22 sqft.


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## Rio (Oct 13, 2009)

Love HP..............


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## Cole (Aug 27, 2004)

I second HP.


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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

MetalStretcher said:


> but I'd like to be able to print say 35-50 ARCH E format pages in 10-15mins MAX.


Are you expecting 35 to 50 pages in 15 minutes or less? I don't think you could do that in house without spending a fortune on a printer.

I have an HP 500PS that I bought used for around $800, works fine after I spent a few bucks in re-habing it. 

I don't know or really care about the cost per sheet, I bought it for my convenience.


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## JDEERE (Feb 3, 2015)

I have had 3 different plotters over the last 18 years and I can tell you hands down, HP is the cheapest to run. I had a Calcomp and then a Canon. The Canon was so expensive to maintain and use I finally had to get rid of it. Now, I have an HP T-520 DesignJet and have been using it for about 3 years with no problems.


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## wallmaxx (Jun 18, 2007)

MetalStretcher said:


> Hey guys, I figure this is the spot to ask about wide format plotters.
> 
> We are looking at bringing our blueprint printing in-house and just curious as to your experiences with the different brands and types.
> 
> ...


The Print Stop in Lynden WA is selling their commercial black/white Richo machine. Kicks out an Arch D-size page in 4 seconds. They are upgrading.

I bet its pricey....but it is awesome.


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## fisher44 (Dec 1, 2015)

my personal advice would be to not do it and continue outsourcing large print jobs. in my experience, any time i've worked for a firm with a plotter, something always goes wrong with the print. the machines always need repair or maintenance, ink ends up costing like $300 and in large plotters the cartridges dry out super quick if they aren't used. you also often have to maintain print heads which is another $300 no matter what you do. and whenever something screws up it's always when there's a deadline. take my criticisms with a grain of salt because i also hate dealing with printers in general.


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## GregB (Jan 8, 2016)

35-50 pages in E-size in 10-15 minutes will be a large format *laser*. The standard ratings for faster wide formats is "D-sizes per minute", usually said as "Ds per minute". The fastest inkjet plotters will get close to your spec but not reach it even in economode, which may not satisfy your desired output quality.

I'm a big fan of HP in general and one of my businesses is an HP dealer, which became certified to sell HP Plotters almost 30 years ago. I'm not sure that is the right fit for you with your stated specs.

For the construction business, we started out with a HP Pen Plotter that would take up to 30 minutes to produce a page. When "plotters" became big inkjet printers the speed per page became more consistent and it didn't matter as much how many lines were on the page. We eventually upgraded to an HP 755 and a HP 700, which was a special black only plotter with a double wide path that would print black/white items faster. Our current color plotter is an HP 800PS installed in 2003, which is still being used. The black/white plotter was upgraded to a Ricoh W3600 9 years ago, which is a wide format laser. 

The Ricoh is worn out and we aren't buying another Ricoh, mainly because of Ricoh. I've just finished demoing the Canon/Oce and Kip contenders and am leaning toward the Kip 860, which is color and would replace both the HP color plotter and the Ricoh B/W Laser.

We don't know how much you want to spend on buying a wide format unit and don't forget consumables/maintenance. I think the justification for buying a unit will come from speed and convenience. If you think you will be saving money from $0.55/sqft you probably aren't looking at the entire picture.


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## Chris Johnson (Apr 19, 2007)

Canon IPF750, cost me about 3k to buy, runs me about 1k a year for 12 rolls of paper and ink - had it for about 3 years now

I too bought for my convenience, not overly concerned about the operating cost, it prints when I need them, which is usually after hours when print shops are closed. Plus we do structural and foundations, plans get damaged regularly, so it's nothing for me to print a minimum of 2 sets for a small project for the duration of the job. The project we are on now I think I have printed 8-10 sets


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