Cheap Plotter Solutions?

[gtc]

We really need a plotter in my office, but the managers in my company are ridiculously stingy (for instance, my office chair was wearing out and I had to patch it up with duct tape). What is the cheapest plotter that you guys have found? Right now we either farm them out to Kinkos ($$$) or I tile the pages onto 11x17. Most of the prints we would make are color wiring schematics about 24"x36" or less.

Thanks,

[gr8fl4porsche]

You say stingy I say resourceful.

I bought a used 36" color plotter off ebay.

Found someone sort-of local. The unit was rebuilt and the guy also replaced several additional pieces at his expense until the unit was perfect. We use it everyday.

Used plotter.
Remanufactured ink cartridges.
Cheapest paper I can find.

I can print 36" x 48" greyscale for less than $ .50

[red-beard]

HP Design Jet 130

It will handle 24" wide sheets. 24x36 will be fine

They have them at Tigedirect for about $1200. I may buy one soon.

[onlycafe]

i was thinking of this......

Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!

[stomachmonkey]

I've worked with people like that.

Remember Syquest Drives?

The media was a bit pricey and my boss would pay me to flip thru PC mags to find the best price then he'd buy 2.

It would cost him $50 to save $5.

I'm guessing that when you tile 11x17 it's for internal use and outsourcing to Kinkos is for the customer or presentation?

Do the cost analysis then make the business decision as if you were paying for it.

See if it still makes sense.

Likely does but until you go thru the exercise you won't have the ammo to win the debate.

Cheap people can be pretty pig headed.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by red-beard

HP Design Jet 130

It will handle 24" wide sheets. 24x36 will be fine

They have them at Tigedirect for about $1200. I may buy one soon.

Watch the inks. The cartridges have expiration dates and don't work when expired.

[gtc]

To call them stingy is very generous of me.

If you don't mind my asking, how much did you pay for your plotter?

Originally Posted by gr8fl4porsche

You say stingy I say resourceful.

I bought a used 36" color plotter off ebay.

Found someone sort-of local. The unit was rebuilt and the guy also replaced several additional pieces at his expense until the unit was perfect. We use it everyday.

Used plotter.
Remanufactured ink cartridges.
Cheapest paper I can find.

I can print 36" x 48" greyscale for less than $ .50

[gtc]

The only way I could sell them on a plotter is with a cost analysis, so that is a given. But I don't think $1200 will fly.

At this point I'm thinking about buying one off craigslist and selling prints to the company at half of what kinkos charges.

[gr8fl4porsche]

I paid $1400 for the rebuilt model. Delivered, setup and tested. Probably had $900 in new parts in it.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by gtc

The only way I could sell them on a plotter is with a cost analysis, so that is a given. But I don't think $1200 will fly.

At this point I'm thinking about buying one off craigslist and selling prints to the company at half of what kinkos charges.

They are on Ebay for about $700.

I ended up going with an 11x17/13x19 (Super B) for about $120. HP Officejet 7000. 11x17 is a little small for "D" size originals. But they are better than 8.5x11...

[MysticLlama]

Not a bad idea, Kinko's is terribly expensive.

Originally Posted by gtc

The only way I could sell them on a plotter is with a cost analysis, so that is a given. But I don't think $1200 will fly.

At this point I'm thinking about buying one off craigslist and selling prints to the company at half of what kinkos charges.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by gtc

The only way I could sell them on a plotter is with a cost analysis, so that is a given. But I don't think $1200 will fly.

At this point I'm thinking about buying one off craigslist and selling prints to the company at half of what kinkos charges.

I was doing a large line redesign for a freelance customer.

He was going to Toy Fair and needed 40 or so mock ups done.

Getting the stuff printed at Kinko's was going to cost him $7-8k in prints alone which he would have had to pay me for up front.

Told him I made a deal with a friend at a service bureau who would do it for 40% off the Kinkos price then ran out and bought a brand new HP 110 Plus NR with roll feeder.

After the printer purchase there was still profit in the prints I did for him plus the actual work of building the boxes.

[gtc]

Originally Posted by MysticLlama

Not a bad idea, Kinko's is terribly expensive.

And Kinkos is still cheaper than the print shop we had used before.... we had been paying something like $75 for a 24x36" print.
Yes, we could have easily paid for a very nice plotter by now.

[1990C4S]

Find a used HP 750C. I had two that ran all day every day.

[gr8fl4porsche]

That's what I use.

HP 750C plus

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by gtc

And Kinkos is still cheaper than the print shop we had used before.... we had been paying something like $75 for a 24x36" print.
Yes, we could have easily paid for a very nice plotter by now.

Roughly $10 a sq ft is fairly normal.

The material cost for decent paper and color is maybe $2.

[gtc]

Yeah... I just realized that.
$2 / ft^2 seems high for us... we don't really need nice paper, and I don't think our diagrams would use all that much color ink.

Hmm.... $1000?
plotters, Hewlett Packard, HP, DesignJet, inkjet, cad, cadd

This might work.

[looneybin]

you could also convert them to PDF then email them to a local large format reprographic shop (they used to be blueprint shops, but that has gone the way of the buggy whip)
The shops here charge $0.07 p/sf.
I also have a HP 500 in the office, but i send out larger jobs

[gtc]

Thanks for the input. I did some more digging, and it turns out that 95% our usage is printing out wiring diagrams on demand which are already available at a fairly low price. So I just need to crack the whip and make people order the right quantity from our suppliers.