Hey dear and trusty readers...I'm here in lovely Minnesota with customers standing three deep waiting for me to refurbish a plotter and get it to them. Why should you care? Because I need to find more Designjet 500 plotters. If you live in the Twin Cities metro area and have an old Designjet 500, maybe one with a bad belt or some kind of error that you can't solve, sell it to me. Call The Plotter Princess at 651-247-3022 and we'll talk about your plotter and the price I can pay. 

And yes, I can also fix your broken plotter if that's what you need...

I'm often asked what's the difference between one plotter and another...here's a great chart by HP showing you the differences between the 400 series and the 700 series of Designjets.

I'm often asked what is the difference between the 24" wide machine and the 36" plotter...Well, usually it is about $100!
Which one should you buy? The one that will do the job you need without wasting ink or paper. If you don't need a 36" printout, then you can save money and just buy the 24". If you are printing geneaology charts, project schedules or maps...you can probably do quite nicely with a 24" plotter. When do you need the 36"? When you need to print blueprints printed to scale.

I bought three plotters yesterday...one on auction and two from a guy who is no longer doing side jobs that require blueprints and floor plans. The guy told me that he'd bought these machines from another refurbisher, so he was sure they were in great shape. I checked quickly and saw they both had new carriage belts so I was pleased to think I wouldn't have as much work as I normally do.  Once home and in much better light, I saw that there had been a serious ink spill in the one machine and the other had belt crumbs everywhere. I removed the covers and was amazed at what I saw. These machines had NOT been refurbished, they had only had their belts replaced. Refurbishing means stripping the machine covers, cleaning the inside of the machine, lubricating the rails, changing the belt if necessary, and running the standard tests and calibrations for that model. If these things aren't done, then the plotter has NOT been refurbished. So, when you are looking for a plotter, open the window, use a flashlight and look to see if there is dust, dirt, ink and/or debris under the cover. If there is, you aren't getting a refurbished machine.

SIZE: Plotters come in 24" (also known as D size) and 36" (also known as E size). Remember that if you want to print 36" wide prints, you can use a 24" plotter and set it to turn the plot and print sideways -- landscape -- to get a 36" wide and 24" tall print. Additionally, a 36" plotter can work with a 24" roll of paper, but a 24" plotter can't load a 36" paper!


STAND or SHELF: Most plotters come with a wheeled stand, but some don't have the stand and are designed to sit on a table or shelf. A wheeled stand will cost you more AND take up more office floor space, but they are easy to move. Designjets are also very heavy - the bigger models up to 180 pounds - so you will need a very solid shelf to place it on AND the shelf has to be low enough to be able to open the window and peer inside...so it can't be higher than eye level.

COLOR or MONOCHROME: Are the documents you will print going to be in color or black and white (monochrome)?  If most of your documents are black and white, why pay extra for color? That said, all color machines can be set to JUST print in black and white to save the cost of color ink.

INK: Can you find the ink for the plotter in local office supply stores or will you have to search the internet and buy outdated ink? Can you have the cartridges refilled?

NETWORKED: Many Designjets will have a Jet Direct card in the and this is a bonus as you will be able to easily connect your plotter to the network in your office.

DRIVERS: What operating system are you using? Will you be able to find a driver for the plotter that will be compatible with your operating system? Note: Most Designjets will work well with Windows 7 (64-bit) by using the 64-Bit Vista driver that HP has on their site.

CONNECTIONS: How will you connect your computer to the plotter? The Designjet has a parallel connection, but many newer computers don't have a parallel connection. You can overcome this obstacle by buying a USB to Parallel Cable.

Ok, so you've decided that you can't spend one more minute waiting in line at Kinko's for the blueprints you need printed. You are going to buy a plotter. But what kind?
Certainly you won't be paying $10,000 to $20,000 for a brand new one. You could easily pay $1000 for a used one at a retail establishment that sells the plotters they take on trade-in.

I suggest that you find yourself a nice Hewlett Packard Designjet Plotter. The 220, 430, 450, 600, 650, 750 are all great plotters that are about 15 years old. HP shouldn't have designed these so well, they live forever...and they hate that the secondary market cuts into their profits. But they are magnificent machines that almost never die...Except for belts and trailing cables.

Craigslist always has a number of plotters listed in the area, why not just pick the cheapest and be done with it? Because of what I just said: Belts and Trailing Cables! These are the two items most likely to breakdown with age. 98 out of 100 Designjets with their original carriage belts will have a belt breakdown in the next year....most within the next 100 plots! About 40% of these Designjets will have their trailing cable begin to delaminate this year. Both of these parts will require a replacement that means someone will be taking the machine totally apart and replacing both things. 

So, don't buy from someone who doesn't seem to know anything about plotters or the guy who says "It has been sitting in my garage/basement for the last 7 years and now I want to sell it." Both of these people probably have a belt failure looming....and you will be the proud owner of a big ass HP boat anchor!

Buy it from me and you'll be guaranteed that the belt won't break and the trailing cable has been checked and replaced if necessary. You can also be sure that the machine has been totally cleaned, the ink spittoon has been emptied, the plotter has been reset to factory calibrations for perfect lines and total accuracy.

Start Up

• Always plug into a surge protector outlet...this is good insurance and will save your plotter from a motherboard being fried by a power surge.
  
  
• They “initialize” when you first turn them on. This means they run through about 15 self tests.
  
  
• Try not to interrupt the plotter while it is initializing.
  
  

Paper (Media)

• Never try to load media unless the plotter indicates that it is ready for media.
  
  
• Roll paper always goes OVER the top of the roll...like toilet paper!
  
  
• A 36” wide machine CAN use a 24” roll...and all Designjets can use legal and standard size sheets of paper, too.
  
  
• Media must be straight when you push the load button...if it skews a little the plotter will sense it and spit the paper back at you. If you have the type of machine that grabs it from you when you insert it, LET GO the moment you feel it grab the paper...or you will make it skew.
  
  
• Most Designjets have a perforated or printed line on the right side of the place where you enter the paper into the machine, try to line up the right side of the paper near, but not past that line.
  
  
• If you are feeding separate sheets into the plotter and it keeps skewing, you may have paper that has too high a cotton content...try HP plain paper and see if that fixes the problem.
  
  Ink Cartridges:
  
  
• Some color machines don't care if the color cartridges are empty, they just need a cartridge in the slot. If colors are empty, it will still print in monochrome.
  
  
• Old cartridges can be revived sometimes by running the print head under hot water, then placing the cartridge on a wet paper towel to “wick” the ink out and clean out those 20 little ink jet holes on the print head. Leave it sit for at least 1 hour. Then take the cartridges outside and do a “whip cracking” shake --- holding it upright do a quick downward motion and a sudden stop, like you are cracking a whip...it should now have two small lines of ink on the print head. If not, repeat. If still not, the heads might be clogged, shake it a few more times, run under hot water again, try the wet paper towel soak again. If you still can't get ink to move, it is probably a bad cartridge that you won't be able to save.
  
  
• If a plotter continues to reject a cartridge that does produce ink (see above), turn off the machine, take a damp paper towel and wipe out the inside of the cartridge holder.
  
  
• Buy hard to find ink on eBay or Amazon.com to find the best deals...however, open the ink the moment you get it to be sure it hasn't bled out of the printhead...there will be ink all over the tape on the printhead when you open it and this means the cartridge can't be saved.
  
  
• If you can find a professional refiller to fill you empty cartridges, try it...if they guarantee their work.
  
  

General

• Leave your plotter turned on. Don't turn it off at the end of everyday. But DO plug it into a surge protector, or a storm could eat your plotter!
  
  
• If your plotter doesn't have enough memory it will print out 75% of the plot on the right side of the paper and the last 25% will be missing on the left. To resolve this, choose ADVANCED on your print driver and check the box that allows the computer to handle the memory for the plot.
  
  
  • You can also add memory – check the manual to see how much you can add.
    
    
  • If you are printing PDF's, try converting them to TIFFs as they are much smaller files.
    
    
  • Read your manual section on QUEUE and NESTING to figure out how best to manage large files.
    
    
• Keep the window on the plotter closed and even cover the machine if your office/work area is dusty.
  
  
• NEVER, when transporting, lay a plotter down...there is a spittoon with old ink that will spill over the interior of the machine AND there will be wet ink everywhere!
  
  
• You can connect your plotter to the USB port on your computer with USB to parallel printer cable. When adding the printer, be sure to NOT use the default LPT port, but instead choose the USB port offered on the dropdown menu.
  
  
• Most plotters on stands can be removed from the stands and sit nicely on a shelf or table if floorspace is scarce in your office.
  
  
• Most plotters have a UTILITIES section on the control panel there find the FACTORY RESET to return your plotter to what it originally was set-up to do. This is a good trick, because sometimes you may have inadvertently commanded the plotter to do something that creates conflicts.
  
  
• If you see small black “mouse turds” under the rubber carriage belt, it is starting to break down and can die at any point. Replace it ASAP....