I met the nicest couple from Waseca Minnesota today! Dave and Calley Jo drove almost 2 hours to Lindstrom to looks at what I have in my inventory. I thought they'd like the $300 Designjet 600 monochrome a basic black and white plotter (wide format printer) from 1992. A solid workhorse that never dies! When I refurbish these they never need a new belt, but always need covers off and a complete clean out just due to normal dust and debris. Next I lubricate the rails and the gears. Check the encoder strip, often changing it as the thousands of tiny lines tend to delaminate about 20+ years later. Next I recalibrate the accuracy and a number of other parameters and then I proceed to test the hell out of it. I print 5 to 20 prints because IF it is going to misbehave I want it to happen right here at my house, in my little one car garage workshop!
Instead they chose the HP Designjet 800 - 24 inch model because of its versatility. Not only can Dave print his blueprints, but this plotter can print on vinyl, tyvek, canvas, photo paper, back-lit film, card stock and plain old paper. I watched as the two of them came up with more things they could do with this wide format printer...giant graphic for the kids' walls when they redecorate their rooms and family photos printed on canvas...It was fun to watch them come up with ideas! Dave works in construction and I shared the trick of printing field blueprints on waterproof vinyl so that even in sloppy wet spring environments the plans stay intact!
This printer was built in 2001 to 2003 -- the big bonus being that you can still find supplies at your local stores and HP hadn't yet figured out how to stop users from using expired ink! I sell lots of these in both the smaller 24" and the larger 42" models.
The moral of the story is I will sell you what you want and won't sell you something you don't need. We spent more than an hour looking at three different plotters. Ultimately the customer picks one and then I train them on what little maintenance it needs and how to load paper and buy ink, etc.
Two more things they get from me...I load the drivers for them and I give them phone support for life! They also know where I live...how can I be anything but a perfectly honest Princess for folks who know where I live?
Instead they chose the HP Designjet 800 - 24 inch model because of its versatility. Not only can Dave print his blueprints, but this plotter can print on vinyl, tyvek, canvas, photo paper, back-lit film, card stock and plain old paper. I watched as the two of them came up with more things they could do with this wide format printer...giant graphic for the kids' walls when they redecorate their rooms and family photos printed on canvas...It was fun to watch them come up with ideas! Dave works in construction and I shared the trick of printing field blueprints on waterproof vinyl so that even in sloppy wet spring environments the plans stay intact!
This printer was built in 2001 to 2003 -- the big bonus being that you can still find supplies at your local stores and HP hadn't yet figured out how to stop users from using expired ink! I sell lots of these in both the smaller 24" and the larger 42" models.
The moral of the story is I will sell you what you want and won't sell you something you don't need. We spent more than an hour looking at three different plotters. Ultimately the customer picks one and then I train them on what little maintenance it needs and how to load paper and buy ink, etc.
Two more things they get from me...I load the drivers for them and I give them phone support for life! They also know where I live...how can I be anything but a perfectly honest Princess for folks who know where I live?
