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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.
 Working in my kitchen was getting too disruptive to the somewhat normal lifestyle I and the husband strive for in our retirement years. Using a plotter for our sideboard in the dining room just wasn't the ambiance we want at dinner! So this week we moved my plotter inventory to the three season porch and since it is spring in Minnesota I'm looking forward to getting back to work on these amazing HP Designjets! I've got both 24" and 36" machines with both color and monochrome abilities. Since it is spring in Minnesota the plotter season is in full bloom and I'm fielding calls from landscape contractors who need to print full plans of the work that they are bidding. The phone is also ringing frequently with calls from building contractors who are once again starting new homes in this area. After years of not seeing new homes being built, they are now popping up everywhere on the landscape as I drive throughout the Twin Cities. The recovery is happening here and my customers are the living proof of it!
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.  Tonight I'm working on a Designjet 650C that I picked up from a very nice man who'd let the machine sit for a long time without use and apparently without covering it. If you have a plotter that is going unused for a long time and your environment is dusty, pull the cartridges and put them in a plastic bag AND cover the plotter. These old babies are work horses, but really they deserve a little extra care!
And while I was busy trying to recalibrate the bail that wasn't properly behaving, I found this site and was reminded how good they are. It appears that this site somehow got the info from HP that was set up for their HP Designjet technicians. This site has save my sorry butt many times throughout the years...so I'm giving them the official Katrinka Finkelstein Best Troubleshooting Site Award. I'm often asked how I became, as my husband calls me, the "Princess of Plotters." It started innocently enough...I bought a plotter through an online auction. I was going to start a project that would require big graphics. I connected the plotter to my computer, loaded a driver, put in new HP ink cartridges, prepared the print and sent it to the plotter. I was amazed. This very cool print was coming out of this machine. A week before I didn't even know what a plotter was! Before the plot was complete, it made a bad noise and stopped printing. I lifted the lid and found a shredded carriage belt. Now what? I just couldn't let this machine beat me!
I called around and found the cost of a professional belt replacement was going to cost more than $500. I found a new belt online...I assumed that the repair was something I could manage myself. Some internet research told me that the whole machine would need to be taken apart, screw by screw, piece by piece. Only three days later, I had a new belt on my HP Designjet 650C! I didn't fail...the machine didn't beat me. Hooray! Now I could continue with my wide format graphics project. I was bragging about how clever I was when a friend offered to buy my newly repaired plotter. I sold it and bought another. The next machine had a persistent "Check Paper Path" error message. More research and I found five potential resolutions. In a week I'd figured out how to fix it, performed my newly learned tricks and had a lovely Designjet 450C ready to plot! I restarted my wide format graphics project and finished it. The husband wanted his home office floorspace back, so I listed it on Craigslist. After this plotter was sold I kept getting calls from others who wanted to find a low cost plotter. I bought another. And so the story goes...I now have had the pleasure of refurbishing virtually all models of Designjets. I've been asked which one is my favorite. Easy answer: the one I'm working on at the time! These are like my children, there's not one I love more than the other, as each does the job and makes an amazingly clean and reliable print after I've worked my magic. Each gets a total strip down and rebuild with the belt replaced, rollers and wheels cleaned, gears greased, carriage removed and totally cleaned -- especially the media sensor, and finally the plotter is set-up with new cartridges and paper. This process ensures that any plotter being sold is ready to perform for the buyer as soon as they load the driver that I also provide for them. The moral of the story is: Don't buy a HP Designjet plotter from someone who tells you that it worked fine, the last time they used it but it has now been idle for a couple of years. If you do, you are likely to waste your hard earned dollars and have the belt break in the first few days of use. These wide format printers are about 12-15 years old and just like a car that old, the rubber is starting to crumble and needs to be replaced. Buy from someone who can assure you that the belt is good and don't hand over money until the seller can prove that it prints (plots). Having trouble printing your large blueprint or graphics files that are PDFs?
When you flatten PDF layers, you remove any layers that aren’t visible and consolidate the rest into one layer. You might use this technique if you want to make your plots print faster. To do so, follow these steps:
 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. |
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