M-arch Studio plotter...always decided to stop working hours before pin ups...it had a mind of its own...almost felt like it was trying to sabatoge students in some twisted revenge plot for years of poor maintenance, cheap paper, and overuse...It was evil...There was a ghost in that machine.
The plotter in my office has two separate places to set the paper size + orientation. If they're not *both* correct it seems to inevitably default to what you don't want. I've lost count of how many times it's plotted a 24 x 36 page on a 36" roll sideways. ...get the scissors.
There was this one plotter that was so finicky, nobody could load it except me. Before I was there, it used to be another person who was the only one who could load it, then she lost the touch and we discovered the power had been transfered to me. We had a little ritual, as it required things to be just so. Sometimes you had to just trade rolls because it wasn't going to take that roll, only the other one.
Before we had a dedicated IT guy, one of our interns set up all the printers. He cleverly gave them all human names so when they frustrate us we can anthropomorphize them.
Only good printer/ plotter i've ever used: My Brother that prints 12" x 18" or 11" x 17" full-bleed. It is fantastic. Ink is $5 from Amazon, it has never broken, it always works, and it eats anything up to 150lb paper.
Worst: Canon IPF series, including the IPF410, 450, and 750. It is a piece of shit. Never prints correctly. Always cleaning printheads. Streaks on paper. Expensive ink.
These used rapidograph pens. The pens had to be working perfectly. The paper (vellum) had to be aligned just right and the right kind so as not to bend the pen.
Constantly had plugged pens or they'd sometimes just flow and spill ink over the vellum. Sometimes the paper slipped and the lines got off (mylar particularly). And to add insult to injury, we used a program called Squiggle which added extra little extensions to lines and heavy spots (think like a sketchup model) to give it that architectural flair... which meant circles and text had to be turned off on that plt file, and reprinted on the same vellum perfectly aligned with the original plot (think door swing lines having to align to the doors).... Also plotted some details over sheets partially hand drafted (you'd be killed if it screwed up).
How do I feel about it? Nostalgic. It was absolutely mesmerizing to watch this thing go at it. It was serious cool cutting edge stuff in a weird mechanical/electrical hybrid to cover that period between handdrafted mylar reproducible and how we plot today.
mightaa: I'm not old enough to have used a pen plotter out of necessity but we had one in my high school drafting shop that we'd occasionally fire up just to watch it play. These days the closest thing is watching a laser-cutter do its thing.
We also had an old school actually blue blueprinter, complete with harsh chemicals and everything. We weren't allowed to turn that one on.
Pen plotters are awesome to watch. In high school, I did a quick intern thing with a guy who had one. I could have watched that thing forever. Thankfully, I never had to use one in practice, or under a deadline.
Every plotter seems to have quirks. I've yet to hate any, other than the one that would decide that it only liked the first half of a roll. It was an analog Océ. Had to cut sheets off the roll and do individual sheet feed after it quit using the roll.
I actually miss blueliners sometimes. Once you had a system down, you could make really good time with them. And then... I think back on breathing in all that ammonia (because none of the rooms I ever worked in were ventilated properly)...
And now, I think I'll just stick with quirky plotters...
archanonymous, I'm sorry to hear your experience with the Canons. We had an ipf750 at my old firm and it was great, and I just picked up a used ipf650 for my new practice. I'm hoping I have good luck with it. I live in the boonies so having to use print shops is not convenient, and it gets very expensive.
I have an Epson WF-7610 that prints 12x18, and it does a great job. It's just very slow at loading big images. Like it can take 45 minutes to (wirelessly) load a 25-page, half-scale set.
A place where I consult sometimes has an HP T-520. It's cheap but works well, when it wants to. It needs to get turned off and on several times a day to keep working. It is finicky about loading paper. I prefer the paper feeding system on the Canons, which help you get the paper aligned.
I find any tool or technology that doesn't work properly extremely frustrating, and of course things always go wrong at the worst times. The worst issues I recall were when things would get printed "to fit" instead of at the proper scale. Oh, and my first time replacing a toner cartridge was not pretty, but the new carpet that it necessitated was nice....
tduds; I still have a complete working and functional blueprint machine and paper. It's just ammonia vapor and light. It's still fun to mess around with. You can still do things with your kids like put some leafs on the paper and expose it to sunlight just right to get a "xray" of the leaf. The hard part now is getting translucent enough plotter paper to make a clean blueprint.
The Worst Plotter you ever dealt with and how did it make you feel
Nothing is more frustrating than a printer or plotter that doesn't seem to work well or at all.
Share your stories of paper jambs streaks and other problems and don't forget to name the brand and model if you can.
Vent you print plot frustration here
Peter N
M-arch Studio plotter...always decided to stop working hours before pin ups...it had a mind of its own...almost felt like it was trying to sabatoge students in some twisted revenge plot for years of poor maintenance, cheap paper, and overuse...It was evil...There was a ghost in that machine.
I've never met a printer I didn't come to loathe.
The plotter in my office has two separate places to set the paper size + orientation. If they're not *both* correct it seems to inevitably default to what you don't want. I've lost count of how many times it's plotted a 24 x 36 page on a 36" roll sideways. ...get the scissors.
There was this one plotter that was so finicky, nobody could load it except me. Before I was there, it used to be another person who was the only one who could load it, then she lost the touch and we discovered the power had been transfered to me. We had a little ritual, as it required things to be just so. Sometimes you had to just trade rolls because it wasn't going to take that roll, only the other one.
Before we had a dedicated IT guy, one of our interns set up all the printers. He cleverly gave them all human names so when they frustrate us we can anthropomorphize them.
"God damnit Kevin!"
Only good printer/ plotter i've ever used: My Brother that prints 12" x 18" or 11" x 17" full-bleed. It is fantastic. Ink is $5 from Amazon, it has never broken, it always works, and it eats anything up to 150lb paper.
Worst: Canon IPF series, including the IPF410, 450, and 750. It is a piece of shit. Never prints correctly. Always cleaning printheads. Streaks on paper. Expensive ink.
archanonymous, you got a model# for that brother?
I worked for one firm that had a plotter that had to be programed with Boolean Algebra.
My current HP DesignJet 800 seems decent. I've taken a bunch of time to set it up and I usually have good luck plotting.
Now-what I want to know is where to get a CISS system that is super high quality and works?!? Those cartridges are expensive!
Old school time; The bane of my intern life was a real pen plotter similar to this below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iziP0cQhOFY
These used rapidograph pens. The pens had to be working perfectly. The paper (vellum) had to be aligned just right and the right kind so as not to bend the pen.
Constantly had plugged pens or they'd sometimes just flow and spill ink over the vellum. Sometimes the paper slipped and the lines got off (mylar particularly). And to add insult to injury, we used a program called Squiggle which added extra little extensions to lines and heavy spots (think like a sketchup model) to give it that architectural flair... which meant circles and text had to be turned off on that plt file, and reprinted on the same vellum perfectly aligned with the original plot (think door swing lines having to align to the doors).... Also plotted some details over sheets partially hand drafted (you'd be killed if it screwed up).
How do I feel about it? Nostalgic. It was absolutely mesmerizing to watch this thing go at it. It was serious cool cutting edge stuff in a weird mechanical/electrical hybrid to cover that period between handdrafted mylar reproducible and how we plot today.
tintt, it's the brother mfc-5890cn.
I just looked it up and it says it only does up to 11 x 17, but i just asked ms. archanonymous and she agrees - we have printed 12 x 18 on it before.
caveat emptor i suppose.
guren: Yep, sure enough it's an HP!
mightaa: I'm not old enough to have used a pen plotter out of necessity but we had one in my high school drafting shop that we'd occasionally fire up just to watch it play. These days the closest thing is watching a laser-cutter do its thing.
We also had an old school actually blue blueprinter, complete with harsh chemicals and everything. We weren't allowed to turn that one on.
Pen plotters are awesome to watch. In high school, I did a quick intern thing with a guy who had one. I could have watched that thing forever. Thankfully, I never had to use one in practice, or under a deadline.
Every plotter seems to have quirks. I've yet to hate any, other than the one that would decide that it only liked the first half of a roll. It was an analog Océ. Had to cut sheets off the roll and do individual sheet feed after it quit using the roll.
I actually miss blueliners sometimes. Once you had a system down, you could make really good time with them. And then... I think back on breathing in all that ammonia (because none of the rooms I ever worked in were ventilated properly)...
And now, I think I'll just stick with quirky plotters...
archanonymous, I'm sorry to hear your experience with the Canons. We had an ipf750 at my old firm and it was great, and I just picked up a used ipf650 for my new practice. I'm hoping I have good luck with it. I live in the boonies so having to use print shops is not convenient, and it gets very expensive.
I have an Epson WF-7610 that prints 12x18, and it does a great job. It's just very slow at loading big images. Like it can take 45 minutes to (wirelessly) load a 25-page, half-scale set.
A place where I consult sometimes has an HP T-520. It's cheap but works well, when it wants to. It needs to get turned off and on several times a day to keep working. It is finicky about loading paper. I prefer the paper feeding system on the Canons, which help you get the paper aligned.
I find any tool or technology that doesn't work properly extremely frustrating, and of course things always go wrong at the worst times. The worst issues I recall were when things would get printed "to fit" instead of at the proper scale. Oh, and my first time replacing a toner cartridge was not pretty, but the new carpet that it necessitated was nice....
mighty, we had one of those plotters in high school. The pens were on a mechancial arm. Loved watching that thing work.
tduds; I still have a complete working and functional blueprint machine and paper. It's just ammonia vapor and light. It's still fun to mess around with. You can still do things with your kids like put some leafs on the paper and expose it to sunlight just right to get a "xray" of the leaf. The hard part now is getting translucent enough plotter paper to make a clean blueprint.
*Just* ammonia vapor.
I hope you've got good ventilation.
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