We finally had to bite the bullet and get a new plotter. The old one was a real work horse, but it finally went wheels up.
I searched the HP website and showed the Boss what I thought we needed. He decided that we just had to have a built-in scanner. OK. So we now have a HP T2500.
Tiny little thing compared to previous editions of HP plotters. Dual 36" roll feed, scanner and copier. Did I mention that it plots at the speed of light?! Compared to our old 1055, this thing is blazing fast. I actually get the plots in about 1/10 the time of the old plotter. The way the new HP plotters now handle prints, there's no need to print on a lrger sheet and use a roller trimmer to cut it down to size.
Awesome plotter. You'll need to hock your first born son to finance this beast, but the time savings and additional capabilities will save you enough money to hock him out before too long. (You may want to wait until after that "teen age" period before you go redeem him. Saves a lot of wear and tear on the ole body you know.)
How about waiting to after college to redeem him.
or until they can support YOU!! 😀
We recently went from a 1055 to this.
Like making the transition from ox cart to Porsche.
Ooh, that is a nice plotter. Wow. I'm impressed. Good job, HP.
We got one of those Canons. Kinda like flying an airplane.
What actually went wrong with the 1055 plotter?
I'm curious because ours is 13 years old and aside from ink/print heads/belt/ clean and lubricate, we have had no issues.
Believe it or not, that new plotter/scanner/copier cost several thousand dollars less than the 1055CM plotter did back in 2000.
Sure are getting more for the money when it comes to technology these days. Time will tell if the new plotter will be a workhorse, or if HP included a self destruct program for free.
Be sure to subscribe to a good maintenance plan. The new machines need a lot more maintenance that the typical user can't take care of. Parts are really expensive as well. The compression roller on my seven year old Ricoh was $910. I paid about $13,000 for it and expected it to last longer than that before having to replace major components. The maintenance contract started at about $100/month but has gone up quite a bit. It doesn't cover parts after 90? days Food for thought.
> We got one of those Canons. Kinda like flying an airplane.
reminds me of the keyboards at an Emerson Lake & Palmer concert
At the very low end of plotters I just replaced my HP 430 with a HP T110.
I'm impressed.
It lost all color alignment. It would print ALL of the drawing in each color separately and offset about 3 inches from each other. The entire drawing in black, then an offset red, then an offset yellow, etc.
We replaced the mother board 3 times and then it started not recognizing the print heads.
It simply lost its mind, so we had to send it to "The Home". +o(
We just got the hp t 520. Great plotter at around $3k, really fast. The only complaint is that it doesn't like single sheets, so you have to mess with it to accept them. I intend to use the rest up then switch to rolls anyway...
The "Monster" isn't merely a plotter. It plots, prints and copies as fast as lightening, and scans plans up to 36" wide. When the economy was good it was a very valuable piece of equipment. We did a lot of subdivision work and it was so easy to print ten copies of a twelve page subdivisiion plat. With the new requirement in GA to submit a scan on CD along with two hardcopies, I'm glad I have it.
For us little guys, you can't beat it for the money.
I've had a designjet 100, which they don't make any more, for several years, and only bought print heads and ink. Seems like it cost around 1k, sheet feed only.
I am a "little guy". During the real estate boom we did almost nothing but subdivisions. We had nowhere within 30 miles to do our printing. Running 100+ prints by blue line machine or on a regular plotter simply bogged things down. Now its just me and a part timer and I rarely use the Ricoh. But its paid for.
Looks like really small cartridges
I too am a little guy, and I've had the HP110 for over 4 years now, its more than good enough for these slow times. Some months I just run prints on it to keep the heads clean. cost under $1000 at that time. Really good investment, and I am happy with it. But, whenever things pick up the first thing i will invest in is a faster plotter. Sitting waiting for plots isnt my favourite pastime.
> We finally had to bite the bullet and get a new plotter....
I recommend that anyone looking at spending 5 figures on a plotter have a long look at an electrostatic model like the Kip 3000. You will spend more upfront but save on cartridges - maybe enough to make the payments. And the speed is no contest. These things will spit out a full size plot in about 5 seconds.
Would you believe that, in some cities, electrostatic plotters are a no-no and their output is considered as "hazardous waste". Thank a tree hugger if you live in one of those areas.
Electrostatic printing is used in laser printers, copy machines, and fax machines. I have to question your belief that any city has banned those devices. Can you name a city so I can look into this?