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Plotter suitable for Vinyl & Architectural drawings
Im currently employed as an Architectural Technician and considering starting doing some planning drawings etc on the side, as i have a degree in Graphic Design too and get asked regualy if i know a good sign maker i was wondering if i could roll the two into one, and purchase myself a plotter/cutter that would be suitable for both jobs? i only need up to A1
can i get anything decent for somewhere around £500??? perhaps even less?
I understand the ones on ebay etc are prob useless but are there any budget machines that would be suffice for myself? it doesnt need to be capable of keeping a full blown sign business running!!
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1 Reply
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Hi
Well I was an Architectural Technician in a previous life. I now do artwork (and the odd sign) with my cutter.
If you want to do signs, you need a cutter, first and foremost. You can search here and you will get recommended a Graphtec or a Summa (various others, Roland) 24" 600mm, so will do A1. Going to cost you £900 to £1200 for one of these, they hold their value second hand as well.
You can take a gamble on a Rabbit Cutter or whatever eBay cutter for £400. You pays your money etc. I have an Ioline Smartrac which I think is superb because you can adjust speed and pressure on the fly with 2 control knobs.
Now for plotting, all of these cutters are plotters. You just put a pen in inplace of the blade. Mine has a clamp so I can put virtually any writing instrument in it. The Roland’s and others have a blade holder which should hold standard Roland plotter pens as well.
Your problem with plotting an Architectural drawing is pen thicknesses. It will be a pain to keep changing the pens for different line thicknesses. (I remember the ‘plotters’ that had pen carousels) and not sure of the accuracy for going over already plotted lines, that is if you can get pens in different thickness.
There are a load of second hand HP A1 inkjet plotters on eBay for your Architectural drawings or even old pen plotters just for drawings. It will be hard to combine the two.
Cheers
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