Since this is for "internal use only" you may want to check ebay for wide format plotters.

You might consider using a print shop that specializes in plotting large-format drawings for architects and engineers. They should be much cheaper than Staples* and might also be less hassle than owning a plotter.

We don't have a plotter in our office (I'm the only engineer and I am surrounded by geologists ), so when I have to plot a set of drawings (a rare occurrence nowadays), I use a reprographics company that is conveniently located about halfway between my home and my office. The last plots I made were about 18 months ago and cost $1.60/sheet for black and white. IIRC, the total order was something like five sets of 18 sheets each, stabled and edge bound. I can upload the .pdf files of the drawings through their website or I can drop off a thumb drive. For large orders, they will deliver, but I usually just pick them up. They can also scan large-format drawings, a service I have used twice in the last three years.

* Back around 2016, I had to use a FedEx store for plotting and shipping a set of drawings after normal business hours. Plotting alone was about $8/sheet.

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"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill

Thanks for the feedback. Good point regarding checking eBay. I hadn’t thought of that.

Also good point concerning looking at the costs of other printing services. I assumed that other establishments might have similar fees as Staples, but that may be a bad assumption. If there was a local company at only $1.60 per sheet, that would almost certainly be the better way to go.

We have always used HP. I would be careful how old you go with. Finding drivers will become problematic for current software, and HP has some interesting ideas about future licensing.

We've had good luck with an HP T630 purchased 4 or 5 years ago, and its predecessor was also an HP that lasted a decent amount of time. They are 24 inch models though.

At the office we have an OCE, it's black and white only, but will do colour scanning.

It works alright, but we go through it pretty quick so it needs regular service to deal with toner staining and jamming.

I'd bet it's outside your anticipated price range however.

We've had good luck with the HP DesignJet T520 36" plotter.
Relatively inexpensive, and hasn't required much in the way of maintenance. We've had ours over 10 years.

All great advice. I found a couple local print shops, so will check what their rates are before buying something.

Jrit, I was looking at the HP T630, which is reasonably priced. Glad to know people like it. While I’d like to print 36” wide, I only really need that on about 1 percent of jobs so it’s probably not worth worrying about. (Maybe better to avoid 36x48 sheets anyway considering the builders just whine about it constantly.)

Good point Brad805 concerning drivers. I remember the pain and suffering we endured at my last company when we upgraded to windows 10 and all of a sudden our reliable printers no longer worked.

Actually, I believe the T630 can print 36” wide.

Yeah..a printing company is the best bet nowadays. We have one here that delivers your drawings and, if you're a frequent customer, chocolate chip cookies.

We've used a couple of 36" width Canon ImagePROGRAF printers. Ran way more pages through the first than it was rated for before it got replaced (it did still work) and have run the new one pretty hard and it's been very good. I don't believe you'll find any new printers that size for $2k.

I am happy to have gotten rid of my plotter 15 years ago. I just check drawings on my large screen.

Eng16080,

I strongly recommend two hardcopy output formats...

• A size portrait (8.5×11" with 2mm fonts
• B size landscape (11×17") with 2.5mm fonts

These generate readable prints on whatever printer any of your partners and co-workers have. The drawings are readable on computer screens, even on cheap, crappy laptops. They are readable on cell phones. The 1:1 printed outputs generate readable copies that can be stored in 3-ring binders.

--
JHG

drawoh, For very small projects where I only need one small sheet, I’ll use an 11x17. For that size, I already have a printer.

For structural plan sets, 24x36 is the standard in my particular market. For my particular work, trying to fit everything on 11x17s would be painful.

Here's a brief follow-up in case it's helpful to anyone:

I ultimately purchased an HP DesignJet T210 plotter. It's a 24" wide plotter. It arrived on a pallet, and I was a little nervous initially, but it's actually a reasonable size, and I was able to fit it in my small office.

I checked a number of local printing services, and they're all at least $6 per sheet. Considering my typical low number of prints per month (mostly just for internal plan checking/review), the convenience of having a plotter in the same room, and the cost and coordination of having someone else print the plans, the purchase made sense for me. The plotter is obviously not high-end and will inevitably break, but I estimate if it lasts at least a year, it will be worth it. So far, I've had it for about 6 weeks and plotted about 40 sheets. The print quality and speed is about what I'd expect, maybe a little better.

My overall cost per 24x36 sheet is somewhere around $1.25-1.50. Based on that and accounting for lost time on my part coordinating with a print shop, the plotter should pay for itself after about 150 sheets.