Which plotter?

[Guest Customkay]

Ive decided to start doing signs and graphics but am well confused buy which plotter to get, any advice? What do you guys have? Im looking to spend about ?1000 on one to get started but dont want to buy something thats going to be useless in a years time or to hard to get spares for.

Help me please.

[Guest Mrs RJE]

Having bought myself a plotter back in December last year, I found that you don't get alot for ?1000.

If you're willing to pay a bit more there's a company called Edward Mathias & Co in Liverpool who can give you advice and help you find the right set-up for you.

If you speak to a man there called Harry Davies he's very helpful and will do all he can to help you.

Do you have any experience with design programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw? If not I would suggest that you try out one of them and find whichever one you feel comfortable using before spending out on a plotter. That's what I did, and if I hadn't taken the time to do that, when the plotter arrived I wouldn't of been able to do anything with it!

Good Luck with your New Venture

[Guest KillaKlownzHobbies]

Try these links:

http://www.signsupplystore.com

http://www.jsisign.com/products/monthlyspecialequip.html

http://www.signwarehouse.com/

[Guest Spud Murphy]

I am not familiar with prices in Britain but if you can pick up an earlier model (second hand_ Graphtec with Flexi-cut driver you might be around the $1,000 mark. I would suggest getting a low end driver that can import Illustrator files instead of spending money on drivers with a lot of bells and whistles..which would shoot your budget anyway.

unfortunately you would have to pirate the driver to meet your budget and I know you would never do that..but maybe your uncle owns a dongle he can lend you. wink!

I still use the same 24" Graphtec that I bought ten years ago with Flexi-cut and they travel along at blazing speeds on a MAC platform using Illustrator and Freehand for art and layout...the setup still puts present day Gerber systems to shame along with its $6,000 Director Software.