People still collect plotters?

[Unknown_K]

Was looking at ebay a few days ago and noticed a Roland X-Y Plotter DXY-990 went for $250. Do people still use plotters for drawing or are they used for something else?

 

[NeXT]

X-Y plotters are still very nice if you want to print designs and don't have an overly large printer (I have one running off a print server) but a lot of the bigger units get repurposed with cutting blades to cut stuff like paper and vinyl.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Good grief, yes! What else do you use when it comes time to spit out a blueprint?. Note that this HP model will also scan them.

 

[g4ugm]

I have several but my max bid is about half that. However the DXY-990 is a nice plotter, says came with original box, so collectable. Pictures seem to have gone, but yes collectible...

 

[Unknown_K]

Good grief, yes! What else do you use when it comes time to spit out a blueprint?. Note that this HP model will also scan them.

Everybody uses those wide industrial HP inkjet color PRINTERS for prints (well anything larger then a 11x17 laser can do). Kind of cool how they cut the rolled paper to size as needed.

Speaking of blueprints, I had to run an ammonia based blueprint machine a few times at a company back in the 90's when the operator wasn't around. Such a simple way of making copies, hope somebody made a mint off that patent back in the day.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Some of the old HP (letter sized paper) plotters also rolled the paper. I recall reading an article in HP Journal (remember that?) about how the little rollers that propelled the paper had a very proprietary surface.

There was also a class of large-scale plotters where the plotting head rolled around like a little robot.

And, of course, the ones that used the electrographic paper (aluminized surface over carbon).

And then there's the Etch-a-Sketch.