What plotter should I buy?

[hyposmurf]

I'm pondering whether to buy a plotter for home,but dont have a great amount of money.Most of my plots are A0 size and also in black and white,very few colour plots.Is there a plotter out there that is fairly cheap,that maybe only plots black and white plots off?Might even go for a second ahnd one,but where do I look?Is this a unwise move as the maintenance might be high if say it became defective?The cool thing about having my own plotter would be I'd be able to do alot more private work,rather than going to a plotters or hassling work.The way our IT system is configured at work,means I cant just plot my own stuff off,have to go through another deparment and ask them to plot what I need,pretty stupid I know but thats way things work.It would also mean I'd be able to gain a bit more experience using a plotter,have only ever plotted a few times,would hate to go to another company and not be able at least change the blinking paper :) .Any suggestions you can offer would be helpful,such as what I should watch out for or what features I should make sure the plotter has.I'm probably not that bothered if the plotter isnt super efficient,as I doubt I'll be plotting off hundreds of drawings every day.

[Flores]

I don't have a plotter, but I have a printer that I get a lot of good use from. It is a Hewlett Packard Deskjet 1220c. It prints "A" and "B" size sheets (11" x 17"). It prints all black B size sheets kinda fast, but for color it isn't very fast. I don't work from home as much as I used to, but when I did, many clients preffered B size sheets to C or D because it was easier to use on the shop floor. It costs about $400, but can be found many times on sale for $300 (which is what I paid).
I used to make borders, hidden lines, visible lines, and center lines all color, which took some time to print, but instead I changed to only printing dimension lines to red, and the dim text to blue (everything else black), which makes it easier to read . By doing this, it prints much faster. I believe this printer prints up to size 13" x 19", but I never print that big. It also has a duty cycle of 1000 sheets per month.
If you only need a printer that prints standard 8 1/2" x 11", or you do not want to spend that much money, Epson has several printers that are high in quality, and low in price (some just below $100).

Flores

[f700es]

I have to second Flores's post on the HP 1220c. I bought one for one of my Construction Managers and he loves it. It does 11x17 but can also do custom cut 12x18 prints (half size for 24x36 sheets) a very nice printer for the money. If you are looking for a larger plotter then maybe look at the HP 100 series which start at $995 USD.

[hyposmurf]

We only ever use "A" sizes,most of our plots are A0 size so I guess I'd be better off with a larger size plotter.As we hardly ever plot coloured drawings,just black and white plots from colour dependant plot styles,I guess I'd be better off looking at a monochrome plotter.What do you all think off second hand plotters?

[andywilliams]

the plotters i have used are HP Designjet 450C & 500. They are okay, the 450 is an absolute nightmare to load paper into. don't forget though, plotters are a bit pricey.

try ebay for second plotters, but make sure you can still get the drives and consumables for it before committing.