Small Project Design

This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Technology in Architectural Practice and Small Project Practitioners .
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What do most small firms (we are 3) use for their in-house printing needs?  We currently have a 42" HP Plotter, a KIP wide format copier/scanner/plotter and a Toshiba Copier with ledger capabilities.  Looking at costs, we are currently paying on leases for the wide format and regular copier over $7,000 per year. We do not use the machines as much as we are allowed to (as in a car, we are severely under mileage).  

What do you use for check prints?  Do you send out most larger projects or print in-house?  We are thinking about sending everything out instead for cost savings or purchasing the machines off lease. 

Any input is appreciated.  
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Joseph Buda AIA
Project Architect
George A. Held, AIA, & Associates
Clifton NJ
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My plotter became useless when they did away with serial ports on putters and I haven't missed it one bit. I print to PDF then review the PDF on my puter and mark up for correction as needed. Final PDFs are emailed to a repro firm and printed and delivered to client and contractors by the repro firm. Saves me tons of time and client pays for printing and delivery. ------------------------------------------- Thad Broom AIA Architect Thad A. Broom AIA, P.C. Virginia Beach VA -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 04-04-2013 17:00 From: Joseph Buda Subject: Printing and Plotting This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Technology in Architectural Practice and Small Project Practitioners . ------------------------------------------- What do most small firms (we are 3) use for their in-house printing needs? We currently have a 42" HP Plotter, a KIP wide format copier/scanner/plotter and a Toshiba Copier with ledger capabilities. Looking at costs, we are currently paying on leases for the wide format and regular copier over $7,000 per year. We do not use the machines as much as we are allowed to (as in a car, we are severely under mileage). What do you use for check prints? Do you send out most larger projects or print in-house? We are thinking about sending everything out instead for cost savings or purchasing the machines off lease. Any input is appreciated. ------------------------------------------- Joseph Buda AIA Project Architect George A. Held, AIA, & Associates Clifton NJ -------------------------------------------

Joseph,

I am a sole practitioner, 3 of us during the good times.  At one time I had an in-house plotter, years ago, but even I would neglect logging prints to bill clients and found that I was absorbing too many of my project print costs.  I have since outsourced all of my large format printing needs and found this much easier to track for billing purposes.  For in-house review of plans we typically print out simple 11x17 plans (details I will review individually on 8 1/2x 11 or 11x17) all on a very basic inhouse Savin printer.  All consultants (structural, MEP, etc) we review and mark up pdf's.   The electronic mark-ups make it simple to track and return to our consultants.  I think I paid $5,000 for my Savin printer 12 years ago and the thing just wont die.  I discontinued the service contract on it a few years back but even that was only $500 per year.  It does require a little bit of planning to outsource (no last minute plotting) but once you get over that I really think it is the way to go. 
 
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Alex Ross AIA
Owner/ Architect
Pillars
San Jose CA
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We found the same thing with regards to in house reproduction equipment.  We send out all of our printing except what we can do on an 11x17.  We find that when we need to do prints of any kind it is far less expensive to get them made and delivered by our local reproduction company than us owning, leasing and maintaining the equipment ourselves.  If we need after hours large format copies and are in a bind, we use a FedEx office nearby where they can do a pretty good job with their large format printers.  We have operated successfully without anyting but 11x17 capability in house for three years now and I can count on one hand the times we wish it were different.

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Michael Malone AIA
Michael Malone Architects
Dallas TX
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Jerry Kler AIA
Jerry Kler & Associates
Sausalito CA
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It makes no economic sense to lease a plotter. You would be better off putting it on a credit card than pay lease payments. At the end of a lease term, you have nothing tangible. We have the same HP plotter which is a good one, but leasing is a waste of money. The technology does not change as fast as computers and it will last a considerable length of time.

Sending out for check sets each time is inefficient and it can be annoying if you just want one or two sheets which we print every day. Better to pay the finance charges and at least pay down the cost rather than paying a lease.

I also have 3 people in my office. We use a Canon iPF610 for large format printing, a HP LaserJet 5000 for letter and tabloid size paper, and a Canon MX860 for color prints and scanning. My CDs are always 24x36 so the Canon is a 24" unit which also saves space in our downtown highrise suite.

I never replaced my leased copier when relocating from Boston 10 years ago. All documents are now PDFs. Our fax machine went out the door 3 years ago, reducing our phone bill by $100 per month (the cost of paradise).

Check prints are printed on the iPF610. The printer is set up for 50% and full size. Half size are great for checking the layout, drawings, and details, while full size is needed to clearly see the dimensions, notes, and line weight. We will only print one set at a time in the office. When more sets are needed we email the plans to a local print shop.

Purchasing printers can be relatively inexpensive. Once you have the printer, however, the manufacturer has you roped in for the cost of ink. We purchase most of our ink from a couple of on-line sites that offer much lower cost replacements, and we haven't experienced any problems with these replacement cartridges.


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John Black AIA
Partner
Lapis Design Partners LLC
Honolulu HI
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We are a firm of 2.  We use an Epson  stylus pro 4000 to plot up to 17" X 22", to plot for check prints and a Ricoh FW780 engineering size copier. We send our full size plots out.  The Epson is at least 5 years old and the Ricoh is about 9 years old.  We purchased them and they have been extremely trouble free.  This is the most easily managed and cost effective way for us. 

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Walter Croft AIA
Walter Croft Architect
Riverton NJ
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I am a sole practitioner sometimes 2. I have used an Epson 7600 pro for 10 yrs. Color and B&W up to 24x36. It allows me to do in house plots if I want. Its great and no problems at all. It also plots mylars. For my 17x11 copies I use a Brother MFC6490, its about 5 years old, no problems. It does up to 11x17 for all my test plots and in most cases its the size my clients (City, state, school districts all want) The Epson was 3800$ (dont make anymore) and the Brother was $400.

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Ronald Peters AIA
President
HistoricStreetscapes PLLC
Mesa AZ
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-08-2013 08:31
From: Walter Croft
Subject: Printing and Plotting

We are a firm of 2.  We use an Epson  stylus pro 4000 to plot up to 17" X 22", to plot for check prints and a Ricoh FW780 engineering size copier. We send our full size plots out.  The Epson is at least 5 years old and the Ricoh is about 9 years old.  We purchased them and they have been extremely trouble free.  This is the most easily managed and cost effective way for us. 

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Walter Croft AIA
Walter Croft Architect
Riverton NJ
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I am a one man show since '88.  Believe it or not I still use a diazo ammonia 24x36 printer.  When they went out of fashion 2 of my friends (other firms) gave me theirs.  They are table models and we only run design prints for discussion with clients, etc.  Mine broke recently so aI went in the basement and found the other two wrapped up...plugged it in, and Eureka...!
When I need more prints, finished, I go to the print store.  Thanks.

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Nelson B. Nave AIA
Owner
Nelson Breech Nave, AIA Architect
Kalamazoo MI
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-08-2013 08:31
From: Walter Croft
Subject: Printing and Plotting

We are a firm of 2.  We use an Epson  stylus pro 4000 to plot up to 17" X 22", to plot for check prints and a Ricoh FW780 engineering size copier. We send our full size plots out.  The Epson is at least 5 years old and the Ricoh is about 9 years old.  We purchased them and they have been extremely trouble free.  This is the most easily managed and cost effective way for us. 

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Walter Croft AIA
Walter Croft Architect
Riverton NJ
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I learned many years ago when leasing anything it will end up costing you more in the long run. I was burned very badly on a vehicle lease. Sure, a lease is tax deductible, but there are the hidden costs. I now pay cash for everything. I was in the market for a plotter/scanner/copier several years ago when my Hp 1050c gave up the ghost. I shopped around and found a 1 year old floor model KIP 3002 with 600 sq. ft. Run thru it at my local Konica Minolta dealer. I got an unbelievable deal on it and paid cash for it. I also paid cash for our office copy machine. It is a Sharp MX color series with 3 trays, scanner, and duplex function. I began thinking about how to make it pay for itself. We looked at what our local printing company was charging us for plan copying for bid sets. We then generated a price sheet comparable to their costs for plans and specs and attach this price menu to our contract. Overhead is low because we can set the KIP up to print at night and then have my part time staff bind in the morning. Supplies (toner and paper) can be found online at good prices. The scanning feature has allowed us to create another alternate revenue stream with clients who were taking their hard copy plans and scan them to PDF files for archival purposes. The scanning has almost no wear and tear on the machine. One client had over 3,000 individual drawing sheets we scanned. We now only go out of the office to print large jobs. These two additional revenue streams have allowed me to more than recoup the cost of both of our copiers and actually make them small profit centers. ------------------------------------------- Brian McNew AIA McNew Architecture, APAC Shreveport LA -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 04-08-2013 08:31 From: Walter Croft Subject: Printing and Plotting We are a firm of 2. We use an Epson stylus pro 4000 to plot up to 17" X 22", to plot for check prints and a Ricoh FW780 engineering size copier. We send our full size plots out. The Epson is at least 5 years old and the Ricoh is about 9 years old. We purchased them and they have been extremely trouble free. This is the most easily managed and cost effective way for us. ------------------------------------------- Walter Croft AIA Walter Croft Architect Riverton NJ -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 04-04-2013 17:00 From: Joseph Buda Subject: Printing and Plotting This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Technology in Architectural Practice and Small Project Practitioners . ------------------------------------------- What do most small firms (we are 3) use for their in-house printing needs? We currently have a 42" HP Plotter, a KIP wide format copier/scanner/plotter and a Toshiba Copier with ledger capabilities. Looking at costs, we are currently paying on leases for the wide format and regular copier over $7,000 per year. We do not use the machines as much as we are allowed to (as in a car, we are severely under mileage). What do you use for check prints? Do you send out most larger projects or print in-house? We are thinking about sending everything out instead for cost savings or purchasing the machines off lease. Any input is appreciated. ------------------------------------------- Joseph Buda AIA Project Architect George A. Held, AIA, & Associates Clifton NJ -------------------------------------------

I'm a one-woman shop, working from home.  But I have to say, even if I had an employee or two, or had an office to work from, I still wouldn't own a plotter.  I plot almost nothing anymore.  I don't do full-size check sets, and I only plot when I need permit sets.  I use a print shop whose prices can't be beat, and they deliver for $3.  True, it means I can't print in the middle of the night if pulling a late night...but I can upload to THEM in the middle of the night, and I'll have them at my house by 9am (or earlier, if I'm lucky).

I have a single printer/copier/scanner/fax (Brother 7340) that works like a charm.  I print 24x26 check sets on 8.5x11.  Yes, it's small, but 1/8" and even 3/32" text is still readable.  11x17 is definitely easier to read and I might consider, in my next printer purchase, to get one that uses 11x17.  But I don't know that it's worth the cost - I'd have to weigh the cost difference in the machine, plus the paper, etc. Besides, it's SO handy to keep all my sets in the same project folders with everything else - no folding!

Just my two cents.

--cinda
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Cinda K. Lester AIA, AICP
Owner
12/12 Architects & Planners
Downers Grove IL
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For many projects, 24x36 is a fine size for full-size prints.

22x34 is "almost" as big and, for those odd-ball municipalities (or landlords) which require 24x36 documents, you can just print on the larger paper with wider margins.

And half-size of 22x34 is 11x17, and there are a number of choices for printers which can do either 8.5x11 or 11x17.  A few have two paper trays so you don't have to swap the paper, just refill it.

The biggest cost for ink-jet printers is the ink.
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Joel Niemi AIA
Principal
Snohomish, Washington