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Printing Plans

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1Bad88

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2012
Messages
870
Location
Bellville, TX
I wanted to share my experiences for printing plans in order to help others who don't have access to wide format printers.

I have purchased and downloaded several sets of plans over the years. I spend many hours evaluating the plans in electronic form. However, this is limited when it comes to being able to look at two large sheets side by side without employing several sizable monitors so at a certain point I need to get hard copies.

I didn't want to shell out $500+ for a plotter as I feel that money would better be spent on building materials/tools so I have tried a few resources. I always print black and white. Here are my notes:

Fedex/Kinkos - good quality and service but extremely expensive. I printed a 100 page manual 8-1/2 X 11 and it was almost $60

UPS - They were about the same price as Fedex but less convenient locations so I never used.

Staples - the best price for sizes up to and including 11 X 17. Be aware that there is a rush charge if you want them in 2 days or less (I believe that is the window). My Ragwing plans were 67 pages at 11 X 17 and cost $14.07 before the $10 rush fee. The service was quick and I had them the next morning for a job submitted at 11pm on a Friday night. I ordered them on 24# stock and I believe they are heavier than I needed (they may have printed them on whatever was already in the machine).

BlueprintsPrinting - I just tried this service because I needed 24 X 36 and some 36 X 90 - 144 sheets. You will need to split the PDF into multiple documents (one for each sheet size) if all of your sheets are in one file. This can be done pretty easily on their site by uploading the same file several times and then removing the sheets that are not the format you want for that drawing/set of drawings. It took me about 1.5 hours to upload, remove, and order. The example plan set had 17 sheets 24 X 36 and 9 sheets 36 X variable lengths on 24# stock. It cost $66.14 plus tax and shipping for this order (under $65 there is a $7 setup fee). So in total it was $85.10. I submitted the plans last night at 6:30pm and received notification that they shipped this morning at 8:30am for delivery tomorrow. They have same day shipping if you submit before 11am. I will comment back tomorrow as to the quality.

Hopefully this helps people.
 
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