My plotter pen died mid-way through a 40-page set of redlines

I was working on a commercial renovation set last Thursday afternoon, about 20 pages deep into marking up HVAC changes for a project near downtown Nashville. The pen just started skipping, then stopped completely about 3/4 of the way across a detail sheet. Figured I'd swap it quick, but the replacement cartridge was dried out too from sitting in the drawer too long. Had to scramble and use a regular fine-tip marker, but the line weights were all uneven and looked sloppy. The whole job took me an extra hour to go back over and touch up with a proper tool. Has anyone else had a plotter pen go bad at the worst possible time? How do you keep your backup cartridges from drying out?

3 comments

3 Comments

fionam115h ago

Respectfully, that sounds like a routine problem you could have solved faster with a quick hardware store stop.

the_holly5h ago

Quick hardware store stop" yeah fair enough, I used to roll my eyes at that advice but now I get it.

the_alice1h agoTop Commenter

And honestly @the_holly that's kind of the story of my life lately - every time I skip the simple fix for something, it just snowballs into a bigger mess. Like forgetting to grab a backup pen turns into an hour of touching up sloppy lines, and suddenly it's a whole production. It's funny how the most boring basic solutions are always the ones we ignore until we're already in trouble.