I'm currently following several plotters on ebay. I want something to make painting stencils with. There are several options available ranging from desktop machines that will work with A4 (Letter) sized sheets to units that work with 94 cm (36 in.) rolls. All are in about the same price range. So I have a couple of questions:

  1. What would be a good size to choose? I'm thinking something that would work with A3 sized sheets would be good enough for frame names and such but the big machine could make banners for EHBE.
  2. There is also a big difference in age of the machines. The HP 7475A modified to use both a knife and pens would be good for plotting on paper as well but is rather old. There are newer machine from Roland for just a little more but they only cut and don't draw. Do any of you painters use your plotter for anything else?
  3. What software should I be looking for to draw stencils with?
  4. Do I need to be looking for special vinyl or will scraps from the local sign shop do fine?


Thanks for your input.