PSA: I was loading my plotter paper wrong for 2 years

I always thought you had to feed drafting paper from the bottom roll. Last Wednesday I was swapping out a 36 inch roll at the shop and my coworker Jeff just goes 'why are you doing it backwards?' Turns out the manual says top feed for my HP model and I never checked. The paper jammed way less after I switched. Has anyone else had a dumb 'aha' moment like this with basic equipment?

3 comments

3 Comments

emeryj661mo ago

Pulled my hair out for like a year and a half trying to figure out why my printer kept eating paper sideways. Turns out I had the tension knob cranked way too tight because I thought tighter meant better grip. A guy from HP support told me to loosen it almost all the way and it stopped jamming completely. Felt pretty dumb but at least now I know. Sometimes the obvious stuff is the last thing you check.

allen.iris1mo ago

@emeryj66 same here I always cranked tension knobs tight until a repair guy told me the exact opposite and it fixed everything.

brianm661mo ago

Yeah the "tighter is better" thing... I did that with the tension on my roll paper too. Found out later you just want it snug enough so it doesn't slip, anything more and you're just begging for misalignments. Jeff was probably laughing inside for months before he said something.