[sdiy] FPE prices = HOLY SMOKES

[Adam Schabtach]

> Or maybe I should think about all the time I'll spend 
> screwing up the lazertran (and come to think of it I don't 
> have a color printer), and save up and go for FPE and just 
> have them do it right.

That's typically the thought process that I end up with, and I keep using
FPE. But then I seem to have a hard time drilling holes in the right place,
even with a drill press, a center punch, and a stepped bit, so I use FPE as
much for the drill as for the engraving and in-filling.

As other folks have mentioned, using HPGL can save a bit of money if you're
trying to do panels with lots of tick marks and other graphics. CorelDraw
can output HPGL if you don't have another option on hand. (I suppose the
price of CorelDraw outweighs
the savings until you do a whole bunch of panels, but I bought CorelDraw
because I needed a general-purpose drawing program anyway.)

--Adam