2D milling a "dying species"?

[herbk]

Only a suggestion which comes op on a other thread...:

In my mind 2D milling is a "dying species". 2D milling gets more and more replaced with lasercutting or water jet cutting.
A friend of mine bought a jeap chinese lasercutter with only a 0,5 watt laser on it. It works fine and to cutt peaces of 5mm plywood it needs only the half time and few % of energie... No dogboons are needet for inside corners, no knowledge of the used tools by drawing a part, - surely some more...

What's your mind about it?

[sliptonic]

I don't see it.
Laser, water jet, plasma are great but can't do pockets at all. And they all have material limitations.

I have a mill and a 40W laser in my shop and I still use the mill more. I love the laser but even for things like cardboard, I have sometimes had to go back to the mill. (hint: the laser leaves ash/soot on the cut edge.)

Supporting the 2d cutters in Path is very important and might need special operations, dressups, or post processors but I think 2.5d milling will be with us a long time.

BTW, I think you're wrong about the need for Dogbones if using a laser. When I made this project I had to file all the inside corners to make the acrylic fit right.

[Edit r-frank]: Link corrected

[chrisb]

1.) I have an old CNC mill and I am happy with it - well, as long as the electronics will make it, I have some troubles with the power supply or the monitor or both. I can mill 30 mm steel, 50 mm aluminium, 60 mm brass, you name it. The cost for a laser or a water jet would be immense compared to my 2nd hand mill, even for a professional.
2.) A waterjet and even a laser does not cut at zero width. So the path offset could be smaller, but it still is there. And for a preview it is most sensible to have it.

When I made this [url=http://sliptonic.com/dogfooding-with-fr ... th/project[/url] I had to file all the inside corners to make the acrylic fit right.

Sliptonic, you messed up the link twice: missing square bracket and unknown URI if copied by hand.

[sliptonic]

http://sliptonic.com/dogfooding-with-freecad-path/

When I made this I had to file all the inside corners to make the acrylic fit right.

Sliptonic, you messed up the link twic ... th]project

[herbk]

Good Morning,

you are right...
Lasercutting is nice, but as far as a pocket is involved, it is on its limit... And of course a Laserbeam as a diameter to, smal, but it is there and needs a dogboone.
Maybe i have to much work where for pure 2D cuttings last time...

[nahshon]

It reminds me of this project - 6 walled milled box... Used HeeksCad for generaing g-code.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4463&p=35198#p35247
(It took me awhile to learn that cutting too slow was *not a good idea*. I had some tools burnt that way).

I should adapt that script for PartDesignNext.
This is also an example why we want to be able to process multiple parts in a single operation.