CNC Milling VS 3D Printing| by Carbide 3D
CNC Milling vs. 3D Printing 3D Printing is one of the most important and most anticipated technologies to become widely available in years. We’ve had a commercial-grade 3D printer for a long time now and we’re still a little amazed every time we use it. That being said, it’s still a technology with lots of limitations: It works with very few materials It’s not that fast The quality is determined by the technology – you can’t make it better These all happen to be limitations that CNC milling does not have. It works with very few materials For a given 3D printer, they only work with a few, or maybe only a single, material. For the lower-cost printers this is ABS or PLA plastic. If you don’t care about the material, or you happen to want these, then a limited selection is OK. For everyone else, CNC milling machines provide an alternative. CNC mills can work with almost any material you can imagine – plastic, metal, wood, wax, etc. If you’re