Abrasive water-jet cutting has many advantages over other cutting methods, including quick set-up time, the ability to cut materials without hardening, melting, or tempering, and all without generating poisonous fumes. Also, there are no tool changes required, so there is no need to program tool changes or physically qualify multiple tools. The customer supplies the drawing and material, which further saves time. Water-jets are capable of similar tolerances to lasers on thin parts and better on parts thicker than 0.5". One final important advantage is that abrasive jets provide the most environmentally friendly machining available, since many of the off-cuts are recyclable, and the garnet sand / water mixture is non-toxic for landfill disposal.