Titanium

[Vince]

Hi all,

Can someone please be so kind as to tell me the how's and how not's to working with Ti. I just ordered some 6AL4V and I want to be ready when it arrives. Can you tell me what tools to use to finigh it, grind or file it,etc. Are there any special safety precautions a person should take? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks Vince

[Frank Niro]

Hi Vince. I will try to get something started with a few remarks. When grinding on titanium slow your machine back to say 50% if you have a variable speed and use less presure, otherwise with a constant speed machine use a lot less presure. "Hard use" ( lot of presure) grinding will create some great sparks and a edge of slag will form that will be harder to grind than the titanium itself. "Hard use " will aso coat your sanding belts with droplets of titanium and make the belts useless. I suggest you use belts that have been used but are not worn out. When drilling titanium do use a good cutting fluid. I use a product called Anchorlube but I understand that Cool Tool Two is good. Use an even presure with a pecking motion. In other words try to avoid an accumulation of chips in the drill bit chanels, they will cause the bit to grab and tear the metal. For small or thin pieces needing sanding you can attach a piece of masking tape with a doubled backed piece in the center to hold the piece with. If you go to coloring by any means, heat or anodizing make sure that the titanium piece is clean and without finger marks or the coloring will not take. So just a few things that may help you and may also bring in some more information for you. Frank.

[Vince]

Thank you for your reply to my question. I will do as you say and try to do my best .

Vince

[Don Cowles]

Vince, one work of caution: titanium grinding dust burns just like magnesium. Set a water buck directly under the contact wheel to catch the dust, and clean up any accumulation thoroughly.

[Tim P. Watson]

Vince, as a toolmaker in the medical field we use a lot of this for implants. Titanium is a little difficult to finish as it must not be over heated when being buffed. One of the tricks to finishing it is to use a grease based buffing compound and a ScotchBrite wheel, keep it touched with the compound fairly often,VERY lightly because if you ever get an Orange Peel in it then it is very difficult to get out. I use I use Ti-6AL-4V on some of my frames. I use the above mentioned process to radius my edges and smooth out belt lines. If I am trying to get a mirror finish, which I usally do then I almost always use just autobody paper down to 2000 and then hand rub with white compound. Ti is easy to work it is not that hard only about as hard as stainless unless you work harden it, which will happen in the blink of an eye if you are drilling or tapping it without coolant, any of the coolants will work, we use oil based and water based on our equiment and there does not seem to be a lot of difference in this aspect, It is flamable as Don stated. I use carbide drills to drill it almost exclucively if your drill or reamer is just the least bit dull it will work harden and you will not get the highspeed drill though the part even after you have resharpened. Cutting speed for this material is about 60 sfm for high speed. Any questions I will be happy to try and answer them. If you are tapping it and the tap starts getting hard to turn then get it out and get a new on, a new tap is a lot less expensive than the time it take to get it out and drill oversize a number over the chart size ie: use a # 20 instead of a#21 for a 10-32-NF and never even try a 10-24-NC unless it is very thin.

[tom mayo]

Do NOT get it hot, it will get really hard if you do. If you break off a tap in titanium, as mentioned above, you can soak it in ferric chloride and the tap will be eaten and the ti unaffected. I use cobalt drill bits as the carbide ones seem to snap a lot easier (small ones especially) in the sticky/grabby ti. Work it slowly and dont let it get hot, either in grinding or drilling or any other machining operation. Polishing the stuff is a big pain, get a bead blaster!!


PS_-Do NOT breath the stuff, even the smoke can make you really sick (Vanadium Poisoning!!! )