2x72 belt recommendations for titanium?

[Tin.Man]

Doing a batch of titanium handles, 6al4v grade 5 to be exact. Never ground on it before. I am however aware of the fire hazard it causes mixing the dust with iron/wood etc.

Will be ground into a water bucket dust devil type setup.

Ceramic belts? 3m 947? 3m 967? cubitron 2?

Appreciate any and all help gents.

 

[Willie71]

Doing a batch of titanium handles, 6al4v grade 5 to be exact. Never ground on it before. I am however aware of the fire hazard it causes mixing the dust with iron/wood etc.

Will be ground into a water bucket dust devil type setup.

Ceramic belts? 3m 947? 3m 967? cubitron 2?

Appreciate any and all help gents.

I just tried every belt I have in the shop on beta-c titanium. The Norton 984’s (red heat.) worked best, with norax a distant second. Grind very slow, or the belts gum up. Slow as in your final passes on a clean belt finish slow. I tried blaze, zirconia, aluminum oxide, and VSM 885 belts. I don’t have any 999 belts now. Those might work. They are very aggressive, but they only come in 24 and 36.

 

[REK Knives]

I use all my normal belts... Grinds just like soft steel to me but I grind wet at slow-ish speed.

 

[Mike Read]

Water Jet.

This does depend on your batch size but it can work out much cheaper getting Ti CNC Water Jet cut and saves hours of unskilled, unrewarding slog.

Work out how much you will spend on hacksaw/bandsaw blades, belts, drills and time. Include the time it takes to mark everything out, dot punch and drill the holes as well as cutting and grinding. Also you can allow for less material with water jet as you can nest real close. I estimate at least 20% less. Then think about all the dust in the workshop, the health risk and the fire hazard. Also with the accuracy of water jet you might have fewer rejects.

Last time I did a batch the cost of belts alone would have been more than the water jet cost.