Any specific danger to working with Titanium?

[Mickey]

Are there any specific health problems to working with titanium?I heard once that you need special eye protection because of dangerous "UV" rays produced while grinding this stuff.Any truth to this?

 

[Corduroy]

I don't know about UV rays, but it throws sparks like the 4th of July when ground. They're quite bright, generally white sparks (more like magnesium than steel) and are uncomfortable to watch for extended periods. I generally just cut whenever I can and do less grinding, and when I grind it I try to place it so that the sparks are thrown where I can't see them. You should also be careful about the ability of the sparks to ignite dusts and flammable materials. I try to clean any machine up before working on Ti, and at the end of the day I shut the lights off and make sure there are no glowing, smoldering places around the machine - a fire in dust can smolder for a very long time without giving any graet sign of its existence.

Ti also produces an odd smell when ground too hot, which I've always wondered about.

-Drew

 

[magnum .44]

i don't know of any heath precautions, but i know titanium chatters when your cutting it, it breaks tooling so slow down your tool speeds, and feeds. consult the supplier for dangers, and always use a resperator.