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Cleaning up TI
- Thread starter mikeS
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2001
- Messages
- 501
I forge a lot of titanium and the only way I know of is to sand it down again to the grit finish you are looking for. You can use a hydrofluoric and nitric acid dip but that stuff is not enviromentally or personnel friendly at all. What are you forging?
- Joined
- Dec 14, 1998
- Messages
- 4,870
Try a 3m plastic wire wheel.
Works great!
Works great!
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2000
- Messages
- 2,468
Darrel, where do you find such a beast? Will it remove scale from small crevices? What kinds of surfaces have you tried it on?
- Joined
- Dec 14, 1998
- Messages
- 4,870
Koval has them.They are a 6 inch plastic wire wheel. Yes you can get into small places. The wheels come in coarse med and fine.
They clean and satin ti (if descaled) better than anything I have seen.
To descale ti it takes hydroflouric acid. This acid is very dangerous.
Be very carefull. Ti scale is very hard. It is not like steel scale.
Its like a glaze.. Most ti mills pickel the material and then abrasive blast the raw product. If they dont the material will be just to hard to work. Annealing is 1350 for a few hours then ramp down to 800 over 8 hours like a sub anneal on steel.
Ti with scale will strip belts like there butter (at least 6 al 4 v will) So if you forge it, it has to be descaled before working.
The fine wheel leaves a nice satin fine finish. Dont let the grit confuse you . The fine is about 80 grit. But it satins like 400.
I use the coarse to deburr. The nice thing is that the wheels hold up under intense use. They didnt fall apart like I thought they would.
Once again ask Mick at Koval for the plastic wire wheels that Darrel uses.
They may have to order them I dont know.
One other trick is that they work better at high speeds. The motor I have the wheels on is a 3600 rpm. It has a step down switch to reduce the rpm to 1750 . The 3600 works great.
Now if they made a 12 inch more speed more speed!!!!!!!!!!
Also they wheels are stackable. You stack I think 6 of the sections together to get 1/2 inch wide wheel. So if you have a thin place you can set the wheel up to get into thin slots ects.
Happy ti finshing.
They clean and satin ti (if descaled) better than anything I have seen.
To descale ti it takes hydroflouric acid. This acid is very dangerous.
Be very carefull. Ti scale is very hard. It is not like steel scale.
Its like a glaze.. Most ti mills pickel the material and then abrasive blast the raw product. If they dont the material will be just to hard to work. Annealing is 1350 for a few hours then ramp down to 800 over 8 hours like a sub anneal on steel.
Ti with scale will strip belts like there butter (at least 6 al 4 v will) So if you forge it, it has to be descaled before working.
The fine wheel leaves a nice satin fine finish. Dont let the grit confuse you . The fine is about 80 grit. But it satins like 400.
I use the coarse to deburr. The nice thing is that the wheels hold up under intense use. They didnt fall apart like I thought they would.
Once again ask Mick at Koval for the plastic wire wheels that Darrel uses.
They may have to order them I dont know.
One other trick is that they work better at high speeds. The motor I have the wheels on is a 3600 rpm. It has a step down switch to reduce the rpm to 1750 . The 3600 works great.
Now if they made a 12 inch more speed more speed!!!!!!!!!!
Also they wheels are stackable. You stack I think 6 of the sections together to get 1/2 inch wide wheel. So if you have a thin place you can set the wheel up to get into thin slots ects.
Happy ti finshing.
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2000
- Messages
- 2,468
Thanks for the detailed info Darrel! I already have had much experience with ti scale and have spent many frustrating hours trying to find ways to remove it easily and quickly so I'm all ears when someone suggests a better way. Plus, I have an upcoming project for which this will be very useful. I'll call Mick today.