Cutting Ti With a Cutting Torch

Peter Atwood

Peter Atwood

Joined
Oct 26, 2000
Messages
2,468
Has anyone tried cutting Ti with an oxyacetylene setup? I had a friend cut some strips up once for making bracelets. He had a torch on a track and he was able to zing off straight strips. Once the Ti started it was VERY fast and just went like butter.

Recently I had another friend try on a different piece of material and it failed miserably. It just wouldn't cut. It blobbed and sputtered and basically made a mess. I think it was a different alloy. Maybe the 6Al4V that you guys use would respond better.

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Peter Atwood

email:fountainman@hotmail.com
 
Isn't Ti very Flamable !!!!!! I know you can melt a line in aluminum and brass but if you put a torch to magnesium your piece will end up at your feet in a ball of flames and I thought that Titanium was the same way. I would just cut it.
Just my observations,
Bruce

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Bruce Evans Handcrafted Knives
The soul of the Knife begins in the Fire!!!!!
Member of,AKTI#A000223 and The American Bladesmith Society
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I cannot respond to cutting titanium with a cutting torch, but I have done it with a plasma cutter. From my experience, the edges are quite coarse and the slag build-up is a lot. The most frustrating part of it is the heat and stress it creates in titanium. You are better off cutting it on a band saw than using a torch. I hope this helps.
Allen Elishewitz
 
if you`re cutting sheet material you could use a fibre reinforced radiac wheel in a table saw to cut the strips just be sure to wear goggles or a face shield as it will throw alot of sparks.
 
Yes, like Allan says, it gets super hot cutting it with heat and creates a BIG hard spot along the whole edge....PLUS..you have to be very careful about warping it as it isnt that easy to get straight again. I have found the best method is friction cutting on a wood cutting bandsaw with a dull fine tooth bimetal blade......zips right thru, but it does leave a slag underneath so you have to have it proped up a bit so the slag doesnt catch on anything as you push it thru.
You can cut it on a metal cutting bandsaw but its super hard on the teeth.....blades dont last long. Abrasive wheels are a bit like a torch...get it too hot too quick and causes more problems than its worth.
 
Thanks for all the comments. I definitely experienced a lot of nasty hard slag on the edges recently with the torch method. A friend tried a plasma cutter on it and that REALLY left a messy edge. But I have found that a regular 4 1/2" disc grinder with standard aluminum oxide wheel will eat through it pretty quick. I was looking at a piece today that was left over from my bracelet making days 10 years ago and there wasn't really all that much slag on that strip. It cleaned up very quickly with the disc grinder.

I will definitely take Tom's advice and try the band saw approach. My buddy has a saw he will let me use if I get a bimetal blade for it. He says that it is an odd size and a blade has to be made for it. What is the best source for these? What is the preferred number of teeth?

Thanks!

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Peter Atwood

email:fountainman@hotmail.com
 
at least 16 tpi......or more.....a sharp one works pretty good but the ti breaks the teeth tips off pretty fast....so I just use dull one.......dont stop.....it gets hot and then it get hard right there......I cut titanium up to 3/16" thick this way, quickly.
It cuts .050 like butter.
 
Thanks Tom. BTW, there is an interesting special effect possible with the cutting torch method. I'll share it with you all.

Back when I was doing the bracelets I was working with sheet stock that was around .1 in thickness. I was heating, forging and twisting because that was what I learned to do in the blacksmith shop. I made some cool stuff that way. When I learned that the Ti could be polished and heat colored I was in heaven and immediately set to work making a pair of thundercloud earrings with some thinner stock that I had. I made cloud shapes and then used the torch to turn them a deep shade of purple. I added hand forged 14k gold lightning bolts that dangled and swung from a tiny handmade gold rivet. They were beautiful and I gave them to my girlfriend at the time who was a moody sort. She's still got them.

Anyhow, the day that I was cutting the thicker material with the torch, a small piece of scrap was lying on the floor underneath the path of the sparks and slag. I went to retrieve it and noticed that it was encrusted with little crystally bits of spatter. I later tried selectively decorating a polished and colored piece with this spatter method and it was very cool indeed. I had a finish resembling a sandblasted texture that was very hard and durable. Like weld spatter on steel, you couldn't scratch this stuff off. And it was really sparkly and irridescent. Now I want to try using it with a stencil pattern on a Ti knife handle.

So there you go. Bet no one has seen that effect before!



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Peter Atwood

email:fountainman@hotmail.com
 
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