Titanium

S

Stickypoint

Joined
Apr 2, 2000
Messages
45
Is there an easier way to clean up titanium for anodizing ? I've tried a disk (made lots of sparks) and I've tried bead blasting it. (made more sparks) I know it's tough stuff, but this is ridiculous!
 
Wow, I wonder what you got ahold of? I hand sand ti to slick it up. Ti is wierd too. You can sand it with 120 grit by hand and it looks like 400 grit on steel.Try sanding it on a grinder with anything finer than a 60 grit and it gets a glazed look to it. I guess the heat does that. Don't mean to be a know it all, but be sure to clean it with acetone before coloring and after the cleaning don't touch it with bare hands. I'm fixin to heat color a pair of liners in my oven. Sure hope I get that nice violet to cobalt blue color.
 
Reactive Metals sells a product called MultiEtch that works really well as a final preparation for titanium before anodizing. You still need to finish the surface to a consistent condition if you want good results. Just like steel, the better your finish the better the appearance. If you have a surface grinder (I don't) you can carpet tape the titanium down and surface it that way. I use my platten on my Bader, and then hand sand on plate glass with the paper held on with spray adhesive. I start at 120 grit and work down.
 
George,

How good of a finish do you give it before that final polish? How fine do you sand and to what grits? By hand or machine?
 
I know this sounds like a no brainer but I must not of been going to a course enough grit. The lowest I used was 220 grit on a disk. I was getting the glazing with out alot of material being removed. I had the scuzy looking areas left over in the dips. I just went in and hand sanded with 120 grit and made pretty good progress.

Thanks for all the help.
 
I usually buff liners right from the mill finish, when I have to shape I buff from a 180 belt finish. The only trick is to use a LOT of very greasy tripoli compound, the dry green stainless steel cut and colour compound or the white high colour compound just push the titanium into ripples. Titanium is a tough material but it moves very easily under pressure and vibration, in engineering terms this is called "galling". Galling makes titanium hard to use in a bolted vibration prone application.
 
I was doing some hand sanding on ti liners today and got to thinking about slowing my 6 by 48 sander down to a crawl for sanding ti. I might do it if I can find the right pulley combo.
 
Titanium work hardens really easily,so you have to work it slowly and keep it cool.You also need to use sharp paper or belts especially on finer grits to prevent orange pealing.A little trick that may help you is to use a piece of rubber sheeting 1/8-1/16 thick between your disc and the paper this helps keep the chatter down,creates a cusion and extends the life of your paper.If done at the proper speed you can get great finnishes.Just remember to get rid of the rubber cusion when you do dovetails or need a sharp crisp cut. Hope this helps
 
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