what is it like to grind titanium?

Very tough, eats belts, throws big fat white sparks that will burn into the surface of stainless steel. Not nice material to work with.
 
Working titanium is about like stainless. It's a tough metal. When grinding, it will throw a lot of sparks and can get a little gummy if allowed to overheat. It will also turn brown or blue, but that can be polished off. It can harden if it gets very hot in a blue purple color. Be sure to keep the grinding area clear of the dust, which can burn like magnesium. It usually just burns quickly like a sparkler without anything else getting burned, but better safe than sorry.
 
What titanium alloy:

CP series grind easily

6-4 is harder to grind

15-3-3-3 is horrible to grind

Beta C will make you want to give up and try knitting
 
Looks cool while grinding untill you factor in the Heavy Metal absorbsion you WILL GET !
No matter how carefull you are there are microscopic particles everywhere in your shop no matter what you grind or how you vent Etc.
You carry them in your clothes, hair any exposed skin---so you are exposed no matter what. Do yourself a HUGE FAVOR if you want to grind for a long time and avoid things with Vanadium and other heavy metals which settle in you system for the long haul:D
IMO Simple Carbon steels are safest
 
A fire hazard.
It will also burn your eyes, and skin.
Breathing the fumes is sickening.
Be careful.
 
...so basically not something to start learning on. :D

If a lad purchased some titanium alloy rods (I saw # 6AL/4V ELI, # 6AL/4V GRADE 5,# CP GRADE 2 on www.onlinemetals.com) to file them with an ordinary coarse file into spikes for bowfishing, defense use, or just to kill time, is that doable?

If I understand correctly, Ti alloys are more expensive, 100% rustproof, lighter, and more wear resistant than many steels (although softer)?
 
That's an idea. Although I like the minimalist/improvisation/hard approach.

If I did, could I screw up anything by overheating (like with steels)?
 
It takes a lot to overheat titanium enough to harden it, but if you do, it gets very hard. I used to machine bicycle cogs from 6Al4V plate on my first CNC knee mill that had a mist coolant system. Every now and then the coolant nozzle would get bumped and the titanium would proceed cutting without coolant. This would last for a few seconds before the titanium gets a blue purple from heat and breaks the cutter. It took ruining a lot of carbide cutters before realizing that if the material got that hot, it hardened so much that the next cutter would die immediately upon trying to machine it. There was simply no way to machine through it. I had to throw the part out and start over.
 
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