working with titanium?

B

BLADECARVER

Joined
Apr 8, 2007
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i decided to give titanium a try. any negatives i should be aware of? safe to work with? is it toxic to cut, sand, ect?
 
The highest purity of Ti (grade6?) is used as medical implants for bones and joints...
so i don't expect that it is highly toxic.

The one risk/precaution to be aware of that i know, is polarized lenses for ultraviolet eye protection during grinding, as the sparks emit UV rays (think sun damage).
They don't have to be shaded lenses. Even clear lenses can be polarized. Being a user of corrective lenses, i made sure that i ordered my shop glasses with polarized lenses.

Like a lot of metals, the fines from sanding can be flamable. Do not use water or CO2 extinguishers to fight the fire.
It will only feed that flame. (similar to many metal fires-mangesium & aluminum...)
Special fire extinguisher media are available - or you could keep a bucket of sand handy.
Many makers place a bucket of water with a touch of soap below the grinder to catch the fines.


Of course that being said, proper lung protection against fine particulate dust can never be a bad thing.

http://www.acialloys.com/msds/ti.html

Steve
 
tip
when grinding dot let itget hot as it becomes gummy and grabby on the belts
also it makes an orange peel like finish after the hot grinding
for me i like to work it thinking that the grinder id a power file and not a sander think slow and cool
most common Ti i have heard of is 6-4 BTW
 
6Al4V, the grade usually used for liners, has vanadium in it - not good to breathe. Of course, it's not good to breathe any dust.

Don't run your dust collector when grinding Ti - the dust is hot and stays that way for awhile. Wait for the dust to cool before sucking it up.

Variable speed isn't necessary, but it is a big help. Ti grinds just as quickly on low speed, but without as much heat / sparks.
 
Compared to soft steel, 6-4 AL-V is:

Twice as strong
Half as stiff
Conducts heat much more slowly

These properties dictate these machining strategies:

Relatively high chip load per tooth, near what you would use for aluminum (this is counter intuitive, so just trust me)
Low surface feet per minute
Shallow depth of cut
Rigid fixturing
Flood coolant

I find it difficult to take a special finishing cut on titanium, but regular machining like this leaves a pretty good finish.

While carbide lasts longer in ti, it costs more too. You can use HSS or carbide, they both work (somewhat poorly)

Pure Ti cuts not unlike stainless, 6-4 is a bit worse.

It might be better to stay away from larger cutters.
 
The only real problem I have with working titanium is thread cutting. Small taps break very easily threading it even with great care. The good bit is you can remove broken taps by soaking it in ferric chloride which dissolves the tap but dosen't affect the titanium.
 
had forgot to say about the coolant when drilling and what not
not taping mind you but when i drill any holes in Ti its kool tool (think thats how they spell it)

was fearing the tapping in some ti the other day but started using H2 2-56 taps and had no problem
 
Bladecarver,
good reference as to different Ti alloys is located on the Alpha Knife Supply website.
http://www.alphaknifesupply.com/ go to home page and then to Titanium Information.
Chuck Bybee and family run Alpha and Chuck's pre knife supply career was as an Engineer with Boeing...
If you are doing liners with the Michael Walker invented Linerlock, 6Al4V, or that 6-2-4-2 is more typically used than commercially pure (CP) Titanium.
Just some information trying to help.....
One more, I grind Ti very slowly with heavier grit belts to start...you can go slow enough to avoid sparks altogether.....
 
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