zirconium 702?

[leifjl]

i'm working on a friction folder with titanium liners at the moment and as a back spacer i used aluminum. Now that i have everything fit up and pretty much done i cant help staring at that aluminum and thinking that it just doesnt look right against the liners. i need the liner to be .100", which i dont have material for in titanium so i started calling places and one guy mentioned using zirconium 702. i had never heard of it before now and figured someone here had probably used it. I'm wondering what the machinability of this stuff is and if i need carbide tooling. I already looked up the data sheets for it but that doesnt give me the kind of info i'd get from someone who has actually worked with this stuff. Also it is EXPENSIVE, more so than titanium and i wondered if its worth the price. Any info would be helpful.

leif

 

[Frank Niro]

Contact Alpha knife Supply and talk to Chuck, although I'll just bet Jessica will have the information as well. Frank

 

[Chuck Gedraitis Knives]

Zirconium is like CP titanium in the way it works. It is softer then 6al-4v. The material is softer to cut but creates a bright, whiter spark then Titanium. It is more flammable then Titanium. Anodizes just as well as titanium. The biggest difference is when you heat color it, you get a blackish color to it.

IMPORTANT: FLAMMABLE!!! You really have to watch out when sawing that the chips don’t catch fire. Make sure there are no piles of shavings around your work area, they can spontaneously combust and can create a fire.

 

[leifjl]

ok, so other than turning a black color its pretty much a commercially pure titanium that is heavier and more flammable. guess im going with cp 4 ti then. thanks.