Titanium Turning...

admin

Anyone here ever turn Titanium?This was a first for me but it was not as bad as everyone makes it out to be..Piece started out at 9" OD X 12" long..Turned to 8.500 +.050-.0000...I finished it @ 8.510...Used ceramic insert tool and never had to change it or anything..Speed..50 RPM..Feed?Whatever 8 T.P.I. equals in the gearbox..Took .050 per cut..New customer that said he could not find anyone willing to do this because of the difficult factor..Not so difficult if you ask me..Chips break into nothing quite easily and it was a rather easy job compaired to some of the stainless I get stuck with..Anyone else play with this stuff?...zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:Can work-harden in a flash.  Constant feed (don't stop), keep the cut going once you start.  Relatively heavy cuts.Watch out for heat build-up in the tooling or the workpiece.  Either one is bad.  For the tool or for the workpiece (heated titanium can be ruined from the oxidation).Keep the cut cool.  Lot's of coolant flow.http://americanmachinist.com/feature...tting-titaniumLooks like you mostly came out ok.  But those (roughing cuts?) show a good bit of galling/tearing on the workpiece surface.  The best laid schemes ... Gang oft agley ...
Reply:Made my wifes wedding ring from 6-4 Ti.  Whole different world as far as size of bar stock, but still some pain in the butt with a boring bar that fits inside a ring.  Gotta keep the tooling sharp.  (I had to grind my own out of HSS)Experience is something you get right after you need it
Reply:Originally Posted by 7A749Yeah, it's gummy & heats up something terrible if you dont pay close attention to it. We had titanium inserts that went in the injection nozzles in the cup molds we built when I worked at Dart.That piece he brought you prolly costs many, many thousands of dollars. Wonder what he was making with it.
Reply:Originally Posted by MoonRiseCan work-harden in a flash.  Constant feed (don't stop), keep the cut going once you start.  Relatively heavy cuts.Watch out for heat build-up in the tooling or the workpiece.  Either one is bad.  For the tool or for the workpiece (heated titanium can be ruined from the oxidation).Keep the cut cool.  Lot's of coolant flow.http://americanmachinist.com/feature...tting-titaniumLooks like you mostly came out ok.  But those (roughing cuts?) show a good bit of galling/tearing on the workpiece surface.
Reply:I have turned thousands of feet of Ti.,just about every grade threw the years on conventional and CNC lathes,before they came out with deticated inserts for Ti. we used inserts made for aluminum.Stead feed and flood coolant ,never had any problems,the same with milling,there was more of a problem grinding and sanding it.
Reply:It's all fun and games until you get a chunk Beta C Ti, then you will earn your keep!!LarryMiller XMT 304 CC/CVSyncrowave 180 SDLincoln PowerMig 255XTTermalDynamics 52Lincoln 305GComlpete machine shop to back it up
Reply:Nice...thanks for posting.
Reply:ZAP, heres some pics, I will try to xlpain later but I thought this could be a goood Ti thread.In the first pic at top right is Ti sponge from Australia or Russia. Biggest suppliers on Earth. Next to it is commercial pure or Betta pure? Check the cuts.  After comes 6 four Va Al most popular for strength. The alloy gives more strength kind of like Red Tungsten ceriated raises the melt point of Tungsten sort of.Also, I tried to use the 380 Powermax to cut. Once the Ti reaches temp, the post air flow keeps cutting similar to an Oxy lance but with regular air. From what I was told, water would give the burning Ti more Oxy and release Hydrogen. Cutting Ti is dangerous. Hope you can see the machine cuts in the pics. I have an old Iphone cam but I did put in new egg crate lighting last weekHave a good weekendMy pics didnt come out rite but , hope you like the pics just the sameI cut a piece off the the ring in the last pic with plasma. The air keeps the Ti burning without plasma. Ugly cut tho. On a more interesting note;  that ring was a rejected part of a big jet engine. The vertical lathe used to cut ring was taken from NAZI Germany as I was told. If true, then it probably was also used for the Guns of Navarone and possibly cannons for the Bismark.A 6P clamp is on the ring for scale, the cut wasnt worth showing. My plasma torch was at 24 amps but the air seemed to cut without plasma juice. Attached Images
Reply:Originally Posted by Insaneride From what I was told, water would give the burning Ti more Oxy and release Hydrogen. Cutting Ti is dangerous.
Reply:NC_machine, in a machine shop you would not likely get the Ti hot enuf. 10,000*F I think to burn. I have heated Ti with the biggest rosebud we had to white hot. For anyone that doesnt know, whitehot is past chery red hot. It didnt catch on fire but made me nervous because I did put out Ti fires on a weekly basis. You can see in one of the pics , peices that came out of the fires. Pumping the vacuum suffocated fires, salt can put out Ti fires (class D fire) but salt ruins the scrap Ti. Scrap Ti is used in steel production. The scrap is loaded into 50 gal drums from Russia mostly and back filled with Argon to suffocate.I did say I was told water makes the Ti burn faster but what I was really told is, dont put liquids on the freshly burnt Ti. Well, I just had to do it. I threw my cold coffee on a piece about the size of a brick and sure enough, it burned uncontollably till I poured salt on it.Im just saying, cutting Ti with a plasma torch is a little more dangerous than cutting steel or aluminum.The reason for heating a Ti test probe to white hot is; the pure Ti probe needs to be oxidized so that it doesnt stick to the hot Ti samples being taken.In the first pic, the five or so pieces on the left had been thru fires.