Anyone want some titanium?

[DM51]

Just found this thread - very interesting indeed. Excellent work!

 

[PhotonFanatic]

Very nice effect with the ball end mill. Photos please. Was it a solid carbide ?

David,

It was a standard length, four-flute, carbide endmill that had an AlTiN coating. Bought it from Melin Tool.

Must say I was quite pleased with the performance of the mill. I went very slowly on the plunge and then the sideways milling. I think too slowly.

But I wasn't about to experiment after all the time already into the head.

 

[Anglepoise]

Thanks Fred,
Melin Tool looks like they have some nice tooling.
Hope the hand mends soon.....

 

[gadget_lover]

It seems that I contribute a drop of blood to every project that I do. The whole "blood, sweat and tears thing, you know?

Hope you are ok soon, PhotonFanatic


Daniel

 

[AlecGold]

What a superb project PhotonFanatic.
Thanks for sharing!
Hope the hand doesn't trouble you tomuch.

 

[ManBearPig]

Wow, nice work again Mr Fred. You are really making progress.

Real sorry about the hand. Once it has the taste for blood, it will only demand more. I would keep a sacrifical animal close by if I were you.

If it makes you feel any better, I dropped an angle-grinder with a cut-off wheel on my leg last year. Made a nice 2" gash requiring 7 stitches.

Good luck with your recovery.

 

[modamag]

Nice job Fred. That's some nifty slotting there. :twothumbs
Hope your hand heal soon so you can get back to the shop with full vengeance.

 

[bombelman]

I would keep a sacrifical animal close by if I were you.

:laughing:

Get well soon ! Nice slots with the roundings !

 

[freewheelin']

Just found this thread, thats sure some sweet work! Can't wait to see how it turns out.
Le me know what the final cost will be if I need one too, LOL.

 

[Patriot]

This is a great thread! I've really enjoyed the progression. You're work is precise and beautiful. Thanks for the pics and updates

 

[65535]

You should drop one of those Lux Rebels in there.

 

[mossyoak]

that would push the completion dat eof the light into 2008 probably.

 

[PhotonFanatic]

Actually, Future has the Rebel in stock, or the Rebel launch would not have started. Or at least that is what I was told.

Still waiting for Future to take my order, however.

 

[PhotonFanatic]

Progress update--a very minor one.

First, the hand is healing well, the stitches come out on Wednesday. Thanks for all your well wishes--they seem to have helped.

One of the things that has held this up for some time is that I encountered a problem trying to put the first part of the split ring hole into the tail of the battery tube:

Unfortunately, I used what I had on hand for tooling, namely my ball end mill that had done so well with the grooving shown in a previous post. But as the ball end mill was almost through, it broke, leaving this nice protrusion:

I'm not sure what caused the problem, but first and foremost is that I was not using the right tool--it should have been a drill, not an endmill.

Now I really didn't know what to do, so I turned to another forum for some advice, the Practical Machinist, which is to machining as CPF is to flashaholics. Posted my problem and received many suggestions.

Finally decided to try a very simple, solid drill, a straight flute AlTiN coated carbide 2mm drill, made by SGS:

The good news--it worked like a charm. Cranked the RPMs down to 650 and it went through the TI with no problems.

Until you get to this point in a light, after investing hours and hours on one piece, you just don't realize how difficult even the most simple operations can be. Was I worried that I'd blow the drilling? You bet! And then what? I would have had to start all over again.

Needless to say, it was quite a relief to just drill a simple hole. :lolsign:

 

[TorchBoy]

... one end is mushroomed a little from being hammered.

I think most people go a bit out of shape when they get hammered. :drunk:

***EDITED to correct dementions***

So it's not a nutter any more?

Some impressive machining in this thread, PhotonFanatic. :goodjob: How much are you going to be selling them for when you start the production run?

 

[DM51]

I'm beginning to understand how nerve-racking it must be to have progressed so far, and spent so much time on a project, and know that just one little slip could still wreck the whole thing! This is a really interesting thread - well done again!

 

[sawlight]

Beauiful work Photon!!! I aplaude you're paitence!!!!! What is the DRO you are using? Never seen one of them before.

Ti is MISERABLE to machine!! Run it slow and feed it hard, within reason of tool size. It will work harden in a heartbeat, then it's all carbide, it gets expensive fast! I have found flooding it with water based coolants works the best. The fire hazard isn't near as bad as people make it out to be. It's no where near as flamable as Mag., but if it does go, there really is now way to put it out!! I have seen what was left of a vetical mill after a Ti fire. Lets just say I was glad I didn't work at that shop!!
Another note if you use carbide, don't be temted to run it at the higher RPMS as sugested, it is so brittle it will shatter if you try and plunge cut. Keep it around the same SFM as you would with Cobalt or HSS.
Keep sending the pics, and keep up the AWSOME work!!!

 

[PhotonFanatic]

Hi sawlight,

The DRO is an Acu-Rite 2000S; I love working with it.

Got a name for the water-based coolant that I might use? I do not have the coolant pump hooked up, I'd prefer to spray by hand and clean up after.

Sounds like you work in the trade, no?

I am learning to go slowly, but firmly with the Ti.

Thanks for the advice and do weigh in whenever you see something really stupid. :lolsign:

 

[sawlight]

Acu-rite has always made nice equipment!

Try finding some LPS, same place you buy you're, tap-rite and tap-matic should have it. And an old windex bottle works wonders!!
I've spent a day or two around some "things". The best way to machine Ti is to use liquid nitrogen or Oxygen for coolant, cuts like butter. But I doubt you want to get into that! I think it's been outlawed now even?
Anyway, don't want to derail the thread, so carry on, you are doing great!

 

[PhotonFanatic]

While I'm still waiting for one more ball nose end mill to arrive, I already had most of the sizes on hand to do a little trial run of an idea that I had for providing grip on the battery tube of the ManBearPig Ti AA light.

The head, as you recall is already milled:

But the rest of the light has not been touched, so I modeled this:

And despite my sending the drawing to ManBearPig, who has probably already given up on ever seeing anything from me, I haven't heard back as to whether he likes it or not. However, that doesn't mean a thing--the show must go on.

So today I decided to try the dots in Al as a precursor to doing it in Ti.

But while doing the dots was a priority, a couple other designs were attempted as well:

And the dots:

While not perfect, I like the idea and once the remaining end mill is in, then I'll experiment with the final depths of cut to get a good progression of decreasing diameters.