• You must be a Supporting Member to participate in the Candle Power Forums Marketplace.

    You can become a Supporting Member.

Anyone want some titanium?

ManBearPig

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
47
ti006smallub5.jpg
I have a 17.92mm solid titanium rod that is 36 & 1/4 inches long. I'll let any of you talented machinists have it, if you build me a flashlight from it. I'd like a single AA for a CREE and whatever electronics will fit it. Doesn't need to be fancy.
This rod has a few minor flaws. Someone cut about 10 little marks down it's length, maybe 1mm deep at most, and one end is mushroomed a little from being hammered.

Any takers?


***EDITED to correct dimensions***
 
Last edited by a moderator:

kenster

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 6, 2005
Messages
2,095
Location
San Antonio, Texas
That buck looks like it is content and falling asleep!:) I just ordered my Lathe so I wont be ready for Titanium for a while yet.:grin2:

Ken
 

Sable

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 27, 2006
Messages
454
Location
Arizona
Ah, damn. I've had this very idea for a while, too!

If it works out, maybe I'll dig out my titanium rod from the combat-robot-project-that-never-was...
 

sortafast

Enlightened
Joined
Jan 7, 2006
Messages
315
Location
Oregon
I would think about it, but i am having enough issues turning 6061-T6 right now. But my noobness is slowly wearing off. I just remember a place i used to work for used to make some Ti stuff, and the machine operator would have to have a fire extinguisher at the ready with the pin pulled because the hot shavings would catch the coolant oil on fire (running 100% oil). Crazy stuff when a I-don't-know-how-many-tens-of-thousands-of-dollars CNC machine lights up. They always hated making those parts tho.
 

ManBearPig

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
47
It looks like PhotonFanatic is gonna get it. I have another piece the same size, so whenever any of you other guys are ready let me know. 2 flashlights are better than 1 :)
 

PhotonFanatic

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 17, 2003
Messages
2,337
Location
western Massachusetts
ManBearPig said:
It looks like PhotonFanatic is gonna get it. I have another piece the same size, so whenever any of you other guys are ready let me know. 2 flashlights are better than 1 :)

Send me the one without the gouges in it! :lolsign:
 

ManBearPig

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
47
PhotonFanatic said:
Send me the one without the gouges in it! :lolsign:

The second piece has only 5 gouges in it in a section that is 5&5/8s inches long. It's also 1/8 inch longer and minus the mushroom. I'll send you this one.
 

PhotonFanatic

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 17, 2003
Messages
2,337
Location
western Massachusetts
Anyone up for a blow-by-blow of how this progresses? :D

I thought so!:lolsign: So here we go:

The bar arrived vey quickly. Man this guy must really be impatient--he sent it Express Mail--as though that would get him his light any quicker. :ohgeez: :)

Problem is that the bar wasn't .75" in diameter (19.05mm) but was really 17.92mm, before any turning down needed to get to a smooth clean surface. What the heck, it's a challenge, isn't it? Back to the drawing board to redesign the light to fit the bar.

Decided to go with a McR-17-XR reflector and will turn it just a smidge to fit into the 16.50mm bore for the lens, reflector and converter module. OK, looked fine on paper, now on to the real world--the basement.

Took forever to saw through the bar using a hacksaw, but that's OK because it was very cold in the basement. Chucked up the 60mm piece in the four-jaw chuck, adjusted it true and then cleaned up the mushroomed end and turned down the diameter until I had a nice clean surface--net diameter 17.84mm. Not a lot of metal left to play with between the lens/reflector bore and the outside of the head--that would mean using a fine thread to avoid cutting too deeply into the wall.

Next up: drill and bore for the lens and reflector space. Never having drilled Ti before, this was all guesswork, especially since I was too dumb to seek the advice of others first. :thumbsdow

Took out a nice new cobalt 10mm drill that I had in stock and went to it. I had not read about suggested SFM, or RPMs for drilling Ti, so I think I went with 800 RPMs. At first I didn't think it was going to go anywhere, but a little more determined feeding got it going. Tough stuff, took a lot of pressure to hand crank the drill into the piece. Noticed a little smoke coming off the surface--definitely getting hot. Backed it off and decided to put a little cutting fluid into the hole to cut down on the friction and reduce the heat.

Stuck the drill back in and went deeper, only to see smoke real soon--the cutting fluid on the outside of the head was being vaporized quickly. Not sure what to do--keep going or back it out? I backed out, let it cool a bit, and started up again. More smoke, real soon. In fact, the outside of the piece was getting discolored. I couldn't tell if it was from the fluid being burned off, or whether the metal was really discoloring.

Oh, well, backed it out again and let it cool for 15 seconds and then back to work. Took a bit of pressure, no fire broke out, but still a bit more smoke--I stopped adding the cutting fluid.

Finally reached my desired depth of 25mm and withdrew the drill bit. Inspection showed no unusual wear and no bonding of any Ti to the bit, a little surprise given all the heat and pressure.

On to boring out the opening to size, from 10mm in diameter up to 16.50mm. Man did that take a while, especially when the best depth of cut was .30mm per bore. You do the math. :D At a decent hourly wage, I figure I'm already losing money.

Beaming with pride that things were going well, i.e., it was being machined into some sort of shape and I hadn't started any fires, or broke any tooling, I broke out the threading bar and set it up carefully. Took great pains to make sure it was parallel to the piece and on center.

The first cut was fairly light, .02mm, and it came out just fine. I did put some cutting fluid on it for each pass. Succeeding passes were gradually increased up to .08mm per pass. Suddenly I had a sinking feeling in my stomach--I realized that instead of the .5mm pitch that I wanted to cut, that I had failed to change the gears and was, in fact, cutting 1mm pitch instead.

ARRGH! All that time and energy was now really going up in smoke, since the depth of cut for .5mm pitch was only .52mm versus the 1.08mm for the 1mm pitch. And with only .67mm of metal thickness in which to cut the threads, the 1mm pitch wasn't going to work.

Shut down the lathe, shut off all the lights, and called it a night. :scowl:

Ah, well, it is a learning experience after all.

About an hour later, I realize that all is not lost yet. Fortunately, the 60mm piece still leaves plenty of material to play with axially--I just need to deepen the bore, cut off the mis-sized threads and start threading again--this time at .5mm pitch. :dedhorse:

(To be continued.)




OK, you can stop laughing now!
 
Last edited:

PEU

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Feb 26, 2004
Messages
3,600
Location
Buenos Aires / Argentina (I like ribs)
Fred, general rule for machining titanium is: use 1/3 the speed used for ALU and don't let it overheat because that makes the surface harder making things more difficult. Use a lot of fluid to keep the piece as cool as possible. This advise was provided to me by the shop where I purchased TI bars :)


Pablo
 

Anglepoise

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 4, 2004
Messages
1,554
Location
Pacific Northwest
I was just thinking this morning that I had not seen a 'machining ' update from you for a while.

Bought a smile to my face.

You wont get a fire on the heavy stuff. It's the very fine turnings that come off the cutting edge like fine silver threads that you have to worry about.

Very sharp tools, very slow and plenty of coolant/lube.
 

PhotonFanatic

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 17, 2003
Messages
2,337
Location
western Massachusetts
Pablo and David,

Thanks for the tips/info.

Of course, I learned all that ex post facto.
biggrin.gif


Here are some similar points that I found today:
Titanium can be cut very easily, but only if the tools you use are kept sharp. It is always easier to sharpen a tool than to have a wearland develop. Proper tool angles, adequate coolants and the use of slow speeds and heavy feeds are also advised.

Due to the fact that titanium has low thermal conductivity, when cutting, the chips have a tendency to gall and weld to the cutting edges on the tool. This always speeds up the wear on the tool itself. Rather than lose production, it is best advised to work the tool to its maximum capacity and then replace it when productivity decreases.

To lengthen tool life, use of the proper coolant is necessary to reduce cutting temperature and inhibit galling. Cutting fluids containing chlorine, fluorine, bromine and iodine should not be used, in order to avoid corrosion problems.

Sawing
Sawing titanium requires slow speeds - in the 50 fpm [15.25 mps] range - and heavy, constant pressure from the blade.

Low flash point cutting oils are not recommended, due to the fact that during machining, high heat is generated, which may cause the oil to ignite. High flash point cutting fluids or water-soluble oils are recommended.

Since the next piece is the battery tube, and therefor requiring a much deeper hole to be drilled, I definitely plan to change my tactics. :grin2:
 

ManBearPig

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
47
PhotonFanatic said:
The bar arrived vey quickly. Man this guy must really be impatient--he sent it Express Mail--as though that would get him his light any quicker. :ohgeez: :)

I didn't intend on mailing it express. My brother was on his way to the post office and volunteered to take it for me. I gave him 20 bucks and told him to send it Priority, expecting change. I was a little angry with him.

Sorry again about the wrong dementions, and for your trouble. TAKE YOUR TIME! I'm in no hurry.
 
Last edited:

PhotonFanatic

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 17, 2003
Messages
2,337
Location
western Massachusetts
modamag said:
Fred there are coolant thru drills & boring bar which should help.

Jonathan,

I know they exist, in fact I have some, but I don't have any easy way to feed the coolant through the tools.

Seen any simple solutions, i.e., even something like a hand operated system, rather than a full-blown coolant pump set-up?
 

cmacclel

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 15, 2003
Messages
5,018
Location
Sweden
I had fun myself drill / machining titanium :)

You need to go slow :) I was spinning 160 rpm.

After an hour I packaged it up and sent it to Morelite. A couple weeks later I has some nice machined parts :)

I intend to try it again with my new lathe.

Mac
 

ManBearPig

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
47
Fred,
I hope your lathe hasn't imploded.

Don't forget to engrave the names of my cats. All 93 of them in alphabetical order. But make Mr. Whiskers name bigger then the rest or he'll get jealous.

Have you sent it to the gold plater yet?
 
Top