Stainless Steel McGizmo

[fyrstormer]

7075 probably has a higher plasticity threshold, so the tooling can shear off surface material without deforming the underlying material. I don't have lathing equipment, so most of my metalwork is done with abrasive tools, and whenever I have to do something to aluminum I have to quench it every few seconds to keep it from getting hot enough to deform. Steel and titanium are so much easier to work with in that regard -- though titanium does turn my bench grinder into the biggest sparkler ever.

 

[precisionworks]

Your experience with aluminum mirrors mine. I would much rather machine trit slots in titanium than in aluminum as the Ti cuts so cleanly. 300 series stainless is very much like machining titanium in its ability to hold details.