Stuart

I don't have vast experience with machining titanium but found best to treat it like 316 stainless, don't let the tool rub and I found with a small cnc lathe light cuts at low feedrates worked best using the G type inserts designed for non ferrous materials, turning 12mm rod 800rpm .20mm@80mm/min. No doubt others with more experience with Ti will be along with more info.

Take care with the swarf build up in the chip tray, it can be a fire issue.

Emgee

Hello Stuart,

Sorry to hear your story, your wife will take keen interest in your work to replace the loss.

There are Damascus grades of Titanium alloy that take on multiple swirling oxidation colours with heating after the machining work, otherwise the straight grades [available oddly enough from HPC gears] will still colour up but not in the attractive mixed form that jewellers achieve with the Damascus grades.

I did the machining work on two wedding rings for one of my grandson's and his wife, a dummy sizing run in the straight grade HPC material and then the proper rings in the fancy grade that Chris had found.

I think an intense localised flame like oxi/gas with immediate quenching gets the best colouration but there are also electrolytic methods I believe that might give deeper and more durable colours. Not a field I have any experience with.

As others have said, take care with the swarf; I fired mine outside later. As for tooling, ordinary tipped tooling will make as good a job as any other, nothing fancy is needed; Ti machines in a very similar manner to the stainless steels

Enjoy the challenge

Brian.

Edited By Brian Wood on 04/07/2021 10:18:21

Some years ago a chap asked if i could make some rings out of titanium (8 in total all different sizes) he supplied the material 2 “ dia by 12 “

it machined very well only lost 2 due to work hardening problems..

they were to give to parents grand parents and god parents to his first born child.

after doing them to his satisfaction i tried very hard ( as an experiment) to set fire to the swarf to no avail..

Fast forward a few years and my niece brought a new suitor round for a family meal.and the chap had one of my rings on…he was a god parent to the child….small world

Sharp tooling also minimises the generation of heat on cutting, which I think may be due to its toughness and the reluctance with which the chip parts from the parent material.

Given sharp tooling, it's quite straightforward to machine much as you would medium-carbon steel as far as speeds and feeds go.

I'm interested to hear about the Damascus grades – I didn't know of these and have generally used grade 2. It blues nicely:-

Edited By Mick B1 on 04/07/2021 14:59:21

Titanium is naturally silver colour, but can be anodised at different voltages to give lots of different colours.