I am working with a piece of titanium sheet metal for an OT project. I have not previously worked with titanium and would like to ask for some advice. The titanium sheet I have is .028" and it is marked HEAT #020422R and ASME-SB-265-07. There are other markings but they extend past the size of this sheet (12 inches square). I need to make several cuts and bends. The image below gives you an idea of what I have to do. My scanner is not big enough for the entire piece of metal, but hopefully you can see enough to get the idea. 1) Should titanium be annealed before I try to cut or bend it? 2) Can I cut it with regular aviation snips? Or should I use a jig saw? 3) Can it be bent in a sheet metal brake (long bends) or various clamps and vise grips (shorter sections or where things get doubled over onto themselves)? 4) Can it take a sharp 90 degree bend, or will it crack? 5) I will need to drill a lot of holes for bolts and also lightening. Can I use a punch for the smaller holes, and hole saws for the larger ones? Your advise is appreciated. I only have one piece, and given the cost of this stuff do not want to waste any.
1 - You dont need to anneal. 2 - You can cut it with snips. 3 - It can be bent in a brake. 4 - It will take a sharp break. 5 - You can punch, drill, holesaw, whatever. Just watch your speed, you can tell real fast if you need to slow the feed down. 6 - If you need to weld it, it needs to be done in an inert atmosphere. Good luck, and measure twice!
As far as the bends you wish to put in it, it would be good to know IF It IS annealed, just for peace of mind............Or , if you should happen to see a "C P " on it somewhere, which USUALLY stands for "commercially pure", which is quite malleable, and not prone to cracking @ your bends..........To give yourself every opportunity for a successful bend, SMOOTH all your edges, before you attempt your bends, so there is less chance for a crack to start. Give it hell, and good luck!
Never worked with any titanium sheet metal , but have machined a bunch. I can say first hand that when machining, and your not flooding with coolant, and your tool gets dull, and you got a bunch of hot chips... well lets just say when they ignite, the only way to put them out is with a halon fire extinguisher, they burn so hot it looks like you heated all the machine guards with a rosebud for about 10 min. Anyway hopefully you won't have to deal with this, be careful welding.
I'm glad you mentioned this. There will be a couple of parts that need to be turned on the lathe. Small parts, simple cuts - nevertheless, good advice - thanks.
Sorry if I hi-jack your thread but I have some valves that need to be reduced in size can I grind then?
i can think of a thing you would need to use titanium sheet metal for even on a o/t car, please explain. thanks
Any welding or melting of this alloy needs to be done in a chamber that is totally free of any oxygen. Argon is used for this, as is the shielding gas on a tig torch. There is no need to anneal your part before bending.
We used to have titanium bent in a u shape as temporary stiffners for running circuit boards thru a wave solder machine.. very stiff compared to other metal and solder would not stick to it.
You really need to know what grade of Ti you are working with. As noted CP will bend OK but if you have 6AL-4V you may be in trouble. The fact that you are working with thin sheet will help but if it is the tough stuff you need to make larger radius bends. As mentioned Ti is tough on tooling so be prepared to sacrifice a pair of snips if you use them. Roo
Becareful of titanium fires, they are very hard to put out unless you have the right fire exstingusher. hard to put out and easy to start... Working around airplames parts its a fear, even the dust is flamable.. (as noted above should be in a chamber when welded on)
Do NOT attempt to anneal it. If you're argon welding it, milling it or cutting it on a bandsaw etc, try to remove as much flammable materials beforehand such as sawdust, wood chips, paper etc. as the hot bits and pieces flying off of it are very hot, can stay hot for quite a while and start a nasty fire...thus make sure you have a large halon extinguisher handy beforehand. When I was a defense fabricator working on aircraft, we had a guy on the payroll whose sole job it was to gather all of the precious metal shavings as the day went along. sort them and turn them into our defense-dept-approved recycler.
I worked in a shop that built 1911 custom pistols. We used alot of titanium materials for slides, frames and trigger parts. One fellow was removeing some flashing from a titanium block with a belt sander before putting it in a wire EDM. The stream of sparks set his jeans on fire in seconds. The fire was only in the cloth so we slaped it out fast. Titanium is easy to work with hand tools but anything that creates heat makes it work really tough.
it cuts like stainless if you know how to turn that then your good to go slow speed heavy feed and coolant tk
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