Thread: titanium
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Old 09-03-2009, 05:06 PM
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kenb kenb is offline
MetalShaper of the Month Aug. '09 & Mar. '11 Rest In Peace Ken 1960-2011
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Flamborough, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 418
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Originally Posted by chepokee View Post
i was just wondering if anybody here does any work with titanium or inconel, i'm having alot of trouble with it
I have a few peices of Ti over here that were sent to me by Geoffery (Gonejunking) from Metalmeet, to make another baseball cap from the same patterns I used to make the previous hats I've made from 3003. I have yet to go to work on that project though, and I anticipate that I'll need a whole new set of procedures to make this one.

Geoffery did mention a couple of things I can share with you though. He says that Titanium has to be worked hot, I'm not sure exactly how hot though. This will force me to rethink my shrinking techniques a bit, as I can't picture myself pounding any red hot peices of titanium on my leather sandbag or my maple stump with UHMW hammerheads!
I'm not sure how hot you have to heat it to trigger the reaction, but titanium apparently turns dark blue when heated, which explains the factory supplied color scheme on the SR71 Blackbird surveillance aircraft. Geoffery suggested that I braze my hat sections together, so that the brass color of the braze will provide an attractive contrast with the dark blue color of the titanium.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: I checked out my notes from talking with Geoffery, and he said that Ti can also be worked cold, but he warns that working it that way makes stainless look like butter! Also, those in the know state that 1000F is the required temperature to trigger the blue color reaction from your titanium.

Ken

Last edited by kenb; 09-04-2009 at 08:59 PM. Reason: adding information
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