Working Titainium (need refresher)

wrmiller

wrmiller

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So it's been quite a while since I worked with any Ti and would appreciate any pointers from more knowledgeable folks regarding it.

I want to make a few parts out of Ti and need to mill, turn, and drill. I vaguely remember it milling OK, but drilling was a PITA. And then there's turning.

Any help/comments appreciated, thanks.
 
This is for 6Al-4V ... and I cut quite a bit of it in the hobby shop.

For rough turning, I tend to be more conservative than the calculators out there. 180 SFM, 002 IPR and .09 Radial DOC (or as deep as you can go on your machine if power is limited) has worked quite well using a variety of carbide inserts. Ground periphery (CNGP, CPGM) holds up much longer for me relative to molded counterparts. Flood coolant is a huge plus, but if only for a few parts it probably doesn't matter unless they are large.

Finish turning, 215 SFM and up to .005 IPR. Chips can and will ignite so keep your chip pan reasonably clean.

Milling, about the same SFM with a carbide end mill and I will use bullnose if available as it tends to chip the ends of a square end mill before it wears out the flutes in my experience. Honestly, I find 316 SS more of a pain to mill than Ti ... this shouldn't be an issue.

Drilling, OH GOD ... haha. The big issue here is heat. Let the drill cut at its own pace and keep the heat in check or any tool you put in there will die a quick death. I have a bunch of CJT Koolcarb coolant through carbide tipped drills that seemingly last forever on the lathe. On the mill, I just keep the hole filled with coolant and drill very slowly using the quill so I can feel what is going on. Get the swarf out as often as you are willing because it likes to smear on the flutes.

My .02c
 
Thank you! :)

I will be working with small parts, approx. 3" square or less, and there are a couple of cuts I need to make with some rather small cutters. I forgot about Ti liking to stick to the flutes on endmills, thanks. I don't have flood coolant, but I have a fogbuster that I will use to try to keep the heat out of the cutters.

Thanks again!
 
I use uncoated polished Tungsten Carbide cutters for Ti parts, I do use flood coolant but an air mist should suffice if the feeds & speeds are not to enthusiastic.
 
I have small machines, a 935TS and a 1340GT, both with VFD/variable speed. I will be feeding the tool by hand and am not going to get aggressive as I vaguely remember melting a drill bit or two way back when I was machining a compensator out of Ti.

I want to try again, but I'll take things a bit slower this time.

Thanks for your help.
 
Don't need a big lathe or mill to machine Ti. I make stuff out of Ti with my 12x36 no problem. Also with my old 8x14 also. As said & as you know drilling is the worst. I use solid carbide drills when I can as they withstand the heat better but you don't need them. I drill Ti with cobalt drills too, just takes longer. Just be sure to keep em sharp.

For turning I mostly use high positive alumn specific inserts, CCGT, DCGT, SCGT, & CNGG. I also use Sandvik H13A inserts but I only have them for DCGT, I scored 100 of them for cheap.

For milling I use Kodiak 5-flute 45° helix uncoated endmills. But I don't mill Ti much other than grooves with carbide ball end mills.

I never hooked up my flood coolant & probably never will. I just spray on coolant with a spray bottle. I also use a cold air gun to help cool things off but the damn things are air hungry. I don't recommend buying a cold air gun though, I got mine cheap on ebay yrs ago.
 
Thanks Will. :)

I was hoping you'd see this post, and that you were still around. Not too many of the older members left it seems.

Anyway, thanks again!
 
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