Bought a couple of 6AL-4V Ti drops on ebay, just to see what it's like to turn it. The pieces were 1.5"x4" bar stock. My lathe is the humble Craftsman/Atlas 12x36. Cutter was a CCMT 32.51 ( .015" nose radius ) in a 1/2" shank tool holder in a AXA tool post. The AXA is mounted on a solid plinth( no compound ). Started out at 266 RPM and .0042" per rev feed rate( 104 SFM ). Depth of cut was .0125". Before each pass, I painted the work piece with a light coat of Anchor Lube. That cut really well, so after taking several passes, I upped the RPM to 418 and increased the feed rate to .0048" per rev for 137 SFM at the final diameter of 1.250". Didn't see a noticeable change in surface finish between the different speeds. After each cut, the work piece never got more than slightly warm to the touch. There was not much chip breaking action happening. At the slower speed, there was none, just a big continuous brillo pad. At the higher speed, it would break off every couple feet or so. I just swatted it away with a paint brush during the cut.
If the center drilling was any indication, I suspect that making a hole in this stuff will not be much fun. In order to center drill, it took a whole lot of peck/clear/lube cycles. Flood coolant would probably be handy for drilling.
The photos are simply a test piece/cuts, and not meant for or to be anything other than practice. Fun to do, and a good learning experience. Will have to explore it further.
If the center drilling was any indication, I suspect that making a hole in this stuff will not be much fun. In order to center drill, it took a whole lot of peck/clear/lube cycles. Flood coolant would probably be handy for drilling.
The photos are simply a test piece/cuts, and not meant for or to be anything other than practice. Fun to do, and a good learning experience. Will have to explore it further.
Hopefully not in your chip pan .
Kinda scary though...
Don't throw water onto it either . 
