# Titanium Machining Video



## cmacclel (Oct 31, 2009)

Here is the outside profile video of my new light. What you missed before was 30 minutes of drilling 


150sfm roughing 0.020 per pass at 0.006ipm
175sfm 0.003 finish pass at 0.003ipm

I could definetly go deeper on the roughing passes but I'm happy with .040 off the diameter per pass.

http://vimeo.com/7369512

Mac


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## wquiles (Nov 1, 2009)

Looks great Mac :twothumbs

Your CNC machine sure makes dealing with Ti so easy :thumbsup:

Is that a Kennametal Top-Notch holder? What bit/insert do you use?


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## precisionworks (Nov 1, 2009)

> Your CNC machine sure makes dealing with Ti so easy


The "secret" to machining Ti is to get rid of the heat. There's no substitute for heavy flood, as shown in the video. Manual machines made Ti aircraft parts for many years before CNC controls were adapted to lathes and mills - they just took a lot longer per op.

Cool video :thumbsup:


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## cmacclel (Nov 1, 2009)

wquiles said:


> Looks great Mac :twothumbs
> 
> Your CNC machine sure makes dealing with Ti so easy :thumbsup:
> 
> Is that a Kennametal Top-Notch holder? What bit/insert do you use?


 

Thats a Grizzly 331/2 VNMG holder. There the only ones that had one with a 5/8 shank. The holder is very good quality. The inserts are kicking *** so far. They are Kennametal KC5010 grade.

The turning part is the easy compared to the rest of the operations. Drilling is still a tedious job even with flood coolant. Your looking at almost 30 minutes just going in 2 5/8's in 3 stages. 

Mac


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## donn_ (Nov 1, 2009)

Very cool! I've never seen Titanium Wool before.


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## chipwillis (Nov 1, 2009)

Great Video, Everyone will be very happy when they get one of your Ti light's. I hope I can make it on the next run.


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## precisionworks (Nov 1, 2009)

> Drilling is still a tedious job even with flood coolant. Your looking at almost 30 minutes just going in 2 5/8's in 3 stages.



Many Ti processors use HPTC (high pressure through coolant) systems.Pressures run 1000 psi and up. It probably wouldn't be cost effective to try to fit a HPTC system to your machine, but it may make sense to have another shop drill out the bodies. Flood coolant is not very effective as the drill goes past 1D in depth. I'm guessing that your bodies are at least 4D deep, which means the drill point cannot get effective cooling.

http://www.ctemag.com/dynamic.articles.php?id=99

If you haven't tried an insert spade drill, there are lots on eBay. Many come equipped with a coolant inducer which allows plumbing up coolant fed by compressed air - even though that limits you to around 150 psi, it should produce positive results. The most popular brand is AMEC (Allied Machine), and some of them sell on eBay for next to nothing. Inserts can be HSS, coated HSS, or carbide. On caution on any spade drill is that you have to drill from solid stock in one step, but they are great performers for some jobs.

http://www.alliedmaxcut.com/products_spade_drills.php


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## Mirage_Man (Nov 1, 2009)

That is a very cool video Mac. Every time you post one of these videos I'm reminded of how long it takes me to manually make the stuff I do. Wish I had the cabbage to spend on a CNC machine.



donn_ said:


> Very cool! I've never seen Titanium Wool before.



Bet you could make a nice jacket with this. 












I think it's about time I see if I can find some place to recycle this. I hope it's worth something?


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## KC2IXE (Nov 1, 2009)

Looking at the Ti Wool (and even before that, in the video) I was thinking that you need to adjust your feeds/doc a bit to get better chip breaking. I was noticing a lot of long strings coming off even on the roughing pass

Yeah, I know, sometimes you just can't get the chip to break, but


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## Mirage_Man (Nov 1, 2009)

KC2IXE said:


> Looking at the Ti Wool (and even before that, in the video) I was thinking that you need to adjust your feeds/doc a bit to get better chip breaking. I was noticing a lot of long strings coming off even on the roughing pass
> 
> Yeah, I know, sometimes you just can't get the chip to break, but



The only way _I_ can get a chip is with insane feed rates which produce horrid finishes and that's _only_ while boring. I have never been able to produce a good chip turning the O.D. on my manual machine.


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## KC2IXE (Nov 1, 2009)

Sometimes, a different chip breaker, increasing/decreasing DOC (so it gets into the chip breakers 'zone') and the like can do the trick, but like I said, sometimes you just end up with wool

That said, if you can GET the chip to break, it's a 'good thing'

I don't run CNC at home, but talking to some guys I know who do, when you get into part itimization with CNC, you can do some really non intuitive things, like short partial roughing passes, say you need to do 4 roughs, and a finish - you can do things like rough for a 1/2 lenght, return, rough, return, rough, return, move down to the next 1/2 inch, continue, repeat, and then go from there - that somewhat limits the chip length

Having NOT worked Ti, I don't know how had it is to get to chip, but you can get a lot of stuff to chip

Oddball? Even if you are a small, small shop (don't get much smaller than mine), you'd be surprised how much info you can get from an applications engineer at your favorite carbide vendor. They seem to take somewhat of a long view, and that little shops often become big ones. Call or email them, and describe your problem "I'm turning X diameter 6/4 Ti, to X diameter, in N passes, with a feed of Y, and I'm not getting chip breakage. I'm currently using insert foo, from Mfg Bar, what do you have that you can recommend? I prefer an insert in size ZZZZ to fit my existing holders"

They might say try AAA or if you're willing to change holders, try BBB etc.


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## cmacclel (Nov 2, 2009)

When swarf becomes a problem I do play with the speeds and feeds to get an acceptable chip. I agree there where definitely some long stings but out of the 8 body's I made over the weekend it never imposed a problem....as in I never had to stop the machine to clear the swarf. Also longer strings make it easier to clean 

Swarf on the finishing pass is unavoidable.


Mac


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## KC2IXE (Nov 2, 2009)

The don't refer to finishing passes as making steel wool for nothing


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## precisionworks (Nov 2, 2009)

The chips in the video didn't look bad at all, as they broke often enough to not accumulate and ball up around the insert. If enough builds up near the tip & gets pulled into the cut, finish suffers as well as insert life. The chips from Ti (and most SS) are work hardened and are much harder than the parent material. Recutting these hardened chips is a tool killer :mecry:


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## cmacclel (Nov 2, 2009)

Here's a video with perfect chip control boring titanium 

http://vimeo.com/5618004

Mac


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## tino_ale (Nov 3, 2009)

Nice.
Any picture of the finished and cleaned parts? Or even finished product in Ti ?


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## cmacclel (Nov 3, 2009)

tino_ale said:


> Nice.
> Any picture of the finished and cleaned parts? Or even finished product in Ti ?


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## Data (Nov 14, 2009)

Mirage_Man said:


> . . .
> I think it's about time I see if I can find some place to recycle this. I hope it's worth something?



What did you find? I was offered $1.50 / lb for my 6/4. So I am still looking. :candle:

Cheers
Dave


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## precisionworks (Nov 14, 2009)

The online scrappers are selling 6-4 for about $4 per pound, meaning the buy price is half that or $2 per pound. Beats the heck our of 55 cents per pound for aluminum


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## Data (Nov 14, 2009)

precisionworks said:


> The online scrappers are selling 6-4 for about $4 per pound, meaning the buy price is half that or $2 per pound. Beats the heck our of 55 cents per pound for aluminum



Do you have a favorite online scrapper?


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## precisionworks (Nov 15, 2009)

With locations in Philly & Pittsburgh:
http://www.advscrap.com/

The key is finding a local company that wants what you have. The cleaner it is, the better. If it contains zero or very little coolant, and contains NO other metal shavings, you'll get top dollar.


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## Nanomiser (Nov 15, 2009)

Looks like you are putting that new lathe to good use and the product is looking phenomenal as always :twothumbs


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