how many CC's of Ti of what grade do you need to remove?
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

Its more than I thought - 432 cubic CM. The bar is annealed grade 5 Ti.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Kos could do it.
He did the eggbeater in Hardox as well, dind't he?

He did a great job on the beater but shipping the Ti bar over to you and back again would take too long. Don't worry, I have another Cunning Plan.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Your big face cutter should be taking that off at a rate of knots I would have thought?
Most calculators are giving me at least 1cc a minute at like .1hp of cutter load, the limiting factor seems to be the surface speed, looks like you need to go really slowly

The RPM is a bit low at 4500 I think but a 6mm cutter for us is coming out at around 2cc/minute at 100w or so. 4 flute and 2mm DOC gives 4cc at .2hp
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

Maybe the face mill inserts are not suitable or much deader than I thought? The cut is 0.5mm deep and 25mm wide (ie half the cutter width). Not sure what the speed is but fast enough to flash some of the coolant to steam and create sparks along the leading edge of the cut.

When I increase the load it gets really hard to crank the cutter through the Ti and the mill is already shaking quite a bit. The VFD motor is not slowing at all and could be pushed harder, its the rest of the mill and my arms that are complaining .
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Setup your gh4 and timelapse this epic ti mill fest
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Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

The Cunning Plan:

I'm putting the band back together, or at least one member:



Shiny is getting all his broken welds replaced with shiny new titanium . So far, all the old weld beads have been ground or milled off and about 25% of the seams have been re-welded. Its all looking good apart from a small patch where I angled the torch too much and let in some air. At this rate, the frame will be finished tomorrow and then reinstalling the parts will take a couple of days more.

I wonder why titanium welding seems so much easier than steel?
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

lower thermal conductivity, and higher heat tolerance would be my guess. The hot stays where you put it.
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

...or it could be the new contract I signed:



The welding is all finished and the parts will start to go back in later today.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Seeing double:



Shiny (in the background) is getting fitted out with parts; there are two replacements to make and everything should be ready to run mid-week.

I found the next welding project . Now that the Ti welding skillz have come together, its time to weld a complete frame. THis one is lighly unlikely to be ready for the Canberra event so it will get it's début in November or next year in the UK.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Out of gas:

I started welding up the new frame and everything was going great until about 2/3rds of the way through the battery compartment, when the argon ran out.



The welds might not be as pretty as a professional's but that is as oxide free as it gets without a full purge chamber .

Shiny is getting plenty of attention: new link retainer, a weapon motor upgrade, custom urethane wheels and possibly a multi-V weapon belt if there is time.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Looking good - how thick are filler rods you are using?
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Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

I use 1.5mm filler on the thinner panels like the battery compartment and 2.3mm rods for the thick armour repair on Shiny.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Titanium is also more viscous in the puddle. You can guide it a tad better with the arc.

Last edited by maddox on Mon Jul 18, 2016 1:09 am; edited 1 time in total