Thread: 20mm hole in 5.5mm thick Titanium.. any takers?

Depleated [Depleted] Uranium projectile,

do you want to use the sheet again:confused:

Oh!!:eek:

1/4" Cobal HSS or solid Tungsten drill bit.

20mm tungsten tipped hole saw.

Lotsa cutting fluid.

Cemtre punch and drill with the
1/4" for the holesaw's pilot.

Drill the hole at slow speed and keep drowning it in good cutting fluid.

If you can afford the titanium, you can afford the bits to drill it.


(I can't afford the titanium, but I do have the bits to do this. Don't bother sending it to me for drilling though as it may get lost in the post, or something like that. )

Laser cutting?

Way out of my Depth here,
does it show

What about Grinding?
Though you go through a heap of Grinder Bits.

Welcome to the forum!

yup - laser is the way to go. If you were in Melbourne I could direct you, but ....... as you're in Sydney the drive would just take too long

not the drive to Melbourne - the drive to get you out of traffic and onto the highway

Laser, there's a mob out at Smithfield, can't remember the name.

Thanks!
The problem with laser (actualy I don't even think that could do it...) or waterjet cutting is that they require about 10mm around the outside of the "part" as they can't allign it all that accurate.. so in that case the sheet becomes the stock material and what the laser or jet cuts out becomes the part... not what i'm really after...
Actualy I could probably get the part (it's a spinning weapon on robot btw ) cut from a high strength steel called bizalloy instead... save the sheet for another time
And lol no, i'm actualy not on a pretty big budget, the sheet is from a guy in the states and I got it for $60
This is a pretty kewl forum actualy... I don't really work with wood but work with plastics and metal alot!

20mm tungsten tip hole saw will do it if you take it slow and flood with coolant (metal cutting not like you use in your car)

Hi

Originally Posted by dyrodium

Thanks!
The problem with laser (actualy I don't even think that could do it...) or waterjet cutting is that they require about 10mm around the outside of the "part" as they can't allign it all that accurate.. so in that case the sheet becomes the stock material and what the laser or jet cuts out becomes the part... not what i'm really after...

I was sure that wj cutting was not THAT inaccurate, see this info....
===
While waterjets are perceived as competing with laser, plasma, and EDM, many shops have more than one of these types of machines and consider them complementary processes.

Waterjets use cold supersonic erosion to cut almost any material, both metals and nonmetals. It can cut metals ranging from thin shim stock to more than 10 in. thick with accuracies of ±0.0003 to ±0.015 in. Seventy-five percent of waterjets are used to cut material less than 4 in. thick. Repeatability is ±0.001 in. Thick cutting (more than 4 in.) with a waterjet loosens tolerances by at least two times.
===
...here

http://www.thefabricator.com/Waterje...ID=394Waterjet Cutting

Cool yeah I was aware of that, not something i'd really want to risk. It's not the jet accuracy that's the problem, but the fact that they can't allign it perfectly (the sheet of metal) hence the 10mm tolerance zone. Also (although it wouldn't be much of a problem) is the water "jet" particals disperses in the cut, so you get an angle which gets more and more noticable as the material gets thicker. After talking with a friend who cuts a LOT of titanium, generaly laser is not used as it can weaken the material (harden and brittle it) and can't manage stuff much thicker than shim... He got his 15mm bar cut by waterjet and it looks pretty good!
Hmm so what kind of metal projects do people get up to here?

Pretty basic stuff, as far as I'm concerned. Welding, forging and soon (I hope) casting. Mainly bits for the shed (just made an S shaped tool rest for the woodlathe from a cheapo Bunnies pry bar) the house and general repairs.

Would love a metal lathe, but no space. Borrow a mates enormous, very old, Russian lathe - swing of about 50 metres.

Dyrodium, if someone is quoting you 10mm tolerance they are feeding you bull crap, sounds like they don't want to do the job. Lazer cutting works to very fine tolerances . For a one off job all they need to work off is a fine pin point mark at the centre of the hole.

Originally Posted by Bodgy

Pretty basic stuff, as far as I'm concerned. Welding, forging and soon (I hope) casting.

Bodgy.
What sort of burner are you going to use for the smelter?
I want to get into casting Aluminium and am searching for a good burner design for LP gas.

Glock

I'm not the one to advise on this. I got all I know from Schtoo San's posts. Would make a couple of points. I've ditched my LPG torch since I bought (EPay $19) a 3 Crowns kero blowtorch. Much bigger and hotter flame, and there's no leaking of gas like the disposable LPG cylinders. As I use it infrequently, I'd often find the gas cyclinder empty by the time I next wanted to use it - this after maybe 10 minutes use total.

Secondly, do firebricks really cost $25 each? This is what my local BBQ retailer quoted.