This came up on another sight and it peeked my interest since I have about 8-10oz of the stuff laying around. It was medical grade that was taken out of my wifes back (kinda sick huh).

Anyways I really would like a nice peep sight made (kinda like a $50 saddle on a $1 horse). I dont mind paying for the work but is it worth it? Does anybody even do anything with titanium nowadays?

Unless you have a pal who owns a shop with some great CNC gear and Solidworks skill, it'll cost you more than the rifle you'd mount it on. Ti isn't that expensive but machining it correctly is ... if it was an implant, I'd polish it and leave it on the bar as a conversation piece rather than chop it up.

I've worked with it machined tons of it and have a small supply of it in the garage.
What would you like??
The only advantage Titanium has over other materials in this case would be it's corrosion resistances. It's not that much lighter then steel in such a small part that it would make a difference.

The real thing is marketing. Titanium just has a way of selling itself regardless if it actually makes sense to use it or not.

One shop I worked for made a solid Titanium knife blade. What a POS. Titanium is a very tough material, and very difficult to machine. But it is not hard at all like a knife blade should be.

So the question is what exactly do you want! And just how much are you willing to spend.
The sight inserts I have on my website would be easily double the cost maybe 2.5X in Titanium just to give you an idea.

Now I could make you one in stainless it would be cheeper and hold up just as well in the weather as titanium.

Thanks guys,

I knew it would be expensive but wasnt sure if it was worth it. Its a good conversation piece though and it will stay that way.

A freind of a friend worked at a mortuary... found titanium hip replacement part after cremation; the one that hammers into the top of your femur...guy turned it into a shifter on his truck...

Dont know what yer wifes Ti part looks like but maybe could have a second life as a door knocker or something...

I have a Winchester high wall hammer, SST trigger and kicker, all made from Ti by a master toolmaker. He inserted a small shelf of HSS in the hammer at the full-cock notch, to take the sear pressure without crumbling the hammer's Ti sear edge. So far at least, the secondary sear (kicker's set sear) Ti surface is holding up very well and I'm extremely happy with the setup.

This alteration was done in the interest of faster lock time and possibly-improved ignition. Next will come some tests to measure any differences in lock time among the various Winchester high wall mechanisms; unset, SST, CCDST and Schuetzen DST, along with speedlock hammer(s), different mainsprings and the Ti parts. For this, I gotta figure out how to hook up an O-scope or some such to measure the time increments....
Regards, Joe

Titanium has three characteristics that are interesting.

1. It is practically corrosion resistant in any environment until it gets extremely hot.

For example bars and spring fingers of titanium were used to hang parts in a sulphuric acid anodizing bath where I used to work. The same bars and finger racks were used the entire 12 years I was there.

2. It is very springy and tough. You have to over bend it about 50% to form it.
No it is not hard enough to make a knife blade that take or hold an edge. However if you wanted a diving tool just to dig with it would be ideal. It will not rust and if it is .125 or so thick you will not be able to break it.

3. When blasted with baking soda it takes on the nicest flat gray texture. If it ever gets scratched just soda blast it again. It will never corrode.

It would be ideal for a receiver sight since it is so hard to bend it.

It would be easy to have a follower milled out of it.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
Titanium has three characteristics that are interesting.

1. It is practically corrosion resistant in any environment until it gets extremely hot.

For example bars and spring fingers of titanium were used to hang parts in a sulphuric acid anodizing bath where I used to work. The same bars and finger racks were used the entire 12 years I was there.

2. It is very springy and tough. You have to over bend it about 50% to form it.
No it is not hard enough to make a knife blade that take or hold an edge. However if you wanted a diving tool just to dig with it would be ideal. It will not rust and if it is .125 or so thick you will not be able to break it.

3. When blasted with baking soda it takes on the nicest flat gray texture. If it ever gets scratched just soda blast it again. It will never corrode.

It would be ideal for a receiver sight since it is so hard to bend it.

It would be easy to have a follower milled out of it.

Good points.

But the stuff is damn difficult to machine and that is where the true expense is.

quote:

Originally posted by Joel/AK:
This came up on another sight and it peeked my interest since I have about 8-10oz of the stuff laying around. It was medical grade that was taken out of my wifes back (kinda sick huh).

Anyways I really would like a nice peep sight made (kinda like a $50 saddle on a $1 horse). I dont mind paying for the work but is it worth it? Does anybody even do anything with titanium nowadays?

It's abrasive stuff, will wear a carbide cutter quick. Oh yeah, forgot another thing - shavings that weren't handled properly have burned a lot of shops to the ground...

Thanks guys,

I started looking into it after I started this thred and I dont think its worth it. The Ti I have isnt in 1 big piece so it would have to be melted down, etc....

From what I read, its not like melting lead, to say the least.

While titanium offers advantages compared to other materials, it does create several manufacturing challenges. Because titanium is a poor thermal conductor, heat generated during the cutting process doesn't dissipate through the part or machine table. Instead, the heat intensifies at the cutting area, sometimes reaching 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which can quickly dull cutting tools. Using dull cutting edges can generate even more heat, further shortening tool life.

Titanium's elasticity creates additional manufacturing challenges. Under cutting pressure, the material's elasticity makes it spring away from the cutting tool, which causes edges to rub together (instead of cut), increasing friction and further raising the temperature at the cutting area.

While using the right tool can help mitigate these manufacturing challenges, using the wrong tool will only compound them. Since titanium tends to work harden during normal cutting, those tools that can't cut through the depth of hardened material will actually accelerate the hardening process. Instead of cutting, the wrong tool will push against it, straining the material. As the material reaches a higher level of hardness, cutting speeds that were appropriate at the start of the cut become excessive, wearing down the cutting tool quicker than normal.

The irony is that titanium's physical properties are the reason it is so popular in the aerospace and medical industries. Unfortunately, many machine shops avoid titanium because of its reputation as a tool killer that is unreasonably expensive to machine. While there is little anyone can do to alter the material's physical properties, there are techniques to simplify the machining process, prolong tool life, increase metal removal rates, decrease the cost of metal removed, and reduce the intimidation factor.

Titanium’s work-hardening characteristics are such that titanium alloys demonstrate a complete absence of “built-up edge”. Because of the lack of a stationary mass of metal (BUE) ahead of the cutting tool, a high shearing angle is formed. This causes a thin chip to contact a relatively small area on the cutting tool face and results in high loads per unit area. These high forces, coupled with the friction developed by the chip as it passes over the cutting area, result in a great increase in heat on a very localized portion of the cutting tool. All this heat (which the titanium is slow to conduct away), and pressure, means that tool life can be short, especially as titanium has a tendency to gall and weld to the tool surface.

Be careful using TI on any moving parts (like a firing pin). Titanium will wear out steel. A tight fitting part will loosen up much faster if it is TI on steel vs. steel on steel.

Trax et al,

With a rigid setup and plenty of coolant titanium is easily machined with solid carbide tooling. The shop where I am employed does it every day all day long.

If you want to talk about tough try the cobalt chrome alloy that is also used for medical implants. It is much heavier than titanium though. I cannot think of any fire arms applications for it.

The other medical implant material is alumina.
The femur balls would make an interesting bolt handle knob if you really want to be different.

As it happens, I sell the very implants you are talking about.
In the spine implant industry, I would say that 80% of the implants are now Ti. There is some use of stainless steel still and cobalt chrome is just now starting to come online.
The benefit of Ti. is its biocompatibility. Stainless has some nickel which is not always tolerated by the patient and generally the implant construct does not need to be that rigid.
Most implants are either commercially pure titanium or Ti6Al3V. The alloy of aluminum and vanadium alter its characteristics as far as malleability and weldability. Also makes it more rigid than pure Ti but not as much as SS.
In spine surgery, the surgeon can choose whether he would like the rod to be more or less rigid depending on the patients bone quality and the levels of the spine which he is fusing as well as whether there is any deformity correction needed. In fact, the trend is to go with less rigid costructs generally.

Huvius,

Well you might recognize this set-up then. Like I said, I dont think its worth the money.

DO NOT ever wash it in Tap Water.
The Chlorine in city water will damage it.
I know it sounds nutz

quote:

Originally posted by Joel/AK:
Huvius,

Well you might recognize this set-up then. Like I said, I dont think its worth the money.

Looks like Synthes or Globus but it is hard to tell with such a small picture.

I hope your wife has had a good outcome. There has been a lot of bad press over the years regarding pedicle screw fixation. Most of it total BS of course and really, it is the standard of care for spinal instability and deformity correction. Very mainstream procedure these days although likely overutilized in many cases.
Like many industries, there are too many outside forces at work which taint the decision making of some of the less than Hippocratic docs out there.

Don't know about chlorine, but I can tell you that implants such as these often come into contact with plain tap water during the decontamination and resterilization processing.

For those who don't know, the implants pictured generally cost anywhere between $6000 - $10,000 to the hospital and are then marked up three to four times as much in the billing to the patient or insurance company. Yes, that is $18-30K for four screws, four set screws, two rods and a crosslink...
Aint lawyers great?

Cost of goods sold for a titanium bone screw several years ago was $3. Today the "price" to the hospital is about $175.

I got charged $13,000 for 11 bone screws and 2 cadaver ligament grafts...that I did not need.

Not bad when I just had a little scar tissue removed from my knee in a scope procedure....

Be sure to ask for a detailed hospital bill and go over every line. Some of the goobers they have working in billing need to be embarassed... and fired.

48 grand for whats pictured above. Atleast thats what the insurance company was charged.

10-15 SFM and Crucible Rex 95 HSS works great. Unless you are in a hurry, then a good coated carbide and high pressure coolant is a must. Still usually not gonna exceed 35-40 SFM. If you allow that stuff to get too hot during conventional turning, boring, or milling you'll have to grind it or scrap it. Better to just slow down.

Andy