+++TITANIUM+++

[Andrew_Hibberd]

A really nice piece of work with the Ti. Just out of interest has anyone tried bending 2mm Lexan or HDPE, either hot (oven or line bender) or cold?

[peterwaller]

This is the sort of information sharing we need. I haven't tried cobolt drills but I have found that drilling is much better done slowly. Titanium is such a poor conductor of heat the drill bits tend to over heat at normal drilling speeds and that ruins them very quickly. I always drill now using a small mill that I can slow right down and use some oil that way it cuts much better and the drills last longer. Another point to watch is because it is a boor conductor it is very easy to burn your self as the bit you are holding may well stay cool but if you grab hold of the end you have been grinding or drilling its another matter.

[team_blitz]

Andy, 2mm HDPE bends really well when heated (I use my hot air gun). When cold, however, It has a tendency to snap, or, if it does bend, return to it's original form pretty quickly. Wolkig's flipper is made from heat-bent 2mm HDPE.

[alasdair]

Thanks for the info guys! I will probably need to bend it so that will help. I am thinking of getting that ebay 10x30. I am going to bid tommorrow hopefully.

[Flippt]

A really nice piece of work with the Ti. Just out of interest has anyone tried bending 2mm Lexan or HDPE, either hot (oven or line bender) or cold?

I used a solder iron on the points where I wanted to bend to weaken it, bend it and weld it with new material.
Even though it was just 2mm, I had to go about 1mm deep to be able to bend without any major tools.

[widow_twanky]

Pete,

Not sure why but I have always found that 275rpm seems to work very well (mainly because it's the slowest my pillar drill will go

I never really found that cobalt drill have an issue with going through ti but breaking out through the other side is a different issue.

Maybe it's the 10mm holes i've been doing in 4mm ti that causes it but i have found that the drilling part is quite easy intil the point of the drill breaks through and then it can have a tendancy to snatch on the burrs on the edge of the hole. When this happens I found it's best to give up on the slow speeds cos the burrs just need to be ripped off so running it at full speed helps it break through.

Andy

[petec]

A really nice piece of work with the Ti. Just out of interest has anyone tried bending 2mm Lexan or HDPE, either hot (oven or line bender) or cold?

When I was doing heavyweights, I used to bend polycarb (Lexan) a lot. The tricky bit is to heat it slowly. If you get bubbles, it will be brittle when it goes cold. You have to heat slowly and gently - a slow oven over a wood former is good for ants.

Re: Ti bending, I did the bends for Terrior and it was quite hard - partly because it was winter - the difficult part is keeping it at cherry red while making the bend and then gradually reducing the heat. I did make a severe bend at the hinge, which broke and I had to do it again...so the flipper is actually shorter than I planned.

Thinking of using Ti for new Pants, so if anyone has any ideas of sources....

[razerdave]

I'm not sure on a source for thin stuff, however you may want to ask Simon, he had a sizeable sheet of 0.5mm Ti, and I still have a sheet of the Grade 5 1mm stuff, and some 1.2mm unknown grade that I got given by Craig from The Saint (HW axlebot), his son Zak had a Pants kit robot thats bright orange and he called it Smarty Pants

[petec]

Smarty Pants - why didn't I think of that one!? It should really be lots of primary coloured dots of course. (Ok, yes and secondary for the pedants amongst you!)

[Jonny]

does anyone have any titanium they could sell me (preferably 0.4mm-1.2mm thickness) i have been checking ebay but can't find any thicker than 0.25mm on buy it now.