Thread: Milling Titanium

G'day All.
Will Carbide endmills work Ok on Titanium?

And where would one find lumps of Titanium?

Hi, Trev, Acording to my books you need a Titanium Carbonitride coated cutter and buy comercially pure titanium with a hardness of 140 to 200 BHN.
This is about the hardness of D2 tool steel.
There are some forms of titanium that are much harder dont buy them.
Aparently the rigidity of the mill has a lot to do with choosing the cutter material. Titanium Carbonitride coated standard cutter is said to be better where vibration might be a problem such as smaller mills.
SAFETY TIP . Titanium will heat up very quickly and can catch " FIRE !"
So use coolant and keep cutting speeds down on the lower side of reccomendations.
I am not speaking from experience only quoting some milling tables and info.
My info says that carbide mills will cut titanium but edge chipping will occur if the mill lacks rigidity and there is vibration.
So I will attach it. You will have to save it and zoom it up a bit.
Have never milled any titanium before. Although I have vaporised quite a bit.
Go to this link also it has some good info.
http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/010402.html