Need ideas

[Jgrden]

I am making a pen for a rocket scientist who donated titanium for this event. I want to make a pen resembling a rocket. I have, however, cut the titanium into two 2" parts and insert 7mm tubes. I like the Wall Street, elegant Beauty - Chrome and Satin because of the sharp point that would resemble the rocket head or point. So I wonder what to use as a spacer. What could be done to resemble rocket fins. How to add design to the titanium?

Any ideas are greatly appreciated. My shop is small, no acids, no metal working equipment. I have made two pens out of titanium and they both are a B- in my book.

 

[bitshird]

What's the OD of the Titanium ?is it grade 2 or Ti6Al4V, Ti6Al4V, is a little easier to work with since it's harder than grade 2, pure is a mess to me it seems gummy and wants to stick to my end mills not real bad to turn though. The only way to add any thing like fins is with a Laser welder, I suppose on the cheap you could use a jewelers saw and slit the TI and superglue the fins but I think that would be pretty tacky.
By the way how are you working titanium with out any metal working equipment?? BE CAREFUL if you try and grind it it can burn, literally a spark from the grinding can ignite the Titanium dust particles and flash up pretty quickly.
As far as a spacer I would find the total length of the kit, cut each tube half that distance minus say 1/8th and get a scrap piece of PR either in black or red or a killer piece of Rosewood burl, and use that as the filler for the length , I think I'd go with the real Elegant beauty not the Sierra style, I still want to know how you are doing this with out a metal lathe or a milling machine.

 

[Jgrden]

bitsherd:
Since Titanium gets harder the hotter it gets, I use ice. Ice, in ice water next to my lathe. It seems that four runs on the metal is enough and then take a piece of ice and hold it on the ti as it is turning, to cool it back down. At the same time I am cooling the chisel in the water. When sanding a piece of wet/dry, 1-1/2 inches wide and six inches long. The sand paper is wrapped around the ti. I put a piece of ice on top of the Ti. The sandpaper holds it in position while the ti turns. Thank you for your interest.

 

[btboone]

Adding designs to titanium can be done by anodizing. It's not as tough as it sounds. Just put DC voltage through something that conducts a bit. I use water with trisodium phosphate. Going with 26 volts will yield a nice blue. You can use tape or stickers to mask it off and expose only the parts you want to.

 

[Jgrden]

btboone YOU are the one who taught me about heat and hardness in Titanium. It was YOU who gave me the idea to use ice. It was YOU who taught me to use a old fashioned hack saw instead of a electric sabre saw.
Now I am taking you seriously about the anodizing. I finally heard from the rocket scientist who loves the Saturn 5. I will need to have white and black. I will also need a tutorial on how to do this. I think you have something in your web depth site.
Any ideas on how to afix those tiny little fins on the bottom? One member suggested laser welding that is probably way over my head.
I am excited about this new adventure.

 

[Jgrden]

Thank you to btboone

btboone: Here is what happened to the Ti when heat was added. The flame acrylics are there just for he heck of it. to tease Sandi in Florida.

 

[btboone]

Cool stuff. On the lower voltage or heat colors like brown and purple, the anodizing is so thin that oil from fingers makes the anodizing go away. No sweat; just clean the pen with something that attacks oil like shampoo or Dawn dishwashing soap.

One problem though; anodizing can't be done in black or white. Only certain colors are possible. The colors you have are all possible with DC voltage anodizing. You need the DC source, be it batteries, a DC train transformer, or real power supply. I made mine with a Variac and rectifiers. Nothing to mess with if you're not certain what you're doing though. The trick is to mask off an area, anodize a color, remove the masking, and do a lower voltage color. It won't affect the higher voltage color, as it's an electrically insulative oxide layer. Here's a picture of some earrings done that way.

The only real way to attach fins is indeed with a laser welder. They can be stainless or something similar. You can bring the parts to one of those jeweler repair places in the mall, and they usually have a laser welder. You can't solder to titanium. Laser welding has to use argon.