4 ms·

I remember talking to a guy I shared an office with like 10 or 15 years ago. He did 3D modeling for jewelry and dentists (as separate gigs, not jewelry on teeth

I remember talking to a guy I shared an office with like 10 or 15 years ago. He did 3D modeling for jewelry and dentists (as separate gigs, not jewelry on teeth ;) ) and he had access to 3D print titanium with a laser sintering device in the dentist practice. What he told me is titanium is not expensive, but the problem is with the tooling. Expensive, hard to work with and energy intensive .

anton-c 1y ago
Yeah I make jewelry and have made some titanium chains by hand. Absolutely brutal to work with. And don't mess up! You need argon atmosphere to weld/solder it. It was cheaper than I thought to grab a chunk of 99.9 pure from McMaster but dang it's tough stuff. Tools hate it. It's gummy. Upshot is it can be anodized at home with stuff almost anyone has.
- eth0up 1y ago
  How do carbide burrs do with hand machining titanium? They do great for me with aluminum and bronze. Never tried titanium or hardened steel.
  - anton-c 1y ago
    I've become limited by my process it seems cuz those never crossed my mind. With with amount of time shaping it normally takes id speculate it takes awhile. I have a decent sander and still make sure to cut away as much as possible cuz its gonna take another half hour to get it down if I'm a mm off.(just speaking off the cuff this makes me sound incredibly sloppy lol) That said, carbide pwns, and if you can secure the piece well there's no reason it wouldn't get it done eventually. The diamond and HSS tips have taken awhile on other things for me unlike what you report with the carbide. I'd love to find out I'm mistaken in my guess. I don't use a ton of steel but when I do I end up with hardened steel because i end up abrading instead of cutting haha. Might be better for normal stock, idk about already hardened. Ill just add you can create some wild finishes with the Dremel alternating anodizing, Dremel, polish, Dremel. Using the brush, the cutter, whatever to mess with the surface.

anton-c 1y ago

Yeah I make jewelry and have made some titanium chains by hand. Absolutely brutal to work with. And don't mess up! You need argon atmosphere to weld/solder it. It was cheaper than I thought to grab a chunk of 99.9 pure from McMaster but dang it's tough stuff. Tools hate it. It's gummy. Upshot is it can be anodized at home with stuff almost anyone has.

eth0up 1y ago
How do carbide burrs do with hand machining titanium? They do great for me with aluminum and bronze. Never tried titanium or hardened steel.
- anton-c 1y ago
  I've become limited by my process it seems cuz those never crossed my mind. With with amount of time shaping it normally takes id speculate it takes awhile. I have a decent sander and still make sure to cut away as much as possible cuz its gonna take another half hour to get it down if I'm a mm off.(just speaking off the cuff this makes me sound incredibly sloppy lol) That said, carbide pwns, and if you can secure the piece well there's no reason it wouldn't get it done eventually. The diamond and HSS tips have taken awhile on other things for me unlike what you report with the carbide. I'd love to find out I'm mistaken in my guess. I don't use a ton of steel but when I do I end up with hardened steel because i end up abrading instead of cutting haha. Might be better for normal stock, idk about already hardened. Ill just add you can create some wild finishes with the Dremel alternating anodizing, Dremel, polish, Dremel. Using the brush, the cutter, whatever to mess with the surface.