Cut titaniumwith hacksaw

Getting clean results when punching aluminum is easy, and holes of 3/32″, 1/8″ and 5/32″ in Ti and SS usually are too. But hole diameters of 3/16″ and up on material that thin require more work with Ti and SS. The trick is screwing the die down tight against the anvil, so that the metal does not move or deform when you apply the punch. Like this:

sheet titi can be had from that global source of All that is Good .. McMaster Carr. you'll need a commercial account to buy from them. for some, that can be a bugger.

Drilling: slow speed and push. Good HSS is fine, but you must be aggressive. Coolant is not essential, but a drop or two of oil helps.

Cutting: depends on thickness. For 0.8 mm sheet some HEAVY snips work OK. Heavier than that gets harder. Carbide is good for machining – but be aggressive.

TitaniumCutting Board

For holes bigger than 9/32″, like in the heat shield shown below, I start with a punched 1/4″ or 9/32″ and then take a Dremel to it. If you use stones to grind the hole bigger you’ll get some spectacular white sparks flying out.

I have used several brands of sheet metal punches successfully on .005″ Ti and .003″ stainless steel, and aluminum of similar thicknesses, for many years. I love Eastwood tools and highly recommend their $50 punch. The $40 Nieko is good too. I was disappointed with the results I got with a $130 Roper Whitney, which used to be the “gold standard” for punches of that type. The quality of the tool was very low. Stupid low to be honest, like painting over metal surfaces that need to move smoothly past each other but got gummed up with paint. Non-branded generic versions of what appear to be essentially identical tools can be had for less, but the quality control and customer support from Eastwood is the best in the industry, bar none.

Saw cuttingtitanium

Cuttingtitaniumwith angle grinder

It’s laborious and slow, because each hole requires 4 steps: (1) locate punch on material, (2) screw die down tight, (3) punch and (4) unscrew die.

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Sources – Ti Goat has a good selection of 0.005" thick Ti sheets. You can get some reasonable Ti tubing on eBay through Tiger Metals.

Carbide

I recommend when you try out your new windscreen that you check the temperature of the top of your fuel canister frequently while running the stove. I have made similar windscreens that come down close to the valve handle and was surprised at how much heat reflected/radiated down from the burner and pot bottom. Enough so that I started putting a heat shield on top of the tank before mounting the stove:

Cuttingtitaniumby hand

Cutting – Hand shears work fine, I've even used a paper cutter. Notching tools don't work so well. For thicker Ti, cut off blade work fine, but they can leave a little slag.

1. The grade/thickness of Ti from DutchWare is aptly maleable so that I could adjust the curvature to make the 2 ends hang just right where they overlap on the 3rd support prong of the PRD stove. No additional latching is needed.

Holes – Good luck. Thin Ti can be a pain as the thinnest relative to die clearance makes it difficult. It is best if you can punch hole away from the edge, a couple of diameter gap will help.

Question is how do you guys cut drill etc. Talking clean cuts clean drill holes etc. I assume for drilling, slow with cooling and with a ti or cobalt coated drill. Cutting is really where I am lost. I have some good sheet metal shears but not sure they have hard enough blades.

Howtocut titaniumring

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in the realm of buying tools. i just buy what i need. screw the cost. and it consistently ends up being cheaper than any form of thrift.

Plasmacut titanium

Titanium Joe (google this) is a good source I've used. As others said, standard tin snips work well for cutting Ti foils. Heavy scissors will cut anything thinner than 0.005", but you'll dull them. I've found that a dremel cut-off wheel works well for making slots, deburring, and shaping edges. A sharp paper punch will make clean holes. A sheet metal punch will only make clean holes if the foil is 0.005" or thicker and a brittle alloy like 15-3-3-3. A sheet metal punch will just deform the foil and the hole will be jagged if it is a softer CP alloy. Punching and cutting with the dremel has produced much cleaner results for me than drilling.

D. In warm windy usage, the rectangular slots allow the shield to be flipped bottom to top, extending the shield higher on pot sidewalls and terminating further above cannister.

I made this little wood stove with 0.005" 15-3-3-3 alloy Ti foil from ebay, using a Harbor Freight sheet metal punch and dremel cut-off wheels:

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it will cut with std metal shears. the stuff's annoying, not indestructable. but, it is a beetch to drill. cobalt. yes. and might as well get a set of real domestic cobalt drills, not just coated. premium drills are cheaper anyway if your time has any value. you can cut titi also with a muffler cutter. this is a handy handy handy little air powered thing that cuts most anything. if only having a bit to whack, you can use a dremel tool and it's assorted cutting/slotting discs. twist drills do not do well in larger sizes of thin metal. the step-drill (uni-bit) format helps in this regard. you may have to sandwich the thin material between something more real to get a nice hole. it thee hast an angle grinder (and who doesn't) then they sell .040" slotting wheels that cut frikk'n Everything (excpet like.. carbide). note : 040" wheels can shatter in the hands of new/novice workers. i will not issue them to apprentices. but if you wear gloves, and a face shield, you'll be safe enough. you'll get a nicer edge grind cutting than shearing. you have to deburr it anyway.

Choose your alloy carefully. For really hard stuff, 6Al-4V is great, but it does not bend! It cracks. Unless you bring it up to a dull red, then it bends nicely. For bending applications, use CP (Commercially Pure), and allow some radius to the bend. This machines a bit more easily too.

Those of you who are punching a lot of holes in thin titanium and stainless should consider getting percision dies made.  You can get custome punch/die sets for Roper Whitney pretty easy.  Generic tool have a lot of clearance.  For thin stock, get a set of dies with a tight fit: like 1 mil clearance.  My 2 cents.