Making picks - Ti or Steel better?

[raimundo]

gemologists will tell you that diamond is the hardest, it can cut all other stones, but it fractures easily with a blow. Jade is the toughest, easily cut or ground by harder materials, it resists fractureing. it makes a great hammer. tungsten, used in some steels is a very hard alloying material, but hardness has no give and it is almost always brittle and will shatter when an irresistable force meets the immovable object.
making picks with tungsten is not a good idea, but also it should prove so difficult to actually do that I doubt anyone will do it. Aluminium has a natural abrasiveness, so that things drag rather than slide along it. some metals such as brass, actually have some lead in the alloy just to lubricate the cutting by machines. Aluminum chatters in machineing, that is, it tends to wrap around and fuse to the cutting edge, then gouge the remaining aluminum under the cutter in a bad way. aluminum is almost always found in some alloyed form and so some of these alloys are probably made to assist in machineing. The common form is duralauminum, with just a pinch of copper in the alloy for hardness.
MY Questioon is , is titanium abrasive, is it hard, can it flex and bend, will it flex a lot (springy) or will it just bend when under force.

[WDPaladin]

My guess would be that it would bend slightly before snapping, but would not return to its original shape. Like a super lightweight paperclip. I'm not too sure of the snap resistance, I'll see if I can find out any of this for sure, be back later..

WDPaladin

[WDPaladin]

Actually after checking around, I think it may snap without bending. It has high strength, but low ductility. ALSO, if your going to grind it yourself, use ALOT of water as Ti is very succeptable to galling. Hope this helps..

WDPaladin

[jamesphilhulk2]

why dont u get the same metal as the manufacturer uses if it is good enough for them and it works well with them why dont you do the same

[WDPaladin]

True, but the manufacturers are also using the cheapest, easiest to buy and sell metals while still maintaining a quality standard. Nobody would by a 5 piece pick set that costs 50 dollars. I can ALSO understand wanting to make something that is too expensive to manufacturers and will not be bought by 99% of people for cost reasons, just to have something unique or better than the standard. Whether or not Ti is the choice, I do understand. Post pics if you do end up doing this!

WDPaladin

[bprzybyl]

Some partially bad news...

I am unable to make a true "Apples to Apples" comparison, as I have 0.020" 6AL-4V Titanium and 0.024" 304 Stainless. I will of course take plenty of pictures, so that everyone can see how it worked out. While I do everything, could someone answer this question for me-

Is it ok to post the picktures in the post? I've seen it done that way, and would prefer to do it, as I'm sure others are just as lazy as me and would love to see the pics without clicking hyperlinks. The only reason I ask is because I remember seeing somewhere that "hotlinking" is not allowed, and I think that's what it's called.

Thanks

[WDPaladin]

Yea the Ti alloys should be very comparable to plain Ti. As far as pics go, ask a moderator or check http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?t=10528
for the exact details on how, why, and when not to.
WDPaladin

[dmux]

ti is extreemly hard material, it will take forever to grind it down, but it has a very long life expectance, but i would go with steel, cheaper, easier to work with, less brittle

[bprzybyl]

As the french say "J'ai Finis!" (<- The extent of my french knowledge)

I made just 2 picks. Both were hooks, made of the different materials. Pics-

Here are the two materials. Hmmmm considering how big the pieces are (12 pieces of SS, some even bigger, while 9 pieces of the same size pieces of ti), I wonder which one I paid more for...I'll put the answer at the bottom.


Here are the materials I used. Dremel, of course, and the can of stuff is spray contact glue. It worked decently, but the water seemed to take it off from quenching. The inkjet printing also took a hit due to the quenching.


Here's the printed templates on the Ti. I only did the hook because I was tired. The tape is on there because I didn't wanna mar it up while hacksawing. Why hacksaw? Dremeling was a BEAR.


The finished picks. The Ti has the blue on it if you couldn't guess.


As for machining, Ti sparks like crazy. The SS smells like birthday candles while cutting with a dremel. Both were a pain grinding. Ti was kinda gummy.

The Ti can be bent pretty easily, but doesn't deform nearly as easily as the SS. I would compare the Ti to Peteron's regular picks.

Questions?

I will test them out and write the rest here.



ANSWER: TITANIUM $15, STAINLESS: $12

Thanks,
Brooks

P.S. - Are Should I be worried about grinding this stuff, disease wise?

[WDPaladin]

Awsome, can't wait for the results. Definitely let me know how things work; the info on Ti I got from a book seems shoddy as far as your saying. Did you mean that it bends, or flexes better than steel? Anyway, good luck, and keep me informed. And congrats on the very unique picks.