Titanium mitering question

[Praveen]

Hi Everybody!

This maybe the dumbest question ever. I'm not sure. Wanted to know whether is it a good idea to miter titanium tubing using a hacksaw and files.
or using a laser cutter. Would the titanium tube be rendered useless due to the heat (oxygen contamination?) at the laser cut area?

Just want to get as much information as possible regarding Ti .

Thanks in advance!!

Praveen Prabhakaran

[Matthew Strongin]

Hi Praveen,

Welcome to the VSalon Frame Forum. Please include your First and Last name on all posts in this section of the forum. See this link for more info: http://www.velocipedesalon.com/forum...rum-36866.html

- Matt Strongin

[mmoore]

while I may be totally off cue not having worked with Ti and not owning a laser (for obvious reasons)

I don't think that using a laser to mitre TI tube is going to have any negative effects after you clean up the joints. Laser as a process is extremely fast so I doubt that the thin tube would even heat up outside of what would normally be the heat affected zone of a weld.
Digging into the process and consulting with manufacturers of your tooling might make sense. Chances are you will have to use an inert gas instead of compressed air or oxygen for your cut with a laser.

The question im asking is why you are considering filing and hack sawing if you have a laser to use.

[EnginCycles]

You can not miter titanium with a laser. It will leave a contaminated joint that can not be removed without removing the miter. Unless your system is in an atmospheric chamber of argon (which I am assuming it is not) you will not have any luck doing this. It has been tried by Trek and it is not possible. At 700F titanium is oxidizing, that will happen in a flash with a laser. Waterjet is the only thing that does not contaminate titanium.

You can hand file it but make sure your files are new and sharp. It is not fun and there is a reason that most people making titanium bicycles use machine tools.

[Praveen]

Thank you Matt and Drew, for your suggestions! Will keep these pointers in mind.
I dont own a laser cutter, but I know a company that does it and they're very close to the place where I live. So I was just considering that option. As per Drews suggestion I dont think I will be giving them a visit now!
And sorry for not putting in my full name in the post.

Thanks once again !


Praveen Prabhakaran