Titanium & Stainless on a Mini-Lathe | Tips & Tricks | Abridged

This is a reupload of a video I posted yesterday. I shortened the video by about four minutes, which was mostly talking in the intro. This video should get to the point much better.
In this video we go over tips and tricks for turning titanium and stainless steels and very small lathes, with a focus on titanium.
Grade 5 Titanium:
www.mcmaster.com/metals/high-...
303 Stainless Steel:
www.mcmaster.com/metals/shape...
Damascus Titanium Shop:
www.etsy.com/shop/TwisTiShop

[@johncgibson4720]

I bought a few titanium rotor shafts for my drone (a helicopter) and have liked all videos of lathing hard metal ever since. The common people don't know that they have benefited from this world of hard-metal machining and that these are not trivial.

[@frankstetzer6773]

Excellent video great information. How do you decide when to use a dead vs. live center?

[@makerunderground]

Typically I prefer a live center unless I'm turning between centers. I end up using dead centers a lot more often than that because I'm often working with small diameters and need a notched center for clearance, like in this video.

[@jackpestaner6925]

Thanks so much! Last time i did Ti i had alot of problems with catching on fire, as i have a 6 inch diameter 1.5 inch thick end cut from a casting that i was trying to clean up. My next project is to make a new bottom plate for my french press as the standard stainless ones are too thin and bend, resulting in blow back around the screen. Anyway, i will turn the OD from 6AL4V sheet, and then either mill or drill holes to allow the coffee to pass through. Anyway, I was thinking to use a non-flammable coolant, and i was a bit suprised to see you use oil. How generally did you avoid the fiery chips?

[@makerunderground]

Sorry it's taken a while to respond to this. I must say, as a swiss CNC guy professionally, I'm used to oil based coolant and as a result am probably more comfortable with cutting oil in my manual shop than I should be. With that being said, I can usually cut Ti even dry without any kind of ignition, if my speeds and feeds are close. I'm not used to aTi castings so I'm wondering if it isn't related to the hardness or roughness of the outside of your castings.

[@jackpestaner6925]

@@makerunderground Could very well be, i have no idea what might have been in the alloy. Anyway my next project is with a known material, so hope it goes better. Thanks for getting back.

[@BillyBob-si2db]

What make/model mini lathe are you using?

[@makerunderground]

It's a Proxxon PD250e. It's a nice little machine but if I'm being honest, I come up against a lot of capacity issues with it.

[@3dp_edc]

what mini lathe would you recommend?

[@makerunderground]

Honestly, if you're willing to go through it and make sure everything is put together properly, I would buy the standard 7x14 import. I bought my proxxon because I wanted something that worked well out of the box. It's been a good little lathe but over the years I've come up against capacity and rigidity issues with it often. I often wonder if I would have felt like I had a lot more flexibility, if I bought a bigger, cheaper built lathe.

[@3dp_edc]

@@makerunderground any suggestions for a chinese branded lathe? Or just a no name Chinese you mean?

[@KingLewyYT]

what kind of machine is that

[@makerunderground]

It's a Proxxon PD250e 10" lathe