Titanium Welding

[Adambomb]

Hello fellow everlast owners, I own a PT250EX. I got the 250EX specifically due to the wide adjustability of the pre and post flow because I wanted to start dabbling in welding titanium. I read anything I could find on the internet about the subject, watched and read what Jody had to say on the subject, as well as many others. I started out with simple fusion lap welds of some .015" equipment tag coupons. I didn't worry about back purgung the weld, since I was ony getting a feel for how the material reacted. To date, this is my best attempt

You can see at the top the white flaky stuff on the backside of a previous weld. This is contamination of the weld due to a lack of an inert atmosphere. Because of the atmospheric contamination, I can rip the weld in half by hand, it is so brittle. One thing I had not heard of until i spoke with Performance was toxicity of welding titaniu and needing a respirator. I have a respirator, but I'm fairly certain it won't fit under my welding hood. I'd like to hear any others experiences with welding titanium, tips, tricks and Mark, a link to your source about the dangers of breathing Ti fumes. I can't find anything on the subject.

[sportbike]

It the material is only .015, you will need to purge it regardless as the whole part will turn to oxide. Titanium welding is similar to stainless, but the puddle it is a bit "sticky" (if you dab, the rod can get stuck fairly easily). You need to shield very well.

Be cautious when welding or grinding as the heat transfer coefficient of titanium is very low and the heat will stay concentrated in a small spot for quite a while. When grinding, the edges will remain very hot and can easily burn skin, even though the main part is rather cool.

I am not aware of any major toxicity issues with conventional grades of titanium i.e. Commercially Pure or Ti-6-4. There are a wide variety of "weird" titanium alloys, some of which aren't even weldable. You probably don't have any of those tough.

[Adambomb]

Thanks for the input sportbike. You can definately see the oxidation on the backside of the weld, but the front side stayed protected to varying degrees. Anything outside of the HAZ appears to be fine though, even though it is .015" material. The titanium composition for the ID tags is unknown, but I do have some CP2 material I am starting to play with as well. I also got a couple sticks of Ti filler rod, and ran some beads on the .032" CP2 sheet I have.Attachment 1669

You can see a few spots where the puddle got a little wide/funky. Those were spots where my hood started rapidly switching between dark and light, and I was basically blinded For reference, I started at the bottom and worked my way up.

[Adambomb]

Now, plasma cutting titanium is coooooool! For reference, the white sparks you see in fireworks is titanium powder burning. Unfortunately, I don't have any action shots of plasma cutting the ti sheet, but you get twice as many sparks, and they are BRIGHT WHITE. I'll have my wife snap some the next time I cut some. The cutting creates the same oxidation as welding without proper shielding, but it's affected area is much smaller.
Attachment 1670

[Wookie]

he must be getting confused with stainless make yourself up a purge chamber or run a gas lens with like a #8 cup a trailing cup helps a ton too

[Wookie]

Thanks for the input sportbike. You can definately see the oxidation on the backside of the weld, but the front side stayed protected to varying degrees. Anything outside of the HAZ appears to be fine though, even though it is .015" material. The titanium composition for the ID tags is unknown, but I do have some CP2 material I am starting to play with as well. I also got a couple sticks of Ti filler rod, and ran some beads on the .032" CP2 sheet I have.Attachment 1669

You can see a few spots where the puddle got a little wide/funky. Those were spots where my hood started rapidly switching between dark and light, and I was basically blinded For reference, I started at the bottom and worked my way up.

when you get them right they will be shinny make sure you using a purge block on the back side cause it will pull the contamination to the front side from the back

[Wookie]

Hello fellow everlast owners, I own a PT250EX. I got the 250EX specifically due to the wide adjustability of the pre and post flow because I wanted to start dabbling in welding titanium. I read anything I could find on the internet about the subject, watched and read what Jody had to say on the subject, as well as many others. I started out with simple fusion lap welds of some .015" equipment tag coupons. I didn't worry about back purgung the weld, since I was ony getting a feel for how the material reacted. To date, this is my best attempt

You can see at the top the white flaky stuff on the backside of a previous weld. This is contamination of the weld due to a lack of an inert atmosphere. Because of the atmospheric contamination, I can rip the weld in half by hand, it is so brittle. One thing I had not heard of until i spoke with Performance was toxicity of welding titaniu and needing a respirator. I have a respirator, but I'm fairly certain it won't fit under my welding hood. I'd like to hear any others experiences with welding titanium, tips, tricks and Mark, a link to your source about the dangers of breathing Ti fumes. I can't find anything on the subject.

also make sure you are wiping it down with acetone prior to welding ti has to be extremly clean

[Adambomb]

Yes wookie, I wipe the metal down with acetone and handle it with nitril gloves to eliminate handling contamination

[Adambomb]

Performance, any info on the toxicity of titanium welding fumes? Admittedly, I haven't been looking since I was hoping you could fill me in with your source.

[Tritium]

Adambomb,
The comment on toxicity when welding titanium has me puzzled as well. I have read several articles and the only toxicity that is mentioned is during the cleaning process before welding.
One such article is here: http://www.weldreality.com/Titanium%20Data.htm

Thurmond

[Adambomb]

I know that Mark is a very qualified and experienced welder, and he has cautioned me once over the phone and once in a post about the dangers of titanium welding fumes. I'm not doubting the man, but I also could not find any supporting evidence on the topic. I thought it prudent to start a separate thread to clear up my confusion rather than hijack someone else's

[welderdude]

Would there be any advantage to using a helium mix instead of pure argon?

[Adambomb]

From what I've read, pure argon is the best shielding gas for titanium, but I would be interested to hear if anyone has tried it; and what their results were compared to straight argon. I do not have the resources at present to make that experiment.

[joelyboyblue]

I worked at a shop called Exotic Metals in Kent, Washington. http://www.exoticmetals.com/
We worked with a lot of Ti. I think we were running pure Argon. As with all TIG welding your material needs to be as clean as possible but especially for TI. You also need to sheild the backside, or the inside of a pipe using an argon purge. The weld itself should be silver or slightly creamy, if it goes blue on you your not shielding it well enough. The stuffs bloody expensive so don't mess it up!