oldguy Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 (edited) Killforfood was kind enough to send me a big box of Ti lathe turnings. Which are normally difficult to reduce into workable pyrotechnic sizes. But, there is an EASY way.A high speed lab grade, commercial or industrial type blender (7.5 + Amps & more is better) with a "cutting" blade (rather than a normal blending or puree blade), in a SS jar, with SS shaft washers (rather than plastic) half to ¾'s full of cold water & running hand full sized loads will take this type material down to -10 + 30 mesh in fairly short order. Longer run times will reduce it further. Caveats are: 1. If the shaft washers holding the blade in the blender container is any sort of plastic or rubber. The Ti will abrade the washer to the eventual point the jar will begin to leak fluid & fail. 2. Because Ti is so hard, it creates considerable resistance in the jar. Inexpensive low Amp kitchen blenders will heat up & you will burn out the motor. You can sometimes find a heavy duty Waring blender that will do the job in thrift stores or on eBay cheap or at least at a decent price.New, this type heavy duty blender is NOT cheap.If you are ever lucky enough to stumble into lab grade Waring or Eberbach blender cheap. Snap it up, as they are the Rolex of blenders. If you doubt that, take a look at retail prices in the link below. http://eberbachlabto...ower-Units.html Edited January 19, 2012 by oldguy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killforfood Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 OldGuy, Glad to see you had better results than me. I've been hitting all of the local second hand stores but the typical blender on their shelves has a motor no larger than 450 watts and a glass or plastic jar. I found plenty of Waring blenders on ebay but like you said, the good ones are expensive. I'll keep looking. In the mean time I'm trying my best to destroy my cheap Magic Bullet blender. No matter how long I run it, it just won't reduce the chip size very much. It is developing a pretty good leak around the shaft now. Oh well I think my Wife only paid $5 at a garge sale for it. KFF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightHawkInLight Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 I like how the nicer Waring blenders are "Explosion Proof"... Surely there must be a limit to that specification In any case, that looks like some nice Ti for salutes or comets. I wonder how long even a heavy blender would last making it though. It seems that fairly quickly small particles of Ti would be able to work their way into seams and grind away even steel washers and other parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldguy Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) The higher end lab, commercial or industrial grade blender, all have interchangable parts.No big deal to change a gasket, SS washer or blade assembly.I have done it many times over the years. Mine stood up to blending about 50 lbs of mg/al without a hitch or hiccup.Still operates like new. Edited January 20, 2012 by oldguy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightHawkInLight Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 50 lbs of any metal is significant, but MgAl is much softer than steel and wouldn't be nearly as abrasive if it got in the cracks. One little particle of Ti I imagine would pretty much hold its shape if caught between moving parts and grind out a nasty groove for even more particles to get caught in. That's just what I'm picturing, I've never given a really nice blender an inspection to get a good idea of how tight the seals really are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldguy Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 True, over time, with years of heavy duty use the stainless steel shaft spindle holding the blade up through the container will begin to wear. If the gaskets & washers are in good shape & tight. When the container slowly begins to seep out moisture out of the base. That is exactly what’s happening. I have 3 HVY duty blenders. I watch eBay & buy the blade & assembly units, whenever I can steal them at + 90% off retail. My biggest blender will eat golf balls & marbles. Matter of fact, when I needed ground glass powder, I used one to make it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldguy Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 OldGuy, Glad to see you had better results than me. I've been hitting all of the local second hand stores but the typical blender on their shelves has a motor no larger than 450 watts and a glass or plastic jar. I found plenty of Waring blenders on ebay but like you said, the good ones are expensive. I'll keep looking. In the mean time I'm trying my best to destroy my cheap Magic Bullet blender. No matter how long I run it, it just won't reduce the chip size very much. It is developing a pretty good leak around the shaft now. Oh well I think my Wife only paid $5 at a garge sale for it. KFF Your magic bullet blender doesn’t have the high quality blade, nor the AMP’s to add torque to back up it’s RPM. The big spendy ones do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killforfood Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Your magic bullet blender doesn't have the high quality blade, nor the AMP's to add torque to back up it's RPM. The big spendy ones do. Yah, tell me about it. I just spent two hours running the pee out of that little magic bullet. I would say my Ti is almost as fine as yours now but way too much effort for a few ounces. I have a few more lbs of turning but they can wait till I get a suitable blender. I have some course Al turnings. Maybe the little bullet can break those down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldguy Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 LOL......I wonder if there is a psychiatric name for “blender abuse“. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killforfood Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 LOL......I wonder if there is a psychiatric name for "blender abuse". Desiring the catastrophic failure of mechanical devices... Yep, it's a sickness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSM Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Killforfood was kind enough to send me a big box of Ti lathe turnings.Which are normally difficult to reduce into workable pyrotechnic sizes. But, there is an EASY way.A high speed lab grade, commercial or industrial type blender (7.5 + Amps & more is better) with a "cutting" blade (rather than a normal blending or puree blade), in a SS jar, with SS shaft washers (rather than plastic) half to ¾'s full of cold water & running hand full sized loads will take this type material down to -10 + 30 mesh in fairly short order. Longer run times will reduce it further.Caveats are: 1. If the shaft washers holding the blade in the blender container is any sort of plastic or rubber. The Ti will abrade the washer to the eventual point the jar will begin to leak fluid & fail.2. Because Ti is so hard, it creates considerable resistance in the jar. Inexpensive low Amp kitchen blenders will heat up & you will burn out the motor.You can sometimes find a heavy duty Waring blender that will do the job in thrift stores or on eBay cheap or at least at a decent price.New, this type heavy duty blender is NOT cheap.If you are ever lucky enough to stumble into lab grade Waring or Eberbach blender cheap. Snap it up, as they are the Rolex of blenders.If you doubt that, take a look at retail prices in the link below.http://eberbachlabto...ower-Units.html For your consideration... Years ago, a man I know found a source for titanium turnings at scrap prices. These were from a machining process that left cutting oil on them, as you would expect. His solution was to chop them in a blender full of water but he added a few drops of detergent to each load and rinsed the chopped titanium flake afterward to remove any residual detergent. It worked like a charm till that source dried up. WSM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killforfood Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 For your consideration... Years ago, a man I know found a source for titanium turnings at scrap prices. These were from a machining process that left cutting oil on them, as you would expect. His solution was to chop them in a blender full of water but he added a few drops of detergent to each load and rinsed the chopped titanium flake afterward to remove any residual detergent. It worked like a charm till that source dried up. WSM The cooolant that we use just happpens to be water based, so it works out pretty good just using water in the blender. My source for chips is fairly limited. Since we machine a number of different alloys, I cant just help myself to the chip hoppers. There is about a 50/50 mix of high nickel and chrome alloys in there and Ti. If I see them cutting on Ti parts, I grab a few handfuls before it all ends up together with other alloys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSM Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 The cooolant that we use just happpens to be water based, so it works out pretty good just using water in the blender. My source for chips is fairly limited. Since we machine a number of different alloys, I cant just help myself to the chip hoppers. There is about a 50/50 mix of high nickel and chrome alloys in there and Ti. If I see them cutting on Ti parts, I grab a few handfuls before it all ends up together with other alloys. If you offer to pay for the clean (not mixed with other metals) titanium turnings, maybe they'll set them aside for you ! I acquired a bag full of mixed turnings (Ti & Zr) and it's easy to separate them... I hold a lit match to them and the zirconium burns away leaving the titanium (cool to watch, unless you want the zirconium turnings ). Enjoy. WSM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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