How do you bend Titanium sheet metal?

MossRoad · Feb 25, 2015

What happened to the SR-71 Blackbirds after they were retired?

OkieDave · Feb 25, 2015

MossRoad said:
What happened to the SR-71 Blackbirds after they were retired?

View attachment 413978

Some are on display at various museums, others are at Davis-Monthan AFB.

MossRoad · Feb 25, 2015

OkieDave said:
Some are on display at various museums, others are at Davis-Monthan AFB.

The others are at Duncan Hines.

beeforty · Feb 26, 2015

Kyle_in_Tex said:
What you really want is a suit of beryllium armor with kevlar undersuit.

I'd rather have the titanium, much lighter weight and comes in sheet form. It is hard to drill through and form, DC10's used it as a thin skin doubler around door frames, making it hard to do doubler repairs in the cracked Aluminum cutouts. Never seen Beryllium in sheet, usually as a rod for making bushing/bearings. Very hard wear surface but it is nasty/toxic material to work with. They made tools out of it for working in highly explosive areas like mines and missile silos so if you drop a tool it won't spark. The Beryl co. was one maker of sockets I've seen. I have a claw hammer that was my wife's grandfathers who used to work as a carpenter in mines back in the 30's-40's. Looks like a brass hammer but a little more coppery looking.

Gary Fowler · Feb 26, 2015

Kyle_in_Tex said:
Does anyone know how hot?

I welded a lot of Titanium piping and it was a strict no-no to expose Titanium welds to atmospheric oxygen when above 500F IIRC. We had to have argon gas coverage on the weld when TIG welding it. We did this either in a argon purged Plexiglas container or by fabricating a trailer that was attached to the TIG torch and kept inert gas on the hot weld. Weld length was a little less than the length of the trailer and we had to stop and let it cool. If we removed it too quickly, the titanium weld would change from a bright silver to gold then blue. Light Gold was sometime OK but dark gold indicated a titanium oxide had formed which was extremely hard and the weld would have to be ground out and replaced. We could quickly check it with a very sharp pointed tungsten welding electrode. If we could scratch it with the tungsten, it was ok. If it got too much O2 before cooling, it was so hard that no amount of pressure on the tungsten would leave a mark.
For this reason, I think any heating and working of the metal would have to be in an inert atmosphere, otherwise it would just harden the surface and make it harder to bend.

Titanium oxide, I believe is what you get when you buy black titanium jewelry or even drill bits with gold titanium oxide finish, super hard surface finish that is very durable.

Dr_Zinj · Feb 26, 2015

I've seen beryllium in tube form. Makes some incredibly light and strong bicycle frames. But the cost is astronomical.

oldtimer 66 · Feb 26, 2015

When the SR-71 Blackbirds were built back in the late 50's that is when titanium was developed as a material. A lot of trial and error heat treatment gage size etc. There are lots of good articles on the planes development. They initially had trouble drilling the titanium and that is when cobalt (M42) drills were developed. Penn State developed the engine fuel/ hydraulic fluid. The hydraulic fluid needed to withstand 800 degree F and then was burnt as fuel.Now again as I generally do, this from memory, so if I made an error or two here, it's on me. It is well worth the time to read the history of the SR-71A. I think i still have a couple of VHS tapes on the planes developement. Later

MossRoad · Feb 26, 2015

oldtimer 66 said:
When the SR-71 Blackbirds were built back in the late 50's that is when titanium was developed as a material. A lot of trial and error heat treatment gage size etc. There are lots of good articles on the planes development. They initially had trouble drilling the titanium and that is when cobalt (M42) drills were developed. Penn State developed the engine fuel/ hydraulic fluid. The hydraulic fluid needed to withstand 800 degree F and then was burnt as fuel.Now again as I generally do, this from memory, so if I made an error or two here, it's on me. It is well worth the time to read the history of the SR-71A. I think i still have a couple of VHS tapes on the planes developement. Later

What I find most ironic is the titanium ore for that plane came from Russia. Gotcha, comrade! :laughing:

Kyle_in_Tex · Feb 27, 2015

beeforty said:
I'd rather have the titanium, much lighter weight and comes in sheet form. It is hard to drill through and form, DC10's used it as a thin skin doubler around door frames, making it hard to do doubler repairs in the cracked Aluminum cutouts. Never seen Beryllium in sheet, usually as a rod for making bushing/bearings. Very hard wear surface but it is nasty/toxic material to work with. They made tools out of it for working in highly explosive areas like mines and missile silos so if you drop a tool it won't spark. The Beryl co. was one maker of sockets I've seen. I have a claw hammer that was my wife's grandfathers who used to work as a carpenter in mines back in the 30's-40's. Looks like a brass hammer but a little more coppery looking.

Beryllium is less than half the weight of Titanium. And 50% greater modulus of elasticity than steel. True, you don't want to breathe in any dust or particles of it. You grandpaw's hammer is probably beryllium copper.

But it is so rare, they should rename it Unobtanium.