Titanium scaled Wapi

[danjared]

Okay, my quick picture came out very poorly (and I need to polish up the titanium more to get some of the dings out), but here we go. I'll try to post more pictures later when it's daytime. You can still tell that the scale material is definitely not the same, at least.

The one on the left is a normal Wapi. The one on the right has titanium scales and pins with stainless steel washers (and the original spacer "wedge"). Polishing titanium is a pain...

Back to studying...

 

[Magruder]

Fascinating. I think that's the first time I've heard of using titanium -- I was going to ask where the heck you buy titanium, but I guess you can buy anything online nowadays.

Looking forward to more pictures!

 

[danjared]

McMaster.com. I bought a 6"x6"x0.035" sheet of grade 2 titanium. It's a royal pain to cut. I figured out that the easiest way is to use some big metal shears (the kind that take up floor space, not the ones you use in your hand). Then you file away the rest. The most ridiculous part is that I could only get the 1/16" titanium rod in lengths of 3 feet or more. The box I received was... unnecessary.

 

[danjared]

Here are better pictures. Click on the link for full-resolution.

http://web.mit.edu/danjared/Public/wapi/

I take no responsibility for smudges or bunny fur that shows up in the pictures!

 

[danjared]

A couple of nice things are that this keeps the style of the Wapi while shedding a fair amount of weight AND it matches my watch.

 

[Sparq]

Nice! I can image how much sweat had to go into this project.

PS: If you had some scraps of Ti left that you could sell (and a few inches of the rod), please let me know.

 

[Pumpkin]

Nice! Is that just a single thickness of 1/32" for the scales? I was thinking about using aluminium for a first re-scale...easier to get a standard thickness sheet than trying to sand/shape wood without power tools.

 

[danjared]

Nice! I can image how much sweat had to go into this project.

PS: If you had some scraps of Ti left that you could sell (and a few inches of the rod), please let me know.

Yeah, it was a lot of work. I made the mistake of trying to saw the pieces before trying bench shears. For this thickness, bench shears and files worked best for me. I also had to be extremely careful not to dent the scales, but even so there are a few nicks and scrapes. The pictures don't show them very well. Additionally, getting the pins to the right length seemed pretty important. They're not really much more difficult to peen than brass rods but are less ductile, so they will take longer to mushroom over than brass pins. I'm not afraid of using titanium pins now, though.

If you have to cut titanium without fancy equipment (it helped to be at a university with nice machine shops available to *all* students, not just MechE types--I'm studying CS), I imagine it's harder. A jeweler's saw will do the trick but is more frustrating because the blades wear and break very quickly.

Sorry, I'm saving the rest of the titanium either for making a brush stand (once classes are over) or rescaling some more Wapis.

Nice! Is that just a single thickness of 1/32" for the scales? I was thinking about using aluminium for a first re-scale...easier to get a standard thickness sheet than trying to sand/shape wood without power tools.

Yes, it has uniform thickness (although .035", not 1/32"). For titanium, I imagine that using anything thicker would be more difficult (and probably unnecessary). The scales are almost exactly as thick as the stainless steel scales they replaced.

I don't know about aluminum for this application; it probably depends on what aluminum alloy you use. I think titanium is less brittle than 6061 and 7075 aluminum alloys. Titanium certainly has a longer fatigue life than those aluminum alloys, but maybe it doesn't matter for this. You would certainly have a much easier time machining aluminum than titanium. But even so, you can easily get 1/8" thick strips of wood, which are much easier to cut than any metal (well, except maybe lead ).

 

[danjared]

Okay, I shaved with it right now. The balance was much better than with the steel scales, so I'm declaring victory. I didn't even have to think about the weight of the scales.

 

[Ender Wiggins]

Nice job on those! I'm sure there aren't too many sets of titanium scales out there.