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Machining Titanium and Stainless Steel Jewelry

by:Lxshow     2020-02-29
Jewelry for body piercing is expensive and hard to find, especially if you need unusual or large size jewelry.
I started the steps of processing barbell parts from scratch.
The project includes many typical operations for small-scale machining on a lathe, including facing, turning down, drilling, tapping and polishing.
As with most projects, the first step is to track down all the materials you need.
We will use titanium and stainless steel for this barbell.
Spot 1/8 titanium rods (3. 2mm)
Diameter, we only use a small amount of diameter.
18/8 stainless steel screws
It is still corrosion resistant but stronger than the 300 series.
The ball is made of a ball bearing of the first grade.
All of this is easy to find online. smallparts.
Com and onlinemetals.
Com is a good source.
Alternatively, you can also use the brand-1 on the bar.
I made a lot of things with titanium, the size is small, like working 316-
I don\'t see much reason not to use titanium, and some people may react to a small amount of nickel in 316.
I like to use recycled materials in projects.
I always take the scrap metal out of the trash and my basement is full.
Waste is a very bad idea in this place.
For perforated jewelry I will only use stainless steel, titanium or gold.
Use new materials from sources that understand inventory.
The \"stainless steel\" rod from hobby shops or home centers does not cut it and may be more expensive than buying good stock from metal suppliers.
Anything else has the potential to cause bad metal reactions and infections.
The right thing is not expensive.
The price of all these materials should be under $10, enough to buy 5 or 10 pieces of jewelry.
The first step is to cut the end of the bar stock so that its length is square.
This provides a clean, smooth surface for drilling.
Decide how long you want the bar, then add 1mm or two and cut it off.
A jeweler was pleased to see the work.
Pick up the bar on the lathe and do some slight cutting to clean the end.
I am using a carbide blade cutter with moderate cutting speed and no coolant.
The next step is to lower the stick to the diameter you want.
You need to know what specifications of piercings you want.
In the US, of course, we are using a strange measurement system.
It is measured based on the Brown and sharp line gauge.
I am making a barbell number 10, starting from 0. 102 inch or 26 mm.
Until you reach the diameter you want.
I like to cut the last one very light.
Only a few inches per thousand. at higher rpms.
This will leave a smoother surface, which means less polishing.
I finished this step with a diameter of 0.
106, leave something to remove when polishing.
Use a center drill to \"observe\" the end of the workpiece.
This leaves a small dimples in the middle, which will keep the drill bit in the right position in the next step.
This is the same idea as punching a piece of material in the center before drilling with a hand.
Drill a hole in the bar.
This should be the right size for the faucet we use to cut the thread. I\'m using a 1-
72 tap, so this is a #53 bit of 0. 059 inch or 1. 511 mm.
As an interesting trivia point, measure a digital drill bit using a US line gauge (AWG)
, Which is completely different from the B & S line gauge used for perforated sizes.
I have been drilling holes in the bar and drilling half the depth from each end.
I think it makes me do a better job of cleaning the cutting oil, crumbs and general muck on the thread.
Be sure to use some kind of lubricant on the drill bit and often take it out to remove metal scraps.
Use the faucet to cut the thread in the bar.
The ball will be screwed here.
Knocking on small holes like this can be difficult --
It doesn\'t take a lot of power to break the faucet.
If the tap is not fully aligned with the hole, it will clog and break.
When I turn the tap wrench by hand, I loosely hold the end of the tap with the Chuck in the tailseat.
Use a lot of cutting lubricating oil and walk slowly and pour the tap out more often than you think it is necessary.
I went into the rhythm of 1/2 forward, 1/4 back, and then completely removed the tap every few laps.
If you break the tap, you can buy a new one and throw it away.
There\'s an interesting trick, though, in case you\'re doing something you don\'t want to throw away.
The bar here is made of titanium and the faucet is made of steel.
This means that if the faucet is broken, you can put the whole mess in the nitric acid bath, which will dissolve the broken faucet but will not dissolve the titanium part.
Of course, when you\'re done, you still have to deal with any issues that cause the tap to break. . .
Place one of the ball bearings into the lathe and start drilling using the center drill bit.
The middle drill breaks the crispy shell of the ball well into the sticky center.
Generally, ball bearings are difficult to drill without annealing.
Stainless steel hardness is not very good, I did not encounter any problems when drilling.
Next, drill, sink your head and tap the ball.
Use the same drill bit as the rod to pass through the hole of 2/3 of the ball.
Then use the same size as the diameter of the rod to put a short countersunk head into the ball.
This will allow the bar to score slightly when they are screwed together.
This is the trickiest part of the whole thing.
If the hole is too small, the barbell will not fit.
It\'s too big. there is a gap that is very suitable for all kinds of living creatures.
In order to make it more difficult, the bar may be machined into some wierd sizes where you cannot get the matching drill bit (
And drilling usually makes the hole bigger than the drill bit.
Once everything is drilled, knock the hole like a bar.
Then, screw one of the screws into the ball tightly and cut off its head.
Reach out enough lines from the outside of the ball and it can be securely attached to the rod.
I like to be longer than most commercial barbells.
At this point, we have processed two balls and one stick.
All components are done and now is the time to check if they are appropriate.
Screw everything together
The thread should work smoothly.
Check if the bar is close to the sink.
If not, you might have to redo that ball.
If everything looks good then we finish the processing and are ready to start the processing
In other words, we are halfway through.
Now is the time to make it all shiny.
I use about 600 of sandpaper to remove any tool marks from machining.
Don\'t do too much.
You don\'t want to change the size too much.
A rotating tool with felt pads and polished compounds is then used to obtain a mirror gloss.
In the picture below, the bar is screwed on the brass fixture to secure it on the lathe while polishing.
I end with an ultrasonic bath to remove the residue from the polished compound and the cutting oil and then use it passively for 10 minutes in a citric acid solution.
Passivation is the process of using an acid bath to remove any small pieces of iron that may be rubbed off from the cutting tool.
For the stainless steel drill bit, it also helps to remove the iron from the surface layer of the part and perform good corrosion
Resistant to surface.
Finally, it was cleaned again and it was done!
This is a picture of the finished product, showing several common problems.
First of all, it\'s hard to tell from the photos, but the surface is not where I want it.
It is smooth and shiny but not completely there.
So it will go back and do more polishing. not a big deal.
Second, what\'s more serious is that the ball on the left has too big a sink.
This shows well what I warned before.
The pesky gunk might get caught there and it provides a great place for bacterial growth.
This may be good enough for a healed perforation, but I still do it again.
I put a picture of my \"shop\" at the bottom.
What I want to say is that it doesn\'t take much space or a lot of machine tools to do this kind of work.
The lathe is the biggest investment and the port freight is about $300.
It took me about an hour to do this.
The first one took over three hours, but I made 4 or 5 balls before I was happy with them.
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