bending titanium

I would go to an independently owned muffler shop and ask how much they would charge to bend the Ti rods on their hydraulic pipe bender.

Ed

Heat it to 1200 degrees and bend it to any shape you like without beating it to death.

If you have access to a press this might give you some ideas; beats the $100 criteria by about $95...

I made this up when I had a bunch of repetitive bends to make in 1/8" Inconel for a batch of heat treat baskets. Should be easily scalable for larger stock.

The pins are 1/4" dowel pins set into pockets in the steel block. The spacing is pretty tight because I needed to maintain a tight radius - less force would be required if they were farther apart. I TIG welded the dowel on the ram into its pocket because it was convenient, but I'm sure you could come up with a mechanical fastening as well.

The clamp collar sets the stroke of the press to the desired bend angle.

With a little practice and care I was able to place the bends within about .020 of the desired position. The nice finish and hard surface on the dowels minimized marking of the wire.

Ned Simmons

The problem with the arbor press is that the ram will get in the way of putting the second bend in the C-shape. The problem with heating it is that titanium is reactive and changes color when heated and I will be wanting to control the final color after the pieces are shaped. But I can abrade the unwanted oxidation off, so I'll give that a try. I think I will take your idea but modify a vise with three round pins, two on one side and one centered between them on the other, and use the screw to press the heated rod into shape. Thanks. That and Wayne's suggestion of heating it were what I needed to start me thinking creatively about this. Guess I got to go out and buy a heavier vise now and give it a try.

What percentage of overbend do you have to use to get the angle you want?

Wes

cold bending it: about 15 degrees I'd guess. From what I've read, here and elsewhere, hot forming it is the way to go, eliminates all the spring-back, but you've only got 5-8 seconds before it hardens up again.