Titanium soldering strip questions

[Petal]

I've started this thread, as I'm having a go at rolling mine down and others may find this thread useful.

OK, so they've arrived, are 1.25mm thick and I've milled down my first one. I'd like it to be around 1mm thick.

Do I anneal between each pass??

[china]

When I made mine I did not mill them down I just shaped them and ground the ends to suit

[Petal]

Thanks for your reply Bob. Having not used Titanium before, would I need to have a greater amount of heat than working with silver to anneal them, to mill them thinner, or just put through the mill more often, as its a 'tougher' metal?

[china]

Without getting really technical if you heat to a dull red and let it cool that should suffice, you will find that titanium tends to work harden more slowly than silver put some protection between the rollers and the titanium so you
don't damage the rollers.

[misspond]

This is really useful, even though I don't have a rolling mill. I've got some strips and I've not really used them. I have had a go at filing and shaping them to use them but have found them super tricky to bend into the shapes suggested from Jame's suggestions from the PDF he has shared. Technical/user error on my part I'm sure.
I generally end up using the strips to balance pieces on or butted up against pieces of silver to ensure they meet when I'm soldering tiny jump rings to larger mass pieces and don't want flux expansion to hinder me.

[Petal]

OK, so I've already buggered that up then, as I put them through the mill without protecting the rollers.

Would I need to anneal between each pass? I don't tend to do this with silver, unless I'm milling really thick sheet.

[china]

No you will most likely find that you can put it through quite a few times before it becomes work hardened, same as silver it will stop moving when it becomes hard then anneal again.

[CJ57]

James didn’t say anything about protecting the mill

[Petal]

I've got one to about 1mm thick (having problems with my measurer, as I need a new battery). I've taken pics all the way along and, once I've done my sawing and shaping, hopefully on Wednesday (sorry), then I'll post back with how its all gone.

I love the bluey colour the Titanium goes when you anneal it though.

Thanks Bob for your help. xx

[Dennis]

I've made a few and they are always in my work box ready for action.

There is definitely no need to anneal. The amount you roll them down, depends on the delicacy of your work, buy is not critical. Mine are about a mm thick and were easy enough to bend with pliers and grind with small stones on my motor. A saw and files would do the same thing.

They have not left any marks on the rollers of my Durston.
The hinged one was made of stainless steel, before the titanium blanks came on the market and was use to hold together the ends of large wire hoops for soldering. It did not draw any comment at the time when I showed it here. Dennis.

[CJ57]

Good to know Dennis as I didn’t want to put them through my Durston either if that was the case

[china]

Re rolling mill, I would just rather be sure than sorry, replacement rollers are $1000 a set down here, annealing just makes the process easier

[Goldsmith]

I rolled my strips down using my old Durston, I did roll them down at the edge of my rollers and not in the middle just in case the titanium strip marked them, but they didn't leave any marks on my rollers.
I did get KnewConcepts to try supplying thinner strips and they did make some thinner strips and sent me some, but for some reason didn't carry on making them. I think they had problems with their titanium supplier back then.

James

[Petal]

I rolled my strips down using my old Durston, I did roll them down at the edge of my rollers and not in the middle just in case the titanium strip marked them, but they didn't leave any marks on my rollers.
I did get KnewConcepts to try supplying thinner strips and they did make some thinner strips and sent me some, but for some reason didn't carry on making them. I think they had problems with their titanium supplier back then.

James

If I wanted to protect my rollers, how would this be done?

Last night I used some folded over copper sheet, after Bob mentioned protecting the titanium, but copper is softer, so would this work, or should I use something else instead? I found it more challenging to put through the mill, as I couldn't see the titanium strip.

Just edited to ask James, what thickness was the original strips?

[Goldsmith]

Jules, the strips that I got from Knew Concepts when they first started selling them are approx 1mm. thick, I rolled some down to approx 0.75mm. thick. Knew Concepts did try some 0.5mm. thick but I found them a bit weak.
Bear in mind that the USA still use imperial measures and the strips they sell are actually 0,050" thick which is approx 1.27mm.

I have not seen the strips that Cookson sell as I got hundreds given to me by Lee Marshall as a thank you for suggesting they sold them.

James

[Petal]

I've checked my mill, with no bad effects from milling the original strips, but will definitely keep to the edges, rather than the middle =:-O

I'll continue annealling and plan to mill some .75 mm thick for clamping studs onto earring backs. Thanks for the further info James.