heating titanium

<style></style>hi all, ive got a titanium exhaust pipe that has a dent in it, i was wondering if i can heat it with a torch and knock it back out from the inside ?
i can fit a round wooden dowel in it, just afraid to heat the titanium, don't want it to fall in, or melt away.
thanks...

 

Because Ti absorbs oxygen during the melting process (which embrittles it) all hot processing (including weldng, or softening) has to be done in a vacuum or in an inert gass. Heating it to pop the dent out would cause the same problem unless you had the correct set up, that is the reson manufacturing Ti is so expensive.

Why would you bother with a Ti exhaust in the first place?

 

my guess is corvette

 

Your best bet is to cold work it if possible.

 

A little off topic here but you are just the guy I've been looking for! If you can afford Ti exhaust then you need to own a Sprint car team. We use lots of Ti on our cars, you'll love it!

Bob

 

thanks for the advice hawaiianstyle, ill cold work it as best i can,
i know its off topic, but a speed part is a speed part i figure, so i gotta save it,
is that pipe hard ? can i bang on it hard trying to cold bend it, or is it gonna crack or tare ? < spelling ??
nice car racer12, hah, wish i was the man, im poor boy..
thanks

 

Maybe I'm way off on this, but I swore I've seen Kent White gas weld titanium. He made a sphere out of two halves, started with sheet metal. I know for sure he said you have to work titanium hot or you'll wear your arm out trying to shape the stuff.

 

Just looked and theres plenty of infomation on the interweb about this.Looks like bending hot would take 400 to 600 degrees.Doing it cold they talk about quite a bit of spring back.

 

Good luck.Take it to someone that works with the material.You will just mess it up.This is not the stuff you make a guessing game out of.

 

Or sportbike.

 

I work at a company that used to make ti bicycles. That stuff is very tough and springy to cold work. To align the frames they would use an electric heat gun (400° ?) to warm them up. One of the properties of titanium is it retains its strength at high temps, so it will still be a bear to work. As said, too much heat will oxidize it and make it brittle. It can handle quite a bit of heat, but if it gets near melting, its ruined.

 

Same experience here playing with Ti bike parts, springy when cold

What company Relic?

 

Trek. Made titanium frames under the LeMond brand for a few years.

 

yea, its my sport bike,
man id love to have some pipes for my flathead outta this stuff.

 

I think I knew you did but forgot where you were located DOH!