Working Titanium - Making Ring from a Washer

The titanium plate this ring was made from.

A customer sent me a 2 mm thick titanium plate. He wanted to have me make a 5mm wedding ring for himself.

I had enough material for two attempts.

So drilled a hole.

I knew the about size of the hole to start with, because I tested it on a couple of washers before.

The one on the left was a bit small and the one on the right went off my triblet.

Got it. 

I cut it out with a hacksaw. A hacksaw blade is quickly blunt, in if you don’t oil it. I use SAE 30 – best oil around.

Then I saw the corners off and anneal it, and then I take a vise grip and grind it to a rough round.

The reason I anneal it only now is because I don’t know what alloy this is.

And sometimes unknown alloys screw up big time after annealing.

So rather a small washer than the whole plate.

One does not just ‘dome’ a 2mm thick washer with a smack or two.

Anne held the flame, and I heated up the washer and when it was good and hot, I dropped it into the doming block and then smacked it with the punch and hammer.

When titanium is red hot, as in pale orange, it’s about as malleable to me as iron is at that temperature as well.

The shape of the washer after doming.

I only use the doming, pre-shaping the washer before moving on to the triblet part.

One does not just ‘ bash’ a titanium washer up and flat.

Anne holds the torch, I cook and bash.

It looks bad on the triblet, but I cool it often under water.

That colour is malleable.

You can forget hitting this alloy up in a civilized manner if it’s not red hot.

Eventually it gets to here. Then I use the bench grinder to true it up

And I also hammer it further until I get it to the right size. The center start hole size will determine the sweet spot as in where the ring hits 90º and is the right size.

The washer before gave me a good estimate.

Finished.

This titanium ring was made of plate, pierced out into a washer and the forged until the ring was formed. 

Center matt, polished bevel edged and comfort fit on the inside.

Other than the hardness factor it worked as per.

Cool or what?