Miata Mailing List: December 1998, Message #114

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On Tue, 1 Dec 1998 mikelowe@pop.c-com.net wrote:

>      Does anyone know if a gold ring will scratch up Ti? 

Ooh!!  Ooh!!  A Materials Science Question!!! (t-minus two days to the
defense...clothes bought today...stomach slowly churning)...

The short answer is:  no.  the longer answer is also no.  In fact, most of
the answers I am going to come up with are going to be 'no'.  But that's
hardly worth writing a whole response for, eh?  So....if you put your ring
in a nice fixture, and start rotating it rapidly, and come into contact
with the Ti...no...that won't wear it, either...is your ring reinforced
with particulate carbides, perhaps?  No...didn't think so...TiO2 is *way*
hard, and nicely abrasion reisitant...thus making Ti no fun to machine (Ti
is hard, too, but your ring won't ever touch pure Ti...it spontaneously
forms a very thin oxide layer in air.  More if it's been heat treated, or
anodized, or what have you...now, if you add Al to the mix, to make the
intermetallic Titanium Aluminides, *then*.....oh, wait...I'm
babbling...sorry...

No.  It shouldn't wear the knob at all...the ring will likely suffer, and
you have a small chance of material transfer (gold onto Ti surface).  But
wear driving gloves, anyway, 'cause they're coooool....

Now, back to my after-hours machining...making dice for friends out of Ti,
TiAl, and Zr.....and if I break one more tool....they'll lock me out of
the lab....

> Woohoo!

Agreed...OK....here's the plan...defend...graduate...get employed...get
first paycheck...order roll bar and TiKnob....and springs...shocks...dual
exhaust...hrm....cat....decide against house for *just* a little while
longer....leather...ECU...straightjacket....Rx-7...start all
over....wheels.....

Ahem...daydreaming there...OK..back to defense practice.....I return you
to your regularly scheduled mailing list...

> 
> 
> Mike Lowe    mikelowe@phoenix.net    http://www.phoenix.net/~mikelowe
> Texas A&M Sports Car Club    Houston Region SCCA    Miata Club of America
> '96 Miata R   BS 93
> 



Jim VanWinkle (jvanwink@mse.ogi.edu)    | '88 FZR 400       
Oregon Graduate Institute               | '83 VF750 'ceptor
BS Physics ('87) MS Nuclear Eng ('89) MS Environmental Eng/
PhD Materials Science ('98 ish) Need a new major in '99
Paranoid?  Is *that* what they're saying about me?