Anyone tried to threadmill Tungsten?

Shop Supply Guru

Hot Rolled

Joined

May 3, 2016

Location

Ohio USA

• Apr 16, 2019

• #1

I have a client who has asked about thread mills for tungsten. This a new one and I don't see a lot out their for so I'm wondering if any of you have tried it or better yet had success.

 

M

Milland

Diamond

Joined

Jul 6, 2006

Location

Hillsboro, New Hampshire

• Apr 16, 2019

• #2

Metallic tungsten is not that great for machining, but it can be done. I think a good coated threadmill would do it, at least for a while.

Machining Tungsten & Pure Tungsten - Cutting - Sawing - Drilling - Milling - Grinding | Eagle Alloys Corporation

 

Gordon Heaton

Titanium

Joined

Feb 19, 2007

Location

St. George, Utah

• Apr 16, 2019

• #3

Milland said:

Metallic tungsten is not that great for machining. . .

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All I know about tungsten, other than tungsten-carbide, is my experience with TiG electrodes. Near as I can tell all of them, alloyed or pure are not too tough but oh so brittle! Seems to me that thread grinding would be more promising. Can you grind internal threads?

 

B

BSCustoms

Cast Iron

Joined

Dec 29, 2014

Location

WA

• Apr 17, 2019

• #4

pure tungsten is quite soft and machinable. Kern just put up videos of thread milling a carbide endmill, they may have info on which tool used.

 

L

Larry Dickman

Titanium

Joined

Jan 30, 2014

Location

Temecula, Ca

• Apr 17, 2019

• #5

We make tungsten parts on occasion. It machines very nice, I would say somewhat similar to A2. You won't have any trouble threadmilling it.

 

litlerob1

Diamond

Joined

Nov 4, 2013

Location

Utah, USA

• Apr 18, 2019

• #6

BSCustoms said:

pure tungsten is quite soft and machinable. Kern just put up videos of thread milling a carbide endmill, they may have info on which tool used.

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Link please...

 

B

BSCustoms

Cast Iron

Joined

Dec 29, 2014

Location

WA

• Apr 19, 2019

• #7

KERN Precision on Instagram: “Thread machined into carbide!!! Our applications engineers @kernmicrotechnik topped their part and added a thread... machined in tungsten…”

Check 11 posts back on their page. I couldn't get the direct link to post for some reason.

 

L

Larry Dickman

Titanium

Joined

Jan 30, 2014

Location

Temecula, Ca

• Apr 19, 2019

• #8

are we talking about tungsten, or tungsten carbide?

 

M

Milland

Diamond

Joined

Jul 6, 2006

Location

Hillsboro, New Hampshire

• Apr 19, 2019

• #9

BSCustoms said:

KERN Precision on Instagram: “Thread machined into carbide!!! Our applications engineers @kernmicrotechnik topped their part and added a thread... machined in tungsten…”

Check 11 posts back on their page. I couldn't get the direct link to post for some reason.

Click to expand...

That was done with PCD (diamond) tooling. Metallic tungsten has a min tensile strength of ~100Ksi, that's reasonably hard right there. Add abrasiveness and I think it's more of an issue than you give it credit for.

 

M

MattiJ

Titanium

Joined

May 31, 2017

• Apr 19, 2019

• #10

Larry Dickman said:

We make tungsten parts on occasion. It machines very nice, I would say somewhat similar to A2. You won't have any trouble threadmilling it.

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”Pure” tungsten or tungsten alloys like Densimet alloys? Apparently the 98% vs 99.x% makes difference.
And afaik there is different varieties of ”pure” tungsten too.