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Just looking at the Titanium bar for sale on ebay and a question came in to my head.
With a length of Titanium bar 8mm x 250mm being between 5 and 8 quid is it worth making firing pins out of anything else other than Titanium?
With standard AR firing pins being a consumable item would these last forever if made from Titanium?
Is the cost of machining higher with Titanium?

Gazza wrote:Just looking at the Titanium bar for sale on ebay and a question came in to my head.
With a length of Titanium bar 8mm x 250mm being between 5 and 8 quid is it worth making firing pins out of anything else other than Titanium?
With standard AR firing pins being a consumable item would these last forever if made from Titanium?
Is the cost of machining higher with Titanium?

The answer is yes , titanium is notoriously difficult to machine , Best done on CNC machines with specialst carbide tipped tools and under a flood of non flammable cutting oil . The swarf is highly flammable and cannot easily be extinguished , smothering with Fullers earth being recommended. Titanium firing pins would be superb , finding someone to make them not so easy .

I have a spare titanium firing pin for my SVD and it is like a mini work of art.

waterford103 wrote:

Gazza wrote:Just looking at the Titanium bar for sale on ebay and a question came in to my head.
With a length of Titanium bar 8mm x 250mm being between 5 and 8 quid is it worth making firing pins out of anything else other than Titanium?
With standard AR firing pins being a consumable item would these last forever if made from Titanium?
Is the cost of machining higher with Titanium?

The answer is yes , titanium is notoriously difficult to machine , Best done on CNC machines with specialst carbide tipped tools and under a flood of non flammable cutting oil . The swarf is highly flammable and cannot easily be extinguished , smothering with Fullers earth being recommended. Titanium firing pins would be superb , finding someone to make them not so easy .

That explains a lot then

I work in the manufacturing industry which includes the machining of titanium alloy and whilst machining isn't my speciality, I am familiar with the basics. As already noted, titanium is pretty hard to machine unless you have a rock solid setup and use the right inserts. Galling and heat generation are the main issues to contend with. If you don't have your parts securely held, you can cause a lot of damage by having the work piece fly off.

We use a variety of CNC equipment, but I do recall being involved with the introduction of a Mazak Integrex a few years ago (think it was the 200st). A serious bit of kit! A relatively quick process and extremely accurate, capable of holding a tolerance to single digit micron on small dimensions (~10mm).

I know that titanium firing pins etc are available for firearms, but I believe these are made in a run of sufficient quantities to justify the costs. If you are serious about it, it might be worth getting in touch with someone like Neil McKillop as he has an extensive machining background and potentially has the equipment to make something like that. He bushed a bolt for a Remington 700 a couple of years ago and did a good job, so I could reccomend him!

https://www.mazakeu.co.uk/machines/integrex-i-200st/

https://m.facebook.com/Mckillop-Enginee ... 170410497/

Actually, I do not find titanium particularly difficult to machine and have made everything from swinging arms spindles for competition motorbikes to firing pins. My only observation regarding the pins I made is they did not stand up to the cycles on a semi auto rim-fire and were expensive to produce. I still have half a dozen here that were never used.

I have one here ready to go into a Remington clone so that will be interesting because it has a far lower cycle rate and can, in theory, decrease lock time.

Titanium isn't difficult try machining Nimonic 90, used in vectored thrust nozzles and ducting on Harrier jump jets.

kevinww wrote:Titanium isn't difficult try machining Nimonic 90, used in vectored thrust nozzles and ducting on Harrier jump jets.

Nimonic contains titanium which is one reason its hard to machine. The other is that it contains Nickel! Nickel alloys are an absolute pig. The are gummy and end up fouling cutting tools. Hate the stuff.

Titanium is ok for 1 off pieces but if you start making multiple you will soon notice the increased effort. It takes roughly 3 times longer to process than mild steel.

Which is why I never like machining Inconel.

So what would be the best material to use for longer lasting firing pins?