Punching a Ti windscreen

[David Lewis]

I see the the pre-punched Ti windscreens are out of stock. I tried to punch one of my unpunched ones with a hole punch and it made a damn mess. That Titanum is tough stuff!!! Can anyone point me to a better tool for punching a clean 1/4″ or slightly bigger hole in Ti foil?

[Vick Hines]

If your system permits, you can avoid punching altogether and just snip out some triangular or even rectangular openings on the ‘bottom’ edge of the windscreen. They will give more air than holes and will disturb the flames less than holes located higher. Tin snips will work. For a neat job, polish the edges with a Dremmel or sandpaper.

[Joshua Mitchell]

If you really want to get fancy on cutting notches out of the bottoms (as vick suggested) you can also get some corner nips (right angle nips?)… can’t find a link, but they exist.. they’re made for cutting a corner out of sheetmetal if you’re making a tray… probably expensive for single use but they make really clean right angles…

[Vick Hines]

Yeah, Josh, that would work. There is also a device called nibblers for well… nibbling away at sheet metal. Radio Shack, and most tool companies have them. Try the Widgetsupply.com.

[David Lewis]

Thanks for the idea… but those tools may have the same problems with this material as the hole punch did… i.e… material distortion since the material is soooooo thin and yet so strong.

[Vick Hines]

Yeah, maybe. I’ve only used them on aluminum and thin steel. I haven’t tried on titanium, but have just used aircraft snips and a Dremmel.
Either way, you can avoid making holes and be better off. In fact, you could just prop up one edge with a pebble or something.

[Dale Wambaugh]

Or just cut the metal in a short straight line and bend the corners back to make a triangle, giving a nice finished edge– with the weight of the metal left in place vs. cutting it away.

[Joshua Mitchell]

Of course, you could mostly trim the folded part… then you’d gain most of the weight savings and keep a smooth edge…

Nice Idea!

[D G]

David,

I have a little left over BPL titanium foil from when I cut mine to length. I just tried punching the foil with my Whitney punch. It had no problem making a hole but the results where not that great, it did not leave a clean edge. The tool is up to the task but the big problem is that the foil is too thin. I didn’t try it but maybe backing the foil with something else might prevent the problem

I then grabbed an ordinary pair of scissors (good quality, fiskars) and it made a clean cut no problem.

I would take Vick’s advice and just cut triangular cuttouts on the bottom. Ordinary scissors will work fine, you don’t need any tin snips.

Dan

[Jason Klass]

Dan, Dave, and Vick:

I think for ti, the best solution is to keep leave the screen as is and just use trenches. Once you punch holes in a windscreen, you are comitted to them. In this method, you can adjust to the conditions at hand (scroll down to “trenches”): http://www.freewebs.com/jasonklass/ventingoptions.htm

[Bernard Shaw]

How do you all use this stuff? It is so thin, with wind it blows all around deforming like crazy.

[Dale Wambaugh]

Good idea, or a few flat stones to jack it up a bit. Seems that trenches would be great if it was really blowing.

Oh, duh– just went back and read your web page with the section on risers immediately after the trench stuff. Nice page too!

[Michael Moccia]

I used a three hole punch from Office Max, the same found in most offices. Worked outstanding. The ruler on the punch also functioned as a nifty spacing guide.

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