Thatâs the myth about Titanium, but if you can file down or sand SS you can do the same on Titanium, Believe me, Iâve done it plenty as Iâm a Ti Freak! I was told âyou canât work Titanium with regular home toolsâ and so I used my drill and a bench mounted vise to make wedding bands from a 1â bar of surgical grade Ti. You can, if you want it bad enough! 
Titanium isnât generally harder than steel, and by volume itâs also not stronger than steel. Itâs mostly just lighter (and stronger by weight).
I wouldnât want to mod tungsten carbide though. That stuff is really hard.
The guy that made my Texas Poker (from a 1â bar of Surgical Grade Ti Iâd had for some 13 years) also took a SQUARE bar of tungsten, rounded it, then made a flashlight from the round bar. Photon Fanatic is SERIOUS about flashlight making!
Edit: Thinking on it, my Texas Poker was made from the same 1â bar I made 3 rings fromâŚ
Iâve worked with Grade 1 titanium that I could bend with my hands and inversely grade 5 titanium that Iâve destroyed tons of bits on just trying to drill or mill the stuff. A hack saw actually cuts the stuff better than any angle grinding wheel I ever tried.
Basically it depends on what alloy/grade of metal you have. Mild steel is easy to work where as D2 not so much. There are alloys of aluminum that are a real pain in the behind to work with too.
> titanium
Thatâs encouraging.
TK, whatâs the inside diameter to aim for, for a proper clip?
Pardon me for butting in. 
I used Solarforce clips like TKâs on my D1 and D4.
I slowly opened them to about 23mm in order to just clear the battery tubeâs threads. I used a Dremel with a small sanding drum.
I put the the o-ring on after the clip, and it still seats nicely inside the lip of the tail cap.
I fashioned a brass âwave washerâ to make up the new gap between the end of the battery tube and its contact point against the tailcap PCB. What did you use, TK?
Youâre calling 6Al4V Grade 5, I used Surgical Grade, which Iâve seen called Grade 23 or 6Al4V Eli, to make wedding bands. Iâve also made my 18500 scratch build Ti/Cu Quad from 6Al4V on the lathe I have, with very little experience and very little tool selection. Bored it, threaded it, shaped it. No coolant. (I might also ad I started a fire with it!)
I used CP Grade 2 to make the Ti plate like they put in my neck. Almost had more trouble drilling and tapping mount holes in a piece of 7075 Al.
Aim to get the Ti clip, and aim to flame it Gold. That Solarforce clip is too spacey, grabs only at the contact point. I have 2 of em, donât think theyâre for the D1, needs to be more elegant in my opinion.
I found a black clip that fits the D1 ok, but the black on the Green and Gold just really doesnât work. Still thinking about making a new tail cap with bronze and mounting a screw on Ti clip to it. Guess Iâll figure all that out later, out of fundsâŚ.
Newbie question! Iâve read this entire thread and just received my D4 in the mail yesterday. What an amazing piece of tech! Question is, if I set my temp to the highest (it blinks out 70C), I shouldnât have to worry about the light getting so hot that it might wreck any of the electronics, right? Ie, it wonât desolder or anything⌠Let me know your thoughts! Thanks all. Iâve only recently gone down the flashlight rabbit hole and am loving reading this and other forums and learning from everyone! 
Are you wearing oven gloves
I ordered what will be my 3rd D4. I just love these things!
What flavors you have to far, and whatâs on the way?
I really want to get my hands on the D1S 18350 âDollyâ version.
I donât have the review up yet, but I got a D1S⌠and I have some bad news. It appears to use a slightly different tube than the D4/D1, so the shorty tube doesnât work. I donât know if Hank will offer a compatible shorty tube for the D1S.
It looks fabulously ridiculous in 18350 form though. Itâs kind of awesome. I hope there will be a compatible tube.
Itâs also possible I have some sort of prototype which doesnât represent the final product. I donât know.
Every light I get seems to be some sort of prototype, I always have to finish them when they get here. lol
Yeah⌠planning to make some changes. But I should finish a review first.
> a slightly different tube
Chabuduo?
ChĂ bu duĹ (塎ä¸ĺ¤)?
Or as they say in the US, âclose enoughâ works for games played with horseshoes and hand grenades âŚ
⌠or nuclear warfare.