Speaking of titanium, had a friend that worked at a machine shop that got a lot of small run government contracts. Whenever they had titanium (and other metals) left over, he'd bring the odds and ends by our race car shop. He said the chances were that the next job they had would call for some other spec alloy and they didn't need those leftovers sitting around their shop. The wouldn't machine us any parts, but no problem, we knew enough people that did specialty jobs in their garages. Maybe there's a shop in your area that has some exotic leftovers.