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First cutaway I've ever done - V40

GTR003121

GTR003121

Well-Known Member
Hi all, I did this V40 cutaway today, my first cutaway. I used a padded vice, hacksaw and an electric sander. The body was full of resin which, when heated lightly with a blowtorch, peeled out fairly easily. I dropped in a fuze from another V40 for display. When I got this V40, the fuze turned out to be a reproduction except for the pin and ring and the paint was literally falling off so I have plans to polish the exterior as best I can. I hope everyone likes it.

J
 

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Very nice GTR003121, always nice to see what's inside.

Just be careful, it gets quite addictive doing sections so lock up the hacksaw until you're really sure you want to cut anything else :tinysmile_eyebrow_t

Dave.
 
A fantastic first cutaway. well done. Sg500 is right, once you get started you cant stop. I have a few grens lined up for sectioning at the moment but just can't find the spare time to get started. (maybe this weekend):tinysmile_cry_t2:
Paul.
 
Thanks a lot guys! I do have one more item that I want to cut, but it's a tougher proposition. It's a spare BLU-36 sub, and they are chock full of steel balls. Plus, I only want to cut a quarter out of it. I think I'll wait until I figure the best way to do it. A hacksaw isn't going to do it. Any suggestions?
 
Grinder and patience

GTR003121 said:
Thanks a lot guys! I do have one more item that I want to cut, but it's a tougher proposition. It's a spare BLU-36 sub, and they are chock full of steel balls. Plus, I only want to cut a quarter out of it. I think I'll wait until I figure the best way to do it. A hacksaw isn't going to do it. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

If it has ball bearings in it then you have two choices-

Remove the balls assuming they are set in a medium that will allow their removal.
or
Use a high speed grinder with plenty of coolant and that will take a steady hand and lots of patience.

Good luck with the next project and if it turns out half as good as this one then it will be great!
 
Very nice cutaway of the V40. One can see you gave it a good thought before cutting as the left piece is much less than half. This means your fuze will not fall out of the cutaway if handled. Good job

About the BLU-36; you can easily cut it with a hacksaw, these balls are not hardened. However , be carefull not to press to hard on the saw, as these balls are cast in an aluminium alloy that may break on thinner parts.
Make shure you do not throw away the 1/4 piece left. When you "crush" this 1/4 left below a hammer it will give you a number of extra loose steel balls you can glue in on the cut surface. Cut balls on the cutaway surface can be pushed out by the point of a nail and replaced by full balls glued in. However , do not glue in too much balls, about half, leave the rest cut balls.

Regards, DJH
 
The balls are embedded in the aluminum body so they are there to stay. I have a nice hinged circular saw with an integrated base plate which would probably make it easy, but I have no way to lock the sub in place on the saw base. That will be the mission of the day tomorrow, Ill try it on a dummy bomblet first.
 
Thanks for the info on the BLU-36 D, that will help and using the extra bearings is a great idea! Good eye noticing the V40 is cut past the halfway point. I actually did this because I used to have an M67 that I bought cut and like you said, it always fell apart. This one works great but I actually wish I had left more. 20/20 hindsight I guess. Thanks again, you guys are big help!


pzgr40 said:
Very nice cutaway of the V40. One can see you gave it a good thought before cutting as the left piece is much less than half. This means your fuze will not fall out of the cutaway if handled. Good job

About the BLU-36; you can easily cut it with a hacksaw, these balls are not hardened. However , be carefull not to press to hard on the saw, as these balls are cast in an aluminium alloy that may break on thinner parts.
Make shure you do not throw away the 1/4 piece left. When you "crush" this 1/4 left below a hammer it will give you a number of extra loose steel balls you can glue in on the cut surface. Cut balls on the cutaway surface can be pushed out by the point of a nail and replaced by full balls glued in. However , do not glue in too much balls, about half, leave the rest cut balls.

Regards, DJH
Click to expand...
 
" have a nice hinged circular saw with an integrated base plate which would probably make it easy".

No, it makes it easy destroying it. :tinysmile_cry_t: With a machine, especially a hinged one (momentum) you have no feeling of the force you will put on the sawblade. If it looses from the vice - shurely a risk with a ball shape- while cutting you will shurely not be fast enough to react. Either the machine wrecks your cutaway, either it is swung off the blade and it may hit you. I prefere the hacksaw.

First cut the band that keeps the halves together, carefully push the band open with a screwdriver until both parts fall apart. Cut each half apart by hand, than carefully place it in a vice and than rasp and polish it.
Do not hurry, it make take you three to four hours to cut and polish it to satisfatcory quality.
 
Point taken, hacksaw it is! I don't know what's available where you are, but what are the best blades for this kind of thing? Why do I remove the crimping band? Wouldn't it be better with it, and that would hold it together no?





pzgr40 said:
" have a nice hinged circular saw with an integrated base plate which would probably make it easy".

No, it makes it easy destroying it. :tinysmile_cry_t: With a machine, especially a hinged one (momentum) you have no feeling of the force you will put on the sawblade. If it looses from the vice - shurely a risk with a ball shape- while cutting you will shurely not be fast enough to react. Either the machine wrecks your cutaway, either it is swung off the blade and it may hit you. I prefere the hacksaw.

First cut the band that keeps the halves together, carefully push the band open with a screwdriver until both parts fall apart. Cut each half apart by hand, than carefully place it in a vice and than rasp and polish it.
Do not hurry, it make take you three to four hours to cut and polish it to satisfatcory quality.
Click to expand...
 
I use a 12" hacksaw with a 24 tpi sawblade.
Make shure you take the absolute center on top and boottom before connecting the cutting lines.
Regards, DJH
 
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