Hi waff.
Hi Waff,
-first take the fuze apart and remove all small and movable parts.
-Of cource you are going to cut away a specified part (either 90 or 120 degrees, however make shure you stay at least 1 to 1,5 mm away from this line, so you'll have plenty of material left to rasp it straight.
-Look if a fuze is "different” or “indifferent". An indifferent fuze (f.i. Bd.Z DOV)is a fuze with a central flame hole and no parts like delay screws. It does not matter how you cut it, you'll always see the same. The only thing to be taken into account than is the quality of the projectile on which –or in- it is screwed. Of cource you’ll than take the best part of the projectile to cut and adept the fuze to it.
If a fuze is different (fi the Dopp zunder) you’ll have to look for the off centre flame hole as well if you are going to cut the fuze clock- either counterclockwise. This last may look like a detail but it’s going to descide between a good and a less cutaway model.
Therefore it is better to first take the fuze apart and study and descide which parts you want to see and which are less important.
Taking the fuze apart and first cut the housing prevents you from “per accident” cutting through clocks, firingpins and levers. In this dopp zunder I first cut the empty housing.
Clocks can be cut by taking them apart completely and cut away the trays housing the gearwheels in such a way the gears can be replaced. The cut of a clock does not have to follow the lines of the housing.
Tools:
For cutting fuzes I always use a hacksaw, for small fuzes a small hacksaw.
Rasping the fuze is a time consuming and requires much concentration, so do not think you’re going to make a nice cutaway within the hour. If I add up the hours for this Dopp zunder, it must be around fourty hours of labour to get some result.
I only use a dremel to clean parts (rotating steel brush) , NEVER to cut stuff, simply because you cannot steer a rotating machine as well as you can steer a hacksaw.
Qauality of tools:
A couple of weeks ago I visited a fellow collector who wanted to cut a No.117 fuze “but it didn’t work out”, until I looked at the tools he was using . A hacksaw with a blunt blade and a rasp that must have been left here in 1945 by the wehrmacht and was as toothless as it’s former owner would be now (if he’s still alive).
So buy two new rasps, one for steel and one for aluminiun /brass and buy yourself a pack of new sawblades, do not buy “Hong Kong” quality, but good stuff ( Osjberg, Sandvik).
A blunt saw will result in a non-straight and “widened at the ends”cut as the ends are still more sharp than the more used middle part. The same counts for the rasp: You will not be able to get a surface straight with a blunt rasp, it will remain rounded.
Remember : rasping is not about putting your full weight on the rasp and push and pull, the rasp will have to do the job for you. So use gentle pressure and concentrate on making a straight movement with the rasp.
If you have straightened a surface, rerasp with little pressure (same rasp) to get a finer pattern. Now take a piece of P80 tape sandpaper (rolls of 50 mtr, 5 cm wide) and cut a strip as wide and twice a s long as the rasp. Put the sandpaper over the rasp, hold it between two fingers at the stem , keep it tensioned and “rasp” again with the sandpaper over the rasp to get a fine pattern.
Succes, DJH
Ps: not all of my cutties succeed. This weekend I wasted a nice 20x128 shell by cutting on the wrong side of the line.
