Here is something a little different, a cutaway of a Hales grenade. It never dawned on me to make a cutaway of anything before. But I took this on because it looks like a really interesting project. Before I can start cutting I need to do a little housekeeping on this hales. First there are little burrs all over the frag body that need to be trimmed off. This is easily accomplished with an Exacto knife. There is a little bit of surface rust that needs to be removed before I can apply the blueing. I used my flex shaft tool with a wire wheel to zip it all off, it made that frag body shine. The blueing took really well to this “new” metal and this time I used a wire wheel to polish instead of steel wool.
Cutting the Frag Body
Measure and mark before you cut. To make the line on the Hales frag body I used a block of wood and a straight edge pressed up against the side while it was laying on its side. The marks/cuts are to be down the middle of rows of cubes so you get the profile of the frag body. I swapped on a cutting wheel and very carefully started cutting along the line, not putting a lot of pressure. The first cut was almost done and the vice pinched the cut so it was narrower which made it grip the cutting disc. I tried loosening the vice, but it was not enough, I had to finish the cut with a hacksaw. The second cut didn’t have that same issue and one it was done it popped inside of the frag body.
Sanding the Frag Body
I used my new bench sander again! It really didn’t take much to clean the burrs off and get it really smooth. Just a little light pressure a few times and it’s great. I’ll polish it more once I get the rest of the parts cut that way I’m not swapping between belts all the time.
