Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 2:08 pm Post subject: I dream of ................... Kalashnikov
Here I go again.
Being a builder by nature this little project appealed to me.
This will be my account of the one I am building for myself.
Background:
Seems that many companies in this country don't even want to sell anything firearm related to residents of California. Can't really blame them as the laws here suck, and I can see where they would want to cover their backsides not knowing what the laws are.
Like with my AR's I researched the laws (local, and federal) pertaining to building my own AK based rifle.
Here's what I found out:
Destroyed rifles from other countries can be legally imported in the US provided they meet with the BATF's description of "destroyed" until 2005 when even the importation was banned.
This means basically the destruction of the receiver by making three cuts across it (normally with a torch) rendering the rifle into a bunch of metal parts incapable of being fired.
Good news is since this collection of metal is no longer a firearm it can be bought, and sold without any special licenses, and the barrel, front, and rear trunions, gas block, and tube are still intact.
Very few of these parts kits are still available, and the price is rising.
Then comes the 922(r) compliance law.
This basically states that a certain precentage of the home built firearm must be American Made because importing a complete firearm is illegal.
Followed by NFA requirements of minimum 30" long with Minimum 16" barrel.
Then the California law (same as for AR's) for a fixed 10 round magazine to have any of the so called 'Evil Features' like a pistol grip, flash hider, or collapsible stock.
So I began my journey to building a Kalashnikov style fixed magazine 10 round rifle.
I bought a 1986 Romanian "G" kit (all matching serial numbers meaning it was once a complete rifle, and not mixed, and matched) for my project.
These rifles were changed to semi-auto only, and issued to the Romanian Guard.
When they changed over from the 7.62x39 round to the 5.45x39 round as the standard these rifles were cut up, and sold as kits. Most saw very few rounds down the pipe, and are in excellent condition.
It looked like this when I got it (minus the FA trigger parts which were not present in my kit):
I then needed to remove the old cut up receiver parts, and drill out the rivets (saving the parts I needed) as well as press the barrel out of the front trunion so I could attach my new home made receiver.
What it looks like de-milled:
And the casualties of the de-mill (along with a broken punch, couple of broken drill bits, and flattened brass washers from pounding the barrel out).
Next I will be breaking up the metal which will become my new receiver (helps being a sheet metal worker you know), and then a butt load of filing, and fitting to get everything to come together right.
I will be installing US made receiver,stock, grip, foregrip, trigger, hammer, and disconnector (more than I need for compliance with 922) but the rest will be Romanian from the year I graduated High School.
So far having fun beating the snot out of it to de-mill. I can see why they have the reputation for being durable, and reliable under any conditions. They are caveman simple, and built out of hardened chunks of thick metal. The system also works on a gas piston to cycle (like my 6.8 SPC AR build) which keep the dirty gases out of the working parts of the rifle unlike the direct impingement system of the M-16, M-4, and AR-15 which dumps hot powder gas right into the action to cycle.
I will update the thread as work continues, and follow it with a range report when complete.
For those interested in what this takes to do here is the tutorial I am following:
Joined: Mar 12, 2008 Posts: 681 Location: St. Louis
Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 3:51 pm Post subject:
So what's this one going to be named? Yuri? Natalya? Natasha? etc? _________________
There is no such thing as too much power. There is, however, such a thing as not enough traction.
So what's this one going to be named? Yuri? Natalya? Natasha? etc?
I'll have to see how she shoots, and consult my resident name chooser (my daughter).
Kinda like Natasha though........................... _________________
Joined: Mar 12, 2008 Posts: 681 Location: St. Louis
Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:33 pm Post subject:
well, as far as guns go, AK's have the loosest tolerances of any gun (hence why they can fire jammed full of sand), so it's just a matter of making it easy _________________
There is no such thing as too much power. There is, however, such a thing as not enough traction.
well, as far as guns go, AK's have the loosest tolerances of any gun (hence why they can fire jammed full of sand and are some of the least accurate rifles made), so it's just a matter of making it easy
Joined: Mar 12, 2008 Posts: 681 Location: St. Louis
Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 5:40 pm Post subject:
lol, yeah, call it lucy so when it makes crappy groupings you can go "You got some 'splainin to do!" _________________
There is no such thing as too much power. There is, however, such a thing as not enough traction.
So I got bored just surfing the web, and doing laundry so I decided I should drill, and tap the front trunnion. Then I thought about it.............The main reason for pressing the barrel out is to crush the rivet on the inside of the trunnion. I'm not doing a rivet build! I am tapping, and screwing it together.
Awww Man............I wouldn't have had to beat the barrel out of the trunnion if I would have bought a flat tap for the 10-32 threads I needed to put into the trunnion. Oh well, Guess I'll press the barrel back in also then.
Came across a good trick for making the barrel pressing easier on the web.
You freeze it!
So into the Freezer with my barrel while I drill, and tap the 10-32 threads into the front trunnion:
Barrel has been in the freezer for about 2 hours now. Should be cold enough to have shrunk some.
I don't have a 20 ton press to press the barrel back in (recommended method) , and I am not hammering on it again (how I got it out).
So we improvise.
The wood working bench has a stout vice with bench dogs!
Perfect..............
Slap it in (It's ice cold), and grease up the trunnion. Make sure it's indexed correctly so the barrel pin will line back up, Pad the muzzle with a nickel, and start cranking...........cranking............(with all my weight) CRANKING!
POW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
....................Oops, one bench dog exploded from the pressure.
Oh, well part of it's still intact. We'll finish up with that.
Had to beat on the barrel with a rawhide mallet to get the barrel to move after I cranked the vice as tight as it would go. PING!. Tighten the vice a bit more. Beat with mallet. PING!
repeat until the barrel pin hole lines up, and then beat in the barrel pin.
Man that was a tight fit even frozen.
Seems part of the bayonet lug got caught on the vice opening during pressing. Oops again
Nothing a little clean up with a sharp chisel couldn't fix.
Ever wonder what tons of pressure does to a nickel? (Barrel buffer Nickel on the right)
Makes me wonder how many other things I will destroy building this rifle. Sure is fun though. _________________
Joined: Mar 12, 2008 Posts: 681 Location: St. Louis
Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:58 pm Post subject:
Too bad I don't live closer to you. I just so happen to have a 20 ton press (used for pressing bearings in and out of suspension knuckles) _________________
There is no such thing as too much power. There is, however, such a thing as not enough traction.
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Got off work early (and have tomorrow off due to lack of work) so I decided to work on my little project.
Tried stopping by the Unio n Hall to borrow their pan brake but the nosing was so rounded out that the breaks I ended up with were not tight enough for my purposes.
On to plan 'B' .......A $10 trip to OSH for some 1/4 x1 1/4 flat bar, and a few nuts, and bolts.
Now granted they do make pressing jigs for AK flats (about $150 to $250 each) but I saw a post on the net about the 'poor man's flat bending jig', and stole some of the ideas from their along with a few of my own to make it happen.
Basically stole the idea of sandwiching the flat between two pieces of 1 1/4 flat bar that were bolted together with nails through a few of the screw/rivet holes to index it in the correct location.
The bending part was my idea.
Since I lack a 20 ton press, and did not want to swing a 32oz ball peen all afternoon banging this jig through some angle set at the correct distance for the exterior size I built a collapsible jig in my bench vice.
Rather than weld the angle frame or bolt it at a certain size I clamped it larger with vice grips. I then left one grip loose enough to slide on the angle as the vice was tightened but still firm enough to hold the jig together.
I made my flat bar clamp longer than the flat, and wedged it under the support angles of the frame so the flat & jig combo wouldn't pop out of the frame when it was being tightened.
Worked better than I could have expected.
Finished flat (but not a finished receiver .....yet):
The flat was made out of a piece of .041 3140 steel which although it's rather stout will not hold up to the repeated wear of the hammer, and trigger pins rotating in the receiver in it's un-hardened form.
Heat treating, and tempering is required for both those pin holes, and for the ejector (which will be kicking the shells out as the rifle cycles, and also acts as a rail guide for the bolt carrier).
First we need to heat it up to 1500 degrees (metal glowing orange yellow in color) and quickly plunge it into water.
This makes the metal super hard but also brittle.
To make it flexible again but retain the hardness we need to temper it by first polishing the discolored area from the heat, and plunge
And then re-heating it to about 750 degrees (blue grey in color), and letting it air cool slowly.
This process should yield a Rockwell hardness of about 90 to 95 while being flexible enough to avoid snapping when force is applied.
Metallurgy is fun.
Done working on it today but will be fitting the front, and rear trunnions as well as the trigger guard, and fitting the bolt carrier (includes setting the two interior rails), and magwell also tomorrow.
By tomorrow it should be ready for paint if all goes well.
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