dstorm1911
Member
Guntech, sorry bout bein a lil sarcastic, ya cought me right after watchin two idiots beating on an ARs forward assist trying to get Wolf steel case to cycle, bout every third round it would not go into battery and out came the rubber mallet..... they didn't want to listen so.... the hammered while I burned through 500 rnds flawlessly... but they still took an oppertunity to look down their noses at the Yugo M70AB2 I happened to be playin with.... ya know onea them inaccurate junk AKs LOL ya know I just never have had to carry a mallet around to get an AK to cycle flawlessly.... As far as the tear down we (as in myself and the original poster) were reffering to field repair as in what are ya going to need to carry to take care of your rifle in the field....
As far as building AKs, I've tought many people over the years, I was the one at B-west that reverse engineered the first Chicom receiver, the blue prints were drawn out on the table in my Army supplied apt in Sierra vista in 1985 it took me alot of refinment to convince Bud that producing the receivers was doable and then on to cutting the first front trunions as none were available for import until 1989 as the BATF considered the front trunion to be the actual gun and required they be torched.......... so what were ya using for front trunions in 1986? Cause we never sold any of ours and the CNC program wasn't sold until 1988 (punch card days BTW) in 1989 Bud convinced the BATF that the receiver was in fact the gun and the front trunion even though serialized was simply a support component....... that was the beginning for the home builder to be able to actually build any AKMs rifles...... I still live 3 miles from the old shop, Bud's old landlord still owns all of the equipment and paperwork that the BATF didn't confiscate ...........
Anyhow ya might wanna checkout ak-files.com there are folks new to home building AKs everyday hammering em together in an hour or two with super basic tools a 100% receiver such as the $55 Nodak spuds NDS3 only requires ya to slip in the trunions, the front is riveted with a pair of $10 bolt cutters with the jaws reground, the trigger gaurd can either be screwed or ya can rivet with a dimpled plate and a flat faced punch, the rear trunion rivets can be hammered down, pressed down or any number of other methods...... the barrel doesn't require any special tools to remove or replace on an AK a 1/4" flat faced punch to tap out the barrel pin, then a brass drift (or as many people use a few nickles and an olt socket extension) it only takes a couple smacks to tap it out, to reinstall ya only need a blank fireing adapter and some anti sieze but freezing the barrel and heating the trunion will result in a near hand slipped fit the blank fireing adapter will protect the muzzle it ya do need to tap it when the temps equalize its locked solid (sweat fit just like SKS or VZ58 barrels etc..) I've done alot of online tutorials to help out the home builder by putting away my presses and jigs etc.. and going totally low tech... start to finish it takes me 1 hour to build an AK from a parts kit that needs demilling using all the jigs etc.. as with customer builds without all the extras just using bare basic tools it takes 2 hours.........
ya think headspacing an AK is a big deal? tap out barrel pin, insert go gauge into chamber, tap barrel back against the go gauge, redrill barrel pin hole and install barrel pin remove gauge from chamber and your done, no need to even remove the dust cover let alone anything but the barrel pin....... is an AR easier than that?
of course to get into advanced work on an AK you will need one specialty tool...... a hammer
heres ya a link to that bare bones AK build tutorial, there are actually several tutorials in the same thread all going with different ways to do the same job with bare minimal equipment....... the only real "tool" ya need to build one is a 7.62x39 go gauge a nogo gauge if ya wanna go with the original barrel position to check it, with just a go gauge ya can simply press the barrel back to the gauge and test the bolt for function, a tight fit on the go gauge is desirable as it will set a lil bit when fired the first 30-50 rounds..
http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=25304
all of those methods are for a rivet build useing the Nodak spuds NDS3 receiver, takes a first time builder longer to remove the old rivets than it does to assemble the rifle, on average a first time AK builder using nothing but online tutorials will be shooting 2 hours after he starts, with jigs and a press ya can cut that down to about 1.5 hours or less if ya skip the case of beer some feel is mandatory prebuild equipment
As far as building AKs, I've tought many people over the years, I was the one at B-west that reverse engineered the first Chicom receiver, the blue prints were drawn out on the table in my Army supplied apt in Sierra vista in 1985 it took me alot of refinment to convince Bud that producing the receivers was doable and then on to cutting the first front trunions as none were available for import until 1989 as the BATF considered the front trunion to be the actual gun and required they be torched.......... so what were ya using for front trunions in 1986? Cause we never sold any of ours and the CNC program wasn't sold until 1988 (punch card days BTW) in 1989 Bud convinced the BATF that the receiver was in fact the gun and the front trunion even though serialized was simply a support component....... that was the beginning for the home builder to be able to actually build any AKMs rifles...... I still live 3 miles from the old shop, Bud's old landlord still owns all of the equipment and paperwork that the BATF didn't confiscate ...........
Anyhow ya might wanna checkout ak-files.com there are folks new to home building AKs everyday hammering em together in an hour or two with super basic tools a 100% receiver such as the $55 Nodak spuds NDS3 only requires ya to slip in the trunions, the front is riveted with a pair of $10 bolt cutters with the jaws reground, the trigger gaurd can either be screwed or ya can rivet with a dimpled plate and a flat faced punch, the rear trunion rivets can be hammered down, pressed down or any number of other methods...... the barrel doesn't require any special tools to remove or replace on an AK a 1/4" flat faced punch to tap out the barrel pin, then a brass drift (or as many people use a few nickles and an olt socket extension) it only takes a couple smacks to tap it out, to reinstall ya only need a blank fireing adapter and some anti sieze but freezing the barrel and heating the trunion will result in a near hand slipped fit the blank fireing adapter will protect the muzzle it ya do need to tap it when the temps equalize its locked solid (sweat fit just like SKS or VZ58 barrels etc..) I've done alot of online tutorials to help out the home builder by putting away my presses and jigs etc.. and going totally low tech... start to finish it takes me 1 hour to build an AK from a parts kit that needs demilling using all the jigs etc.. as with customer builds without all the extras just using bare basic tools it takes 2 hours.........
ya think headspacing an AK is a big deal? tap out barrel pin, insert go gauge into chamber, tap barrel back against the go gauge, redrill barrel pin hole and install barrel pin remove gauge from chamber and your done, no need to even remove the dust cover let alone anything but the barrel pin....... is an AR easier than that?
of course to get into advanced work on an AK you will need one specialty tool...... a hammer
heres ya a link to that bare bones AK build tutorial, there are actually several tutorials in the same thread all going with different ways to do the same job with bare minimal equipment....... the only real "tool" ya need to build one is a 7.62x39 go gauge a nogo gauge if ya wanna go with the original barrel position to check it, with just a go gauge ya can simply press the barrel back to the gauge and test the bolt for function, a tight fit on the go gauge is desirable as it will set a lil bit when fired the first 30-50 rounds..
http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=25304
all of those methods are for a rivet build useing the Nodak spuds NDS3 receiver, takes a first time builder longer to remove the old rivets than it does to assemble the rifle, on average a first time AK builder using nothing but online tutorials will be shooting 2 hours after he starts, with jigs and a press ya can cut that down to about 1.5 hours or less if ya skip the case of beer some feel is mandatory prebuild equipment
