Uranophobic Unicorn
Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2019
- Messages
- 13
Looking for a bit of advice when it comes to AK building; specifically with regards to populating and pinning the barrel. Headspacing a virgin barrel is an easy enough job, but pinning it proved... for lack of a better word, disastrous. So one royally hooped trunnion and 90 dollars later we're ready to go back at it. This time with much less unbridled optimism.
My brother, friend, and I all decided to jump head first into AK building with absolutely no prior machining or gunsmiths behind us. Only thing we got going for us is hours of research. Which, clearly, were not enough. It's almost impressive how hard we screwed the original trunnion, and I very much intend to not do that again.
Seems like our first mistake using a standard 1/4" drill at 400RPM to drill the barrel (we were going to finish the hole with a reamer). The bit almost certainly walked right off course when we pressed down on it. Coupled with the low spindle speed, I think it spelled disaster. The assembly was put in a vice, aligned best to our little ability, and clamped to the drill press's table. I'm beginning to suspect that clamping it to the table was a mistake too. I also suspect we might not have aligned it perfectly. Finally we drilled it all the way through from one side. Also a bad idea.
So basically we did everything wrong. Wrong bit. Wrong speed. Bad alignment. Bad fixture. List goes on.
I've got an 1/4" 4 flute end mill on the way, and some aluminium tape to keep the flutes from cutting on the edges. Advice on the RPM would be nice, though. Hopefully that solves the walking issues. I've heard flipping the assembly over to meet in the middle is a good idea too, so we'll try that.
About aligning the piece, and keeping it aligned. How do you do it? This has me especially worried on the other features on the barrel that we don't have a reamer for. They need to be dead-nuts on, or else it's hooped. Should I keep the assembly in a vice, but don't lock the vice to the table? Should I just hold the piece under the drill press by hand? This has me all sorts of worried.
Finally, should we hand ream the barrel pin, ream it with the drill press, or ream it with a hand drill?
I'll probably ask more questions, but thanks for your advice anyways.
My brother, friend, and I all decided to jump head first into AK building with absolutely no prior machining or gunsmiths behind us. Only thing we got going for us is hours of research. Which, clearly, were not enough. It's almost impressive how hard we screwed the original trunnion, and I very much intend to not do that again.
Seems like our first mistake using a standard 1/4" drill at 400RPM to drill the barrel (we were going to finish the hole with a reamer). The bit almost certainly walked right off course when we pressed down on it. Coupled with the low spindle speed, I think it spelled disaster. The assembly was put in a vice, aligned best to our little ability, and clamped to the drill press's table. I'm beginning to suspect that clamping it to the table was a mistake too. I also suspect we might not have aligned it perfectly. Finally we drilled it all the way through from one side. Also a bad idea.
So basically we did everything wrong. Wrong bit. Wrong speed. Bad alignment. Bad fixture. List goes on.
I've got an 1/4" 4 flute end mill on the way, and some aluminium tape to keep the flutes from cutting on the edges. Advice on the RPM would be nice, though. Hopefully that solves the walking issues. I've heard flipping the assembly over to meet in the middle is a good idea too, so we'll try that.
About aligning the piece, and keeping it aligned. How do you do it? This has me especially worried on the other features on the barrel that we don't have a reamer for. They need to be dead-nuts on, or else it's hooped. Should I keep the assembly in a vice, but don't lock the vice to the table? Should I just hold the piece under the drill press by hand? This has me all sorts of worried.
Finally, should we hand ream the barrel pin, ream it with the drill press, or ream it with a hand drill?
I'll probably ask more questions, but thanks for your advice anyways.