Kano383
Member
With the help of that Covid thingy, I found myself with some spare time on my hands. So, I dusted off my SKS, and got busy... Procrastination and valid excuses have kept me from working on it for some months, so let's get busy again.
Here it is, already started down the path of becoming a compact truck gun.
I had long wanted to replace the handguard with something trimmer and better looking.
My first attempt at making a cheesegrater type of handguard ended up in miserable failure: unless you have a hydraulic press and forming mandrels, do not, repeat do not, attempt to bend a pre-drilled sheet of steel. I suspected as much, but having the opportunity to get a multitude of holes poked by a plasma cutter, I tried anyway. And the results went beyond my worst expectations... You end up with a misshapen thing, bent on the hinges between the rows of holes, and you can't throw it in the trash can fast enough. Let my kids not see that...
Then I went the long way, but the right way. I took a piece of 1" steel pipe, cut it to length and width, straightened, bent and coaxed it into the shape I needed.
Once it fitted snugly on the gas tube, and I was satisfied with the shape, I printed a template for the holes, and glued it on:
I set it in the vice over a mandrel and drilled as needed (that takes a bit longer to do than to say... 40 holes). No drill press available, and even the hand drill I have is not that good... But again, these are Covid times, so, adapt and overcome.
Deburred, sanded, rectified what I could, cussed a lil' bit at the misaligned holes (a hand drill on a curved surface wants to drill everywhere except where you want it to, even with a good center punch...).
I don't have my parkerizing tank set up, so I just gave it a quick color wit a gas flame.
It's difficult to get even temperatures on a thin plate with a live flame, but that will be good enough till I have time to finish it properly.
Just a hacksaw job, I definitely won't do that on a John Rigby... But on a 50 years old milsurp, I think it blends in quite OK.
Next... Well, you'll see...
Here it is, already started down the path of becoming a compact truck gun.
I had long wanted to replace the handguard with something trimmer and better looking.
My first attempt at making a cheesegrater type of handguard ended up in miserable failure: unless you have a hydraulic press and forming mandrels, do not, repeat do not, attempt to bend a pre-drilled sheet of steel. I suspected as much, but having the opportunity to get a multitude of holes poked by a plasma cutter, I tried anyway. And the results went beyond my worst expectations... You end up with a misshapen thing, bent on the hinges between the rows of holes, and you can't throw it in the trash can fast enough. Let my kids not see that...
Then I went the long way, but the right way. I took a piece of 1" steel pipe, cut it to length and width, straightened, bent and coaxed it into the shape I needed.
Once it fitted snugly on the gas tube, and I was satisfied with the shape, I printed a template for the holes, and glued it on:
I set it in the vice over a mandrel and drilled as needed (that takes a bit longer to do than to say... 40 holes). No drill press available, and even the hand drill I have is not that good... But again, these are Covid times, so, adapt and overcome.
Deburred, sanded, rectified what I could, cussed a lil' bit at the misaligned holes (a hand drill on a curved surface wants to drill everywhere except where you want it to, even with a good center punch...).
I don't have my parkerizing tank set up, so I just gave it a quick color wit a gas flame.
It's difficult to get even temperatures on a thin plate with a live flame, but that will be good enough till I have time to finish it properly.
Just a hacksaw job, I definitely won't do that on a John Rigby... But on a 50 years old milsurp, I think it blends in quite OK.
Next... Well, you'll see...
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