It needs to be ground down to fit in the barrel channel. They do break. Key is the washers. I broke 2 of them in my first builds, but only one in the next builds. AK builder's tool are the best. You might want to read the Shotgun News Gunsmithing Projects book. There is an article by Mathews on an AK build and he does a great job of explaining riveting and it's done without expensive tools or even a press. Well woth the entire cost of the book. Quoted: AK builder's tool are the best. The AK builder tools and rivits are gtg.
I have AKbuildingtools. I actually like the bolt cutter for the front six smaller ones its quicker and less of a hassle to use but I can make perfect rivets with all of them I love the Guns squeezer for the long rear rivets but I think there is better control with the Ak squeezer I think it depends on what you want If I would have been smart I would have purchased the AK-Builders and save about bucks from what I have but I purchased these over a period of 3 years and when I was going to purchase the first one a 70 buck squeezer seamed better than a dollar one I probably have over bucks total on all three,soooooo lesson learned Your Harbor Freight drill press is not a Bridgeport Mill and wishing it so doesn't make it so.
Curtis makes good stuff and I uses a lot of his products with some modifications. One of the nicest guys around. If you're building a couple AKs in your garage, his tools are fine. It takes me about 90 seconds to do the 6 front rivets and another 30 seconds for the scope rail.
Perfect form every time. There is a huge difference between what is functional for a hobbyist and what is critical for production work. Yeah - the rivets cost more on a per gun basis than the riveting tool. Quoted: you guys did read the OP right? If you are only going to build a few AKs you won't get your moneys worth from a professional rivet tool. But you can get professional looking rivets from the bolt cutter rivet tool.
On mine, the holes for the middle rivets didn't line up, but it was close enough, so I just drilled out the hole to the same diameter as the rivet. I used the bolt cutter method to install the rivets with some harbor freight 24" bolt cutters. I tried to grind the jaws myself like shown here , however, after days of picking metal slivers out of my hands and realizing I'd have to buy a ball end mill to make the rivet cup, I decided to just buy the Toth rivet jaws.
They're pretty easy to re-sell these days. Start with the front rivets, then do the middle rivets. Make sure to crush the rivets deep enough that the barrel will clear them.
Now to the magwell rivets. Crush the rivets through the magwell, and you'll be done! You'll have a beautifully riveted front trunnion! Last edited: Nov 12, Trigger Guard For the trigger guard, I used the ak-builder trigger guard jig: [Broken External Image] I had to bevel one of the edges on the little anvil piece to make clearance for the lower rail, like so: [Broken External Image] Getting the trigger guard and rivets situated in the jig is pretty self explanatory.
Once everything's in place, put the lower anvil plate over the 4 trigger guard rivets inside the receiver, and straddle the upper anvil piece over the center support: [Broken External Image] Now the fun part. Just sayin' I tried using my cheapo harbor freight air hammer, but it didn't have enough oomph, so I grabbed my 3Lb sledge and went at it.
Almost broke my thumb though, so like I said before, I don't recommend it. Anyway, moving to the rear rivet, just turn the anvil upside down and apply your pressure source of choice: [Broken External Image] Rivets turned out OK, not the prettiest, but meh, that trigger guard's not goin' anywhere: [Broken External Image] Checking the mag for a nice tight lockup: [Broken External Image] Now it's startin to look like an AK! Rear Tang Well, I'm not really going to go into too much detail on this one, because you shouldn't do it this way.
The rivets come out looking kind of crappy: [Broken External Image] I used the trigger guard block as an anvil, and I wanted to have rounded rivet heads on both sides, so the idea was to use the small rivet cup as a punch on the hammer side.
Bad idea, the rivet started to bend and after that there was no going back. It doesn't look pretty, but it seems pretty solid, so meh. I might re-do it some day when I have proper tools, but I doubt it'll fail, so whatever. The rearmost rivet doesn't look too bad, on that one I started pounding the rivet flat with the large rectangular block until it expanded a fair amount, then use the small rivet cup to round the edges, so if you really want to go the brute force route, that's the way to go.
Here's the completed receiver: [Broken External Image] All that's left is to press in the barrel, drill the barrel pin holes, and parkerize the whole shebang.
For that, I'll have to wait til I get a drill press, hopefully around Christmas. Last edited by a moderator: Nov 17, Reserved for future content Drebin Sharpshooter. Thank you for this! I'll be building my first AK soon so this will come in handy. ASP Sharpshooter. Please keep this thread going. I always enjoy watching people's builds. Vamoose Sharpshooter. Thanks for the thread! I appreciate your generosity in sharing the knowledge.
There's some great videos on YouTube concerning building your own AK. I need to get of my duff and finish the Yugo underfolder kit I have. I have a set of rivet tools I bought from a fellow OSAer. I hope to be able to find enough US made parts so I can use the original Yugo furniture on it. AKguy Sharpshooter. Thanks for the compliments! Mostly learning as I go, figure someone else could benefit from my experiences flatwins said:. Click to expand
0コメント