Please help with sks

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0352Marine

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I have an sks and bought a tapco stock everything went on ok except for the gas tube hand guard. I can't seem to the old one off. The rivet on both sides is filed flat and I can't tell which side is smaller to knock the rivet out. I even had it in vice with the other end supported trying to knock the rivet out with a punch and no luck. I was thinking about using heat but it's a wood hand guard so that's a no go. Maybe drilling it, but thought I would get on here to see if anybody has a better idea or if I should just take it to a gunsmith so as to not mess up the wooden hand guard. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh I also called H&H they said if it was an easy fix it would be $35 if it was harder it would be $55 the only problem with this is I can buy a new gas tube with the stock already on it for about $42 minus shipping
 

Larry Morgan

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Get yourself a real punch, or at least something similar. :D (Nails aren't exactly made of the hardest metal)

I don't recall one side of the rivet being the big or small side when I did this conversion on an sks for someone. That doesn't necessarily mean one side isn't though, it's just been too long for me to remember.

You can use that nail though. Take the nail, put it in the center of the pin, and hit it to make a nice little crater/divot. Then, take a drill bit slightly smaller than head of the pin, center it in your divot, and slowly start to cut away at the head of the rivet. If you make it thin enough, it should drive out much easier. Be careful and drill for a second, look, then repeat as necessary. You don't want to drill the hole out any bigger.

Good luck!
 

0352Marine

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Get yourself a real punch, or at least something similar. :D (Nails aren't exactly made of the hardest metal)

I don't recall one side of the rivet being the big or small side when I did this conversion on an sks for someone. That doesn't necessarily mean one side isn't though, it's just been too long for me to remember.

You can use that nail though. Take the nail, put it in the center of the pin, and hit it to make a nice little crater/divot. Then, take a drill bit slightly smaller than head of the pin, center it in your divot, and slowly start to cut away at the head of the rivet. If you make it thin enough, it should drive out much easier. Be careful and drill for a second, look, then repeat as necessary. You don't want to drill the hole out any bigger.

Good luck!

Ok I'll try it tomorrow thanks
 

cktad

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This is a writeup and you can get to the pictures by using the posted links without the parenthesis http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?action=printpage;topic=48674.0

ai47.photobucket.com_albums_f197_dll1488_IMG_1968Medium.jpg
 

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