Organizing AK build party

[bitterdaze]

Would any of you guys with the proper equipment/experience be interested in helping me (and I'm sure there are a few others around here) assemble a Kalashnikov or two?

Parts kits have come up in price, and barrels are harder to find since importation stopped, but there's still plenty out there on the market. Receivers are more plentiful than ever, and I know there have to be some un-built kits still sitting under a few workbenches around here.

I might even be willing to invest in the equipment needed if there's enough interest.

 

[vicious]

I'd definitely be interested if I'm able to scrounge up the cash to pull a full kit together. Any idea of time frame?

 

[bitterdaze]

No real hurry. I've got my eye on a few kits/barrels/receiver options.

Any advice from some builders? Start with a barreled Romanian G maybe?

 

[gyolai]

i tend to stay away from anything romanian.. you get what you pay for......

go Russian or Bulgarian, cant go wrong there

 

[Gideon]

You may want to check on this thread:
http://forums.okshooters.com/showthread.php?t=93640

I would join, but I sold off all my parts kits when the price jumped.

 

[Brother Jim]

I've got one and maybe two kits I would like to get together with someone that is knowledgeable about the build. Will have to come up with a few parts but let me know and I will be there. thanks for putting it together. Jim

 

[landman873]

I would be in for it. How much is a kit roughly? Just curious

 

[flatwins]

I'm interested. I have 2 kits sitting around and I have the tools to do a rivet build.

 

[BReeves]

i tend to stay away from anything romanian.. you get what you pay for......

go Russian or Bulgarian, cant go wrong there

Sure don't understand this.. I built a Romanian kit using a Nodak receiver and it turned out great. Accurate and works fine. This is the thread I posted with a picture when I had it finished.
http://www.okshooters.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1150290

Not sure I would want to tackle bending a receiver from a flat but guess it can be done with the proper tools. The only issues I had were as follows.. None of it had anything to do with it being a Romanian kit, it was all receiver.. Maybe some of this will help keep you guys from making the same mistakes. Make sure the magazine fits before assembling the trunions and trigger guard. Try several different magazines, they are not all the same.

This was a predrilled receiver and the front trunion rivet holes were a tad further back than they should have been. Of course I didn't discover this till I had the front trunion installed. Sure glad I tried the magazine fit before I installed the trigger guard. The fix was pretty simple, just egged out the holes for the trigger guard so it could be moved rearward and opened up the rear of the magazine hole in the receiver to match the new TG position. Were talking less than 1/16 inch but enough to make a magazine not lock in.

The 2nd issue was the aftermarket trigger was a double hook trigger and the receiver was made for a single hook. I made the mistake of cutting the slot for the 2nd hook before I tried putting it together. After I got it together I discovered the slot put in by Nodak was too long, of course when I cut the second slot I made it the same as the one already in it. The result was the trigger would pull too far and the trigger return spring would slip off the rear of the trigger. My fix was to rivet a small flat piece of sheet metal over the slots inside the receiver. The also served as an overtravel stop, positioned the sheetmetal so that the trigger would hit it just after the hammer was released. If I hadn't cut the second slot before I understood how it worked I could have made it just long enough and not needed the fix.

Last but not least the Spud receiver, even though it comes blued, is really prone to rusting. I have to keep a pretty good coat of oil on it or it will develop rust spots. Not really a big issue but more of a PTA.

All in all I'm really happy with the gun and the way it turned out. We have shot the heck out of it and have not had one problem. Wished a couple of my other semi auto pistols were as reliable as this AK has turned out.

 

[dak]

Last but not least the Spud receiver, even though it comes blued, is really prone to rusting. I have to keep a pretty good coat of oil on it or it will develop rust spots. Not really a big issue but more of a PTA.

NoDak spud receivers don't come blued, it's simply a bluish color from the heat treating process.


Gyolai, you're advocating an ~$600-800 Russian kit sans barrel over a $250 Romanian one with original barrel for building? It's kinda stupid if you aren't a collector when you could buy something like an SGL-20 or SGL-21 for less.