Building AK Recievers

[x101airborne]

Hey All. I was wondering if anyone has any experience building AK's. I have purchased two recievers off of S&S and am looking to buy parts kits. If anyone has AK parts, advice, cautions, etc... I would like to hear from you. I have NEVER built an AK before and dont want to create a dangerous situation.
Thanks All.
Trey

[RU shooter]

I built two of them back when the Romanian kits were 89 bucks. There are about 4 different ways to attach the front and rear trunnions to the receiver, The best way is to press the barrel off and rivet as they did at the AK factory ,easiest way is to modify a cheap set of bolt cutters to squeeze the rivets in the front trunnion . The rest can be set with a hammer and a concave setting punch. The other ways are to drill and tap and use screws , Drive rivets, or weld if your good at it the last three can be done on the 6 holes on the front without removing the barrel and you can rivet the rest without trouble . Its not that hard at all if you have any kind of mechanical abilities . You use the magazine to set the placement of the front trunnion and use the top cover to fit the rear . If your rec. are pre drilled they will be real close as is

[leftiye]

I've got two receivers and a polish underfolder kit that I've had for a while. I bought a device for bending the one receiver, but I'm very unsure of the jig thingie working and am considering cutting the receivers where they are supposed to bend, applying some or all of the side to side support rivet/bolts and front and rear trunnions and then welding it to fit correctly.

[tomme boy]

I stock piled the Polish under folders an AMD 65's from Centerfire Systems. The most I ever paid was for a unissued Polish was $119. I had 15 of the unfired AMD 65's with the wood grips for $79 ea. I only ever built one on a Ohio Ordinance Works Reciever. At the time, everyone was doing the screw method. I built it into a pistol. I welded the folding buttstock closed. I ran at least 6K rounds threw it before I ended up selling it.

A few years ago when they stop importing the barrels with the kits. I waited a little while and sold all of the kits I had at $200 ea. And everyone was happy. Now I could get 3x's that much if I had any.

Just make sure you have the right amount of USA made parts when you put it together.

[x101airborne]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the info. I may ask the mods to move this to the Gunsmithing section. I am real excited to get these recievers built. I think one will be a pistol and the other I may put a 20 inch heavy barrel on and find a scope mount. I have been using the 7.62x39 for YEARS for shooting pigs and I have always had good luck.

[historicfirearms]

I built one AK74 from a Bulgarian kit. This was my one and only AK build so I don't have a lot of experience to offer other than the research I did before attempting my build. There are a lot of good built tutorials online, so follow one of those for step by step advice. I wouldn't consider doing a screw build, they are not the correct fasteners for this situation (by the way I have a mechanical engineering degree). Rivets are the way to go. Just buy one of the rivet kits specific to whatever you decide to build and you will know you have the correct fasteners. I built mine without rivet squeezers or a press, with a little determination and good hands on skill you can build a good one with little more that a big hammer, vice, and assortment of punches. If you can find a parts kit with an original barrel, it will make life easier on you. I decided to make mine with a Weiger 5.56 barrel because I have a lot of other 223 guns and want to keep life simple. I had a friend with a lathe trim down the barrel so it fit the trunion, rear sight base, and gas block. The barrel has to be a press fit in the trunion, one trick that worked for me was to warm up the trunion and place the barrel in the freezer overnight. If your tolerances are right, they will slip right together. If going with a virgin barrel build, you will need a set of headspace gages! Don't try to cheap out and not get them. The peace of mind knowing that your headspace is correct is well worth the price of the gages. One other trick, while drilling the hole for your gas port, drive a boolit down to that spot in the barrel. This will provide support so you won't get a burr when the drill bit breaks through into the bore. If you have any more questions, just PM me. One other thing, if you are building a rifle make sure you keep it legal with enough compliance parts.

[popper]

drilling the hole for your gas port, drive a boolit down to that spot in the barrel Good point for drilling out AR gas ports also, thanks.

[rromeo]

Building an AK from kit and receiver is on my list of things to do. I bought a pre-bent Polish blank, but I have been told it may be better to get a drilled flat. There are apparently a lot of build parties in California, but they don't really happen in my area.