Any parts kit builders here ?

[redneck1]

Any other members here into building parts kits ?
I've developed the habit myself and was thinking that if maybe there
Is any others here who build maybe we can start a group and pass along some ideas and help each other out when stumped.
I am by no means a master builder but I do have a few under my belt .

Thinking about starting some brit builds , maybe a sterling and for sure a bren once I round up enough reciever chunks .

[justashooter]

i have built AK, AR, FNFAL, Suomi/tec9 hybrid, PPS43/tec9 hybrid, PPS43, Suomi M31 semi, and some other stuff that is off the wall, mostly in 9mm semi.

i also started the "bend it yourself" AK receiver stuff back in 2004. those were good days for kits. i have also built 1919 semi, and am working on a ZB30 semi. still have lots of other odd kits.

[redneck1]

Sweet , now I know who to bother for spare parts :)

I have a suomi waiting in the wings for a few more parts , I've got the bolt done for a hammer build , and the tube started still need to round up a few more parts .
I have a bowman kit for a bren build , just need to get serious on looking for some reciever chunks that will over lap .

[elmacgyver0]

It gets kind of addictive.

[nun2kute]

I got the "AK, AR, FNFAL", but you really lost me after that.

[Traffer]

I was going to try and build a pistol from a kit but found kits without frames to cost more than a whole dang gun. That kind of put a damper on things.

[redneck1]

Traffer
Much like everything else we do , if your doing it to save money your doing it for the wrong reason :)

[Traffer]

Traffer
Much like everything else we do , if your doing it to save money your doing it for the wrong reason :)
Hahahahahaha. Some of us do only the things we can afford. If building my own gun is what I can afford I do that. I have the parts to build several guns now. (from scratch) I'm looking at less than $35 per rifle.
That's why I reload...making my own dies, bullet molds, swaging dies, etc. By broken guns and fix them etc. Every once in a while I find a working gun that I can afford.
It suks to be 66 years old with the budget restrictions that I have to live with but it makes for some interesting projects.

[Earlwb]

Yes I have built several ARs from parts. You get to pick and choose what parts you want to use for everything that way. It is great fun actually. I enjoy doing it. Legos for adults.

[TheGrimReaper]

i have built AK, AR, FNFAL, Suomi/tec9 hybrid, PPS43/tec9 hybrid, PPS43, Suomi M31 semi, and some other stuff that is off the wall, mostly in 9mm semi.

i also started the "bend it yourself" AK receiver stuff back in 2004. those were good days for kits. i have also built 1919 semi, and am working on a ZB30 semi. still have lots of other odd kits.

You got any pictures you care to share?

[frkelly74]

I put a Garand together once from ebay/ gunbroker/ and other sources for parts. I call it my Mutt 1 Garand . It's like that car Johnny Cash sang about once upon a time.

[country gent]

Back in the 80s Shotgun news had a advertiser selling M14 parts kits everything but the receiver. I built a couple for my self using Springfield armory receivers. These both were fill blown match rifles, Added a rear lug and heavy SS Krieger 1-10 barrels in bishop heavy walnut stocks. I also put together couple for friends at the club. The CMP used to sell Garand receivers and I've built a couple of them. I've built 4-5 Ars both 14s and a 10 for my self and wife. The 15s are all .223s Krieger barrels 1-7 twists match and service rifle. The 10 has a upper in 243 and another in 22-250.
The M14 parts kits were a great deal in the day you got everything but the receiver. The barrel was a pencil barrel contour but usually new or very close to it. all I got throat gaged at 2 or under.

[redneck1]

I keep telling myself that someday I'm going to do a Beretta bm-59
Build , but parts kits aren't cheap the magazines are expensive and
Rewelding , heat treating the reciever is still beyond my abilities.
Maybe someday , if a bare m1 reciever shows up or an easy fix drill reciever shows up .

But I've got a pile of stuff to build someday so if I don't get to it no big deal

[415m3]

I've done about 15 or so AKs, in 7.62, 5.45, and 5.56. Mostly fold your own flats, but two milled rewelds too. It's addicting for sure. AR builds...not so much. Too easy and there's no fire involved. 8-)

[justashooter]

You got any pictures you care to share?

here is my 2nd anchor with a hybrid of a tec-9 and a suomi. kinda like a 9mm grease gun.

233578

seen also on this page, but weaponeer is down, so linky no worky
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/490259109411035274/?lp=true

pulled the text off of weaponsguild post:
not a scrap build, so not really in the category of what some other builders are doing in this forum, but cool enough to mention. the semi-suomi in the pix is various and sundry suomi parts mated to a complete tec-9 style closed bolt upper bought as spare parts. this gun runs, but needs a little adjustment to the ejector to get the 100% rating.

the tec barrel is cut off and bored out to accept a weld in of the suomi barrel, which is extended with a same OD thinwall tube. the front of the receiver is welded to a short piece of conduit which is then welded to a standard suomi shroud to get 16"+ from breech face to front of muzzle attachment. the loose FCG parts, after much pulling of hair, are housed in a drop in FCG pack. this pack slips into a housing which is welded to the receiver tube and held in place with (4) 10-32 allen head bolts.

the suomi magwell parts are welded to the receiver tube, and hold either a drum or a stick. the stick needed a small tab welded to front to limit insertion, and the bottom of bolt would have to be shaved to work with the single feed position drum. someday...

the magwell parts installation pushed the FCG assy back about 1/8", so the ejector is a little too far back. fired with a dry tube, ejection is 90%. WD 40 in the tube speeds the bolt up so that the ejected case is often caught by the bolt coming home on the next round, and we get stoppage. building up the front of the sheet metal ejector with a piece of cut nail and some silver solder to get earlier ejection seems a simple enough fix, but making a new ejector from a sawzall blade would be easier (2008).

[justashooter]

i have built a simpler design for a soda can and tennis ball shooter that is less machining intensive than some others posted. in short, it is a center drilled breach made of 3" round stock about 3" long, a breach plate of 1" X 3" X 3" center drilled for spring loaded firing pin captured with a center drilled 3/8" bolt stub, and a frame made of 1/4" angle iron welded to rear of breach that the breach plate slides left and right in. takes a 12 gauge brass black powder blank, and fires into a pipe barrel that is welded to breach block that has ID suitable for a tennis ball or beer can. looking to make an insert barrel that will accommodate a golf ball. just have to find the right diameter pipe.

120 grains black powder shoots beer cans filled with plaster (1 pound) at 400 fps plus. know this because i can't visually track them until about 100 yards from firing. have it mounted on an MG42 AA tripod with legs splayed down, and fire with lanyard to a tipping hammer that smacks firing pin and fires primer. AA type spider sights on it just for fun, and can hit a 4"8 plywood at 100 yards on regular basis in direct fire mode with attitude of about 10 degrees.

was at a group shoot last summer and tried to hit another guy's 25 yard 20 inch square paper target. barely missed, but he saw the shot and was amicably pissed, anyway...

233582

[redneck1]

I've had this pile of suomi parts kicking around for awhile now , the bolt is done and ready for a hammer build .
Just needs some ambition

233583

[justashooter]

you should go pistol with this and use an arm brace so that you can use the original barrel length.

[redneck1]

I dont have any furniture for it so a pistol build isn't out of the question. And it does save a lot of work extending the barrel and trying to make it look right .
Plus you can keep the barrel quick detach .

I might have to find a different front end , I'm not sure this one is easily salvageable , it's cut real close to the locking lugs

[Baltimoreed]

233646233647
My AR-45s would fall into this category. Olympic Arms bbls and bcgs, dpms heavy uppers and dedicated greasegun mag lowers from CNC Enterprises. Built 3 so far, a forward charger sbr, an mp5 and a Thompson. Doing some R&D on a semiauto Lewis Gun. Also did a build of making a mini 30 into a M1a lookalike with the help of Accuracy Systems. If you look on pg 2 of Special Projects under 30 caliber builds you can see how it turned out.

[justashooter]

I dont have any furniture for it so a pistol build isn't out of the question. And it does save a lot of work extending the barrel and trying to make it look right .
Plus you can keep the barrel quick detach .

I might have to find a different front end , I'm not sure this one is easily salvageable , it's cut real close to the locking lugs

you need a friend with a mig welder. this blowback stuff can be re-welded.

[justashooter]

233646233647My AR-45s would fall into this category. Olympic Arms bbls and bcgs, dpms heavy uppers and dedicated greasegun mag lowers from CNC Enterprises. Built 3 so far, a forward charger sbr, an mp5 and a Thompson. Doing some R&D on a semiauto Lewis Gun. Also did a build of making a mini 30 into a M1a lookalike with the help of Accuracy Systems. If you look on pg 2 of Special Projects under 30 caliber builds you can see how it turned out.

nice stuff. finding a source for affordable 45AR stuff has always been difficult.

[redneck1]

I have a tig , I'll have to get things De-slagged and apart before I make up my mind on if it's worth salvaging.

[mikwat]

I've finished a FAL so far. Working on an AK right now, with a CETME C, Galil ARM, and PPS43 on deck.

[Rockzilla]

Let's see a few, AR, AK, Uzi, HK, and some others, the good old days of cheap
kits is gone, years ago SA, RIA sold parts, Shotgun News was like your "candy
store" for good parts. I remember when Rock Island Armory was selling AR clone
finished lowers for $39.00, then they got into a "patent thing" with Colt so they
were selling the lowers for $19 all Sendra marked either XM15 or M15,Colt chrome
bolt carriers complete, Uppers etc. good ole days. Have too many projects to start
and finish.

-Rock

[Baltimoreed]

236238236239Here’s my mini30/m1a that I built last year with the help of Accuracy Systems. Wasn’t a kit but it was a build and a half. They did the bbl work, brace and m14 flash hider while I did the stock, fake scope mount and camo paint job. The mini is inlet into an actual m14 stock with a lot of jb weld and 2 walnut block spacers. Planning on rebuilding a mini 300 blkout into a Garand this year.
Never have enough projects.

[justashooter]

nice hodgepodgery there, buddy. th " guns that never existed" are the most fun to build. i still have an L1A9 project in the wings. it will be a tec9-L1A1 hybrid.

[FrankG]

Several types done over the years and kudos to justashooter for sharing his ak rec. forming tool designs and methods !! Helped me and several others down the path !

[double8]

Built this .62 cal. smoothbore from some parts I had.
Stainless steel seamless tube. Lock, trigger, trigger guard from Dixie Gun Works .58 cal ram rod from a Zouave. Hunk of Maple from a chair maker. rear sight from a Rem 788. Butt plate ??
Favorite loads...100 grains FFG, .58 cal minie or round ball in a 20 ga shot cup.
3 dram equiv. FFG with bird shot or OO buckshot.....one gun does most..
Took 6 months....'cause I hadn't a clue, and I didn't like the Thompson Center Hawken Kit...thought I could do better myself. 237109

[frkelly74]

Built this .62 cal. smoothbore from some parts I had.
Stainless steel seamless tube. Lock, trigger, trigger guard from Dixie Gun Works .58 cal ram rod from a Zouave. Hunk of Maple from a chair maker. rear sight from a Rem 788. Butt plate ??
Favorite loads...100 grains FFG, .58 cal minie or round ball in a 20 ga shot cup.
Took 6 months....cause I hadn't a clue, and I didn't like the Thompson Center Hawken Kit...thought I could do better myself. 237109

I believe I agree with your statement there. .... NICE!