They were popular before the bending jig was developed. Don't know anyone who's used them in years. Dimensions are a bit off on the outside, regular pins don't work.
JackSquat has great products. The old three piece weld packs did not have top rails.I still have a few sets I bought from Sangrunhunter. I think Jacks have them pre bent allready. You should see his new layer sandwich AR lowers!
BTW: the weld up AK receivers are VERY stout. Go ahead & try one . Nice to have something different than the rest of the Crowd.
JackSquat has great products. The old three piece weld packs did not have top rails.I still have a few sets I bought from Sangrunhunter. I think Jacks have them pre bent allready. You should see his new layer sandwich AR lowers!
BTW: the weld up AK receivers are VERY stout. Go ahead & try one . Nice to have something different than the rest of the Crowd.
this concept was pre-internet the early ones the axis pins were standard, some guys even build aks with erector set type panals, long before flats that were bent early M-11 receivers came this way
Jack Squat makes great products. Quick and reasonable shipping. I used one of his 3 piece flats to build a Bulgarian kit. I was really pleased with the results.
Can't say anything about his 3 piece receivers, but it looks like he makes nice stuff, there's a few people that have built on these. The main thing is if you can weld.
Thanks for all the feedback guys. I guess when I have the money I'll put an order together. I just wish that they polish underfolder 3 piece flats were in stock.
I wonder if we could put together a group buy on these?
Getting them welded is the least of your problems, after the welding the real fun begins. Because the extra .5mm is on the outside rather than the inside, nothing fits. Top cover, selector, axis pins, selector stop and probably others that I don't remember at the moment. As I said before, way more trouble than they're worth.
You are right about the dimensions, I ran into that back in the day when all three bits were still held together by "tabs". The very early ones were horrible, and you had to go search for 1.6MM pins to make it work, or bore out detent holes....Neither was a good solution.
I finally ended up cutting the three plates apart with a dremel, shaving down the bottom plate a bit, and the front and rear trunnions. I was making my own center support using truck brake tube at the time, and heat treating it along with the rest of the shell. Ah, the good old days....
Personally, I abandoned the three plate receiver after a number of issues. But I still did make some pretty good AKs using this process and materials.
My experience is that Bending or buying Bent shells is the way to go. However: I am not the best welder this country has ever produced. Perhaps a more skilled guy could do better.
As a footnote: All of my three plate builds have been de-milled and rebuilt using 1.6mm bent shells. This was due to two receivers exhibiting cracks along or adjacent to the long assed welds that held the three plates together. I am more than willing to take the blame, and my welding skills might have passed in a Tank Factory, Circa 1917. Just sayin....
Naw! Just guys who are looking at the whole cost of Bent Flats. We all ended up working around to it over a period of time. For the newest guys, they are looking at this like it was bright and shiney new....
Let's face it, when we started this hobby, we used rubber mallets, c-clamps, and blocks of steel, aluminium, or wood as a guide. Hell, I filed my first top rails by hand because I did not trust myself to use the Dremel for fear of taking too much metal off. My first several heat-treats were done in molten lead! I still like that method by the way....
I saw some of those trunnion concepts too. I am NOT a fan. Unlike the AR-15, the AK design uses the Trunnion as additional anti-explosive armour for want of a better term. That trunnion is a safety factor, as well as a locking device, and structural member for the assembly of the rifle. The stacked ones, well I would need a lot of time to think about those...
If I may suggest rewelding a cut receiver from Apex for your pistol build.
#1, you won't have to waste a flat, unless that's what you want to do.
#2, it was super easy for me to weld the Suomi magwell into the Galil receiver.
#3. the Galil's 5.56 ejector is the perfect length for 9mm.
If anybody has any questions in regards to the cut receivers being "over heated" or changed because of the heat; I had a heck of a time trying to mill out the opening for the magwell. Was using carbide endmills and thought "oh, this will be easy".
Ended up using the HF 4 inch grinder to hack the sides out of the magwell.
If you really want to try one of these, just send him a message or call him and ask if he can do one up and notify you when it's ready. If I remember right he has his own laser cutter and does all this stuff himself.
1biggun
Look at the pics of the mag well, there's tabs that go into slots to line everything up.
He says his works with drums & stick mags, the other brand sheet metal ones that aren't made any more only work with the drums unless you mod it.
I have a couple of the Lichtenberg(?) magwells. They were $75 or so each by the time I got them to my door. Considering the amount of cutting, hammering, welding, and grinding apparent, I felt it was a reasonable price.
When I found Jack's DIY magwells I bought a couple "just in case." Yeah, they're more work, but at that price, passing on them would be silly...
Yeah that's the name, Lichtenberg. I got one of his too, but haven't done anything with it yet, and I agree his are nice but the down side is you have to mod them to use stick mags.
I would have to call you an artist then! That's awesome work.
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