[Toten Kopf]

Well, after drilling all the holes I decided to work on the magwell, pistol grip and trigger holes. Everything fits real nice so far (the trigger hole needs to be cleaned up just a little). I used the original trigger to open up the hole and my replacement trigger (T2) is just a tad bigger so a little more work is needed.

Seems that all the holes line up.......SHOCK!!!! I expected to have a lot more problems to get to this stage, but didn't. This just proves the point that if I can do it, anyone can. This is such a hoot!

Also a "BIG" thanks to machman for the mag dimple jig, works just great and is very easy to use (and I do mean easy).

 

[meyerse]

How do you intend to harden the receiver?

 

[Toten Kopf]

meyerse.......

The only areas I intend to harden are the trigger/hammer/selector holes and the ejector.

And I will do it with the old tried and true "Flame - Heat and Quench" type hardening technique. I have thought about using Kasnit but am not sure about it. Who knows, by the time I'm ready to harden the above receiver areas I might use it.

I'm just glad everyting has gone together so easily so far.

 

[meyerse]

So clearly, with a home built reciever one only needs to harden the FCG and selector holes and the ejector? it is not necessary after bending a blank to harden the whole receiver? What about the rivet wholes? Sorry for the rookie question, but I finally got a kit and I'm going to move soon to my first build. I intend to get a cold steel solutions underfolding blank http://www.coldsteelsolutionsincorporated.com/ and spot weld the rails on and use the front end from a AMD 65 kit and buy a underfolder stock and trunion.

I would simply buy a underfolder vulcan receiver from joeken (bad rep I know) but I hear the front trunion rivet wholes are off.

I'm impressed with how it looks so far as well. I'm no genius but everybody seems to be doing it so why not me!

 

[Toten Kopf]

meyerse.......

I wouldn't say....Clearly....LOL

I seems that just about everything has been done from doing nothing (no heat treat) to treating the whole receiver. The only thing I remember hearding is problems with ejectors not being hardened (excessive wear). Most don't harden the selector hole but I figured what the heck. Also, I haven't heard of any problems doing it the old fashioned way (flame harden). To the best of my knowledge no one has hardened the trunnion rivet holes. I do know that my first AK was a WASR-10 and it was particular as to what hi-cap mags would fit, so I opened the magwell and now it handles all mags. My point is, the factory receiver is quite soft I had to be careful about not filing to much (it filed very easy).

Like you, I will be spot welding the lower rails. My spot welder is already modified to do the task and I will be doing that soon. But first I have to finish the receiver by installing the rear trunnion.

Just one point to help you in your build.....take your time, measure ten times and cut/file once. I've read to many horror stories about people in a rush to finish their AK's only to ruin their receiver buy drlling the wrong hole in the wrong place, making holes to big, drilling into the barrel chamber and the list goes on.

I did a lot of reading before starting this build and asked many questions and of course learned from other's mistakes.

 

[yosuthnmasa]

TK, congratulations on your build progress! The dimples do look good. I got machman's jig as well and didn't have much of any problems either. After creating the dimple, though, I did a difficult time straightening the lower bend out. After pressing, it seems as if it pulled the metal to far into the dimple and effected the integrity of the lower bend. In his explanation, he drew a picture of how to align the pieces and push them down to get back the 90 in the lower bend. I wasn't able to get the bend back as perfect as I wouldve liked it. Did you run into any similar problems with this? When using the press and pushing down on the male end, how did you decide that you had pressed it in far enough? Just from looking at the male piece, I could tell when it had pressed in the majority of the way. But I wanted to make sure that the dimple was very well defined, so I pressed even farther. I wonder if this may have contributed to it pulling the metal and rounding out the 90 degree lower bend. Anyone know what the threshold force for creating the dimples might be? Sorry for rambling and getting off subject here. The receiver really looks great

I haven't planned on hardening any of my holes on my ACE receiver. But, I did use Kasenit on the ejector and it seems to be very hard as I can't bite into it as all with a file. I guess it really couldn't hurt to use Kasenit on the holes either. Has anyone ever reported having problems with the holes not being hardened?

 

[tarawa]

I have had an ACE blank in the drawer for months now. I got as far as applying the template and trimming the length. You guys got me motivated to build my own receiver now. Great job on that AMD-63!

 

[Toten Kopf]

yosuthnmasa......

Yes, I had the same problem after pressing the dimples (I just kept on pressing until the male part bottomed out). To correct the deformity at the bottom of the dimple (at the receiver bend) I got a piece of .250" x 1.00" bar stock and filed an angle to just clear the dimple and allow the bar stock to get in closer to the receiver angle (see picture). I then got another piece of bar stock, put it on top of the filed stock and pressed out the deformity. Not rocket science by any means.

Thanks for all the kind comments......Like I've said in previous posts, I'm not in any rush to complete the build. When it's done, it's done.

CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE

 

[yosuthnmasa]

TK, I will have to try it the way you explained. Did you attempt to do it the way he described with all the pieces put together? The outside walls of my receiver always buckled out when I pressed them down.

 

[Toten Kopf]

yosuthnmasa.......

I did place the pieces in the receiver but then I noticed that they didn't get close to where the deform was so I tried my method and it worked. I don't remember the sides of the receiver buckling out at all.

When I first installed the dimple set I noticed that because of the receiver bend they didn't get right at the lower bend. So I used a piece of .032" thick stock to raise the dimple set so it rested right at the side of the receiver. I then used another piece of metal stock to form a fence on the outside and added a piece of .032" stock to the fence to push the male die in more, to compensate for the .032" I put inside the reveiver. So, the female die was at least .032" higher in the receiver. Does this make sense to you? Easy to do but hard to put into words.

 

[yosuthnmasa]

Can't say I can visualize what you did. But, I would be pretty interested in understanding it.

 

[Toten Kopf]

Okay, I'll try to take some pictures of what I was trying to explain.

 

[tarawa]

My buddy came over today with an ACE bent metal and I finally got to use my "machman jig" . It worked great with no deformity that I could see. Perfect dimples. Since my buddy had the holes drilled, we went ahead and milled out the openenings. It is amazing how those bent metals shape into perfect looking receivers.
Now he is going to go in on a plinkers jig with me. We will have just about everything but a bending jig when this is all through....maybe we will get one of those made too.

 

[Toten Kopf]

gtbehary........
Isn't this stuff just GREAT!!!!

yosuthnmasa......

Okay, I took some pictures of what I was taking about, you'll have to remember that in these pictures the dies aren't placed in the correct postion for pressing (I have the front trunnion installed so I had to move the dies back a bit). Hope this helps.

CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE

 

[tarawa]

I didn't even check if there were gaps between the receiver and dies. I just lined them up and mashed them with the press. The receiver looks good to me, but sometimes I am just happy to get things that work.

 

[yosuthnmasa]

Damn TK! That is impressive. Very nice work on the dimples as well as the pictures and illustrations. Last picture really put things into perspective. Can't seem to see the spacer though. Does it move the male piece left to right where as the fence is for up and down placement?

edit: I think this would be a great piece to add to the library.

 

[Toten Kopf]

yosuthnmasa......

The third picture shows how the spacer moves the male die towards the top of the receiver away from the bottom, this to match the spacer that was put on the bottom of the receiver to level out the die blocks.

 

[Toten Kopf]

I did a drawing of the dies in relationship to the receiver and shim stock.....hope this helps.

 

[yosuthnmasa]

Ohhh, I see now. You used the fence as a ...fence. Then a spacer to move it from bottom up. How did you decide what a good distance was to space it? I ended up eyeballing it from side to side on my press before I smashed the male die in. This was the only "guess work" I think, where you could really screw up. I measuerd the given distance length wise for the pieces, but had to eyeball the male piece. This would definitely take the guess work out the "eyeballin". Very nice illustrations TK! Thanks again.

 

[Toten Kopf]

Well, I hope that I didn't trash the receiver. I was setting up to remove metal from the upper rails and was using a carbide cutter. The only thing is, I forgot to lock down the table and when the bit cut into the metal the table moved and ripped the receiver right out of the vice, the carbide bit broke and the arbor came out of the press.

It twisted the receiver and gouged some metal out of the LH upper rail. I shouldn't have been doing the work because my mind was on other things and not on this.

I have spent some time trying to straighten the receiver and hope it is salvagable. Maybe to some it really doesn't look to bad (I just know what I had before this). Just goes to show that you can spend all the time in the world making something and in a split second of stupidness you can ruin it.