[Toten Kopf]

I'm planing on build an AMD-65 but using wood upper/lower handguards. I've read posts about those that have done this but no real good pictures concerning the re-work of the upper handguard gas tube. The pictures have always been at a distance and of the completed rifle. Not of the specific work done to use wood grips.

Does anyone have pictures of their mod to use wood handguards on the AMD-65? Any help will be appreciated.

 

[erikk]

I don't have any real close ups but it is really a no brainer. Get a gas tube with the retainers. Cut it just a bit longer than your 65's. Take a 3/8 socket extension and insert backwards into the tube and give it a couple of good wacks with a hammer.Then a few taps around the outside to round it out and you are finished. Thats all there is to it.

 

[Toten Kopf]

LOL...that's what I'm saying. I would love to see a close-up of where you "whacked" the tube to make it fit on the gast block. Thanks for the info.

I don't have any real close ups but it is really a no brainer. Get a gas tube with the retainers. Cut it just a bit longer than your 65's. Take a 3/8 socket extension and insert backwards into the tube and give it a couple of good wacks with a hammer.Then a few taps around the outside to round it out and you are finished. Thats all there is to it.

 

[Thumb Clip Pull Pin]

There is just a little bit more to it than that! I just did one this weekend. I had to cut the tube 5.750" long. Heat the cut end until it was dull red. Hold the tube with a wet rag and old work glove, while driving the 3/8" extension down the cut end to expand it. Then I used a 12mm socket to finish forming the "round" expanded end. Then I cleaned up the inside of the expanded end with a sanding drum mounted in my Dremel tool. I used a wire wheel/motor to knock off all of the burnt paint. I wiped down the shiney, expanded metal end with acetone, then shot it with black paint. This took about an hour to do.

Yours,
Thumb Clip Pull Pin.

 

[Toten Kopf]

Thumb Clip Pull Pin...

Do you have any pictures of the finished product? I mean the end you did this on.

 

[erikk]

This is the best I can do with this crappy camera. I didn't have to heat either one and both work fine

 

[Toten Kopf]

Hey, thanks a lot. A picture is worth a 1000 words. You did good!

 

[Thumb Clip Pull Pin]

Yep! My gas tube looks pretty much like erikk's. I thought about smoothing down the outside of the expanded end, but then I thought that it might look like "painted play-doe", so I just wire brushed it with a wire wheel, degreased it and shot it with black paint.

I started working on my "poor man's rivety jig it" last night. I'll try to get some digital picture of the progress. I could not finish it. My wife got very sick and I needed to help her.

Yours,
Thumb Clip Pull Pin.

 

[erikk]

Hope your wife is better. Am really interested in seeing pics of your rivet jig when you can get back to it

 

[sniper69]

Do these pics help? If you need other angles or close-ups let me know and I will get some other pics taken of this gas tube. I paid to have this one done for me by a member at another gun forum, but I am planning on doing a few of my own. I just hope theyturn out as good as this one.

 

[Trotsky]

Toten Kopf ?

If you can score a gas tube from an SA-85 "short gas tube model"... get it. It has what you want, and is a drop in.

 

[Thumb Clip Pull Pin]

Erikk!
Thanks! My wife is much better now!

I was kind of in a hurry and the hole in the "movable arm" part of my rivety jig is the wrong size! I was hoping to use a standard 1/4" hardened pin, and press fit it into the arm. The pin just falls into the hole! The drill bit measured 0.250". The hole that it drilled measures about 0.262". (The chuck/spindle on my drill press is bent!)

Now I will have to make a new pin to press fit into the arm. Not a problem. This will just take more time. (I have a very limited supply of time!)

I wonder how I am going to fix the drill press!
Yours,
Thumb Clip Pull Pin.

 

[meyerse]

East German ones seem to split easy (not just me!) so if you are using an east german gas tube, be careful.

 

[sniper69]

Erikk!
Thanks! My wife is much better now!

I was kind of in a hurry and the hole in the "movable arm" part of my rivety jig is the wrong size! I was hoping to use a standard 1/4" hardened pin, and press fit it into the arm. The pin just falls into the hole! The drill bit measured 0.250". The hole that it drilled measures about 0.262". (The chuck/spindle on my drill press is bent!)

Now I will have to make a new pin to press fit into the arm. Not a problem. This will just take more time. (I have a very limited supply of time!)

I wonder how I am going to fix the drill press!
Yours,
Thumb Clip Pull Pin.

if you bought the drill press in the last 90 days at harbor freight you could return it for another one. Just a thought anyways.

 

[Toten Kopf]

Erikk!

I was hoping to use a standard 1/4" hardened pin, and press fit it into the arm. The pin just falls into the hole! The drill bit measured 0.250". The hole that it drilled measures about 0.262". (The chuck/spindle on my drill press is bent!)

Now I will have to make a new pin to press fit into the arm. Not a problem. This will just take more time. (I have a very limited supply of time!)

I wonder how I am going to fix the drill press!
Yours,
Thumb Clip Pull Pin.

My press has some movement also. It's in the main shaft that the spindle rides in. There is a bolt on the side of the press that guides the main shaft(that moves up and down), if you tighten it a little it might take out the play you have. My problem is that the bolt is to small for the keyway cut into the main shaft. So when you put to much pressure downward while drilling it moves. I hope to make a closer fitting guide bolt to correct this problem.

 

[Thumb Clip Pull Pin]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

I actually bought this drill press from Sears twenty three years ago. The top assembly fell off of our pick up truck and smacked the chuck on the pavement during a move. The chuck does not run true, but the spindle does run true. I have tried to adjust the chuck using a brass hammer and a dial indicator, but I have have not had much success. I use the press mostly for rough in work, but it sure would be great to have it back in Bristol fashion again!

Yours,
Thumb Clip Pull Pin.