Carbon Fiber AK-47 Thought..

935 Views 13 Replies 12 Participants Last post by BFG9000, Apr 23, 2010

Contract_Pilot

Discussion Starter · Apr 22, 2010

Sitting here today wondering what I was going to do with my old AK-builder Jig???

I was looking around the shop and seen a bag of fiberglass mat and 1/2 a can of resin. I thought hummm use it as a mold?

Well I soaked some glass mat with some resin and placed it over the jig and pressed the male part of the die down then folded it over and pressed on the stepped top rail part..

I will have photos in the next few days if it sets up under pressure not sure if it will. I am going to let it sit for a few days. lets hope the jug comes apart.

It it gives a good form I will use the carbon fiber I have.. to expensive to waste on a test... will see what comes of it.

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HillBilly2

· #2 · Apr 22, 2010

Unless you used some cajun super bodacious voodoo mold release agent that thing ain't never coming apart again.

Wouldn't the upper rails need to be metal? Reinforcements around the fcg holes?

You might be onto something here. One peice carbon fiber receiver with molded in rails and trunnions. You wouldn't want to rivet it, so make the tg & pg molded in as well.

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TRX

· #3 · Apr 22, 2010

Worth a try. Rivets don't do too well through composites without some kind of load spreading plate, though. You might want to use large washers, or even better, a .030 or so thick load spreader plate like on the back of, uh, whichever variant does that. RPK?

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willie

· #4 · Apr 22, 2010

Use plastic and call it a "glAK".

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Viper Dude

· #5 · Apr 22, 2010

Hello Contract Pilot,
I have used clear, non-pigmented Kiwi shoe polish as a mold release agent for polyester resine. My molds were made of wood so lots of Kiwi was used. I got that idea from years ago as a cadet spit-shining shoes. A flood lamp provides heat to speed curing. A simple autoclave oven can be made from fiberboard using a temp-controlled electric fan-heater for larger objects or batches.

VD

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Contract_Pilot

Discussion Starter · #6 · Apr 23, 2010

Well it released but was way to flimsy and went in the trash. not going to waste the carbon cloth for this experiment. Going to try again but use 2 times more glass...

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shotgunner

· #7 · Apr 23, 2010

Upper and lower full lenght rails could be used for more reinforcement, with the lower rail forming the hammer & trigger holes.
A screw build would work fine with this receiver.
This would make it light, but strong.

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hcpookie

· #8 · Apr 23, 2010

willie said:
Use plastic and call it a "glAK".

:rofl: funny post

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1biggun

· #9 · Apr 23, 2010

Ive considered carbonfiber as a reciver but it would need to be made much thicker i considered a molded in milled upper an lower rail that also had the trigger holes. I was also thinkking about a CF fore end and stock were you could really save some weight.
It can be done there are carbon fiber barrels with steel liners as well.

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apatomae

· #10 · Apr 23, 2010

Maybe a carbon fiber topcover? That would only need minor reinforcement to make work. thinking about it it probably wouldnt be much lighter than an original. Dont let the mall Ninjas know you made one if you do try it..... you might start the next airsoft craze.

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1biggun

· #11 · Apr 23, 2010

I have actualy considered a one piece reciver stock forend set up. the trunions and a small one peice frame that consisted of the rails and trigger pins, mag latch,and housing could be molded in. there would be no need rivets. there are other composits that would work for this as well it would be simular to a clock in construction. A drop in trigger group could also be used that would eleminate the need for trigger and selector holes.

its not impossable there are composite ar 15 lowers.

To really loose some weight you need to loose the original RSB and and go with compsite or aluminim and minimise it. the about 1/3 of the front trunion is not needed and 1/2 of the rear could be lost. the carrier is really heavy and it could be made of some thing else as well but then spring weights would need to be changed. a carbonfiber/ steel lined barrel would really reduce the weight.

im bebetting the weight could of a AKcould be reduced by a third to a one half if some one really got creative and spent some money. Ive been thnking of a ultra light center fire for some time. I just got a 17 fire ball barrel and it would be good on a ultralight

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jlwilliams

· #12 · Apr 23, 2010

Cool idea. I don't know if an AK would be safe in a composit receiver because the receiver has way more stress than, say, and AR receiver does. This is an interesting an exciting idea though.

On a related note, I've been meaning to pick up some latex mould compound to try making a 10-22 receiver with. The 10-22 has some stress to it, but not 7.62x39 levels of stress.

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[486]

· #13 · Apr 23, 2010

jlwilliams said:
Cool idea. I don't know if an AK would be safe in a composit receiver because the receiver has way more stress than, say, and AR receiver does.

Well, the front trunnion is like the barrel extension on an AR, just one round has more recoil. Straight axial force is easy to deal with.

Oh, this is assuming the rifle is set up so that the bolt carrier doesn't hit the rear trunnion [nice strong recoil spring].

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BFG9000

· #14 · Apr 23, 2010

This is figgin' cool idea.:hyper:

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