[Stickerman]

I've been working on a way to make these jigs a few at a time. Right now I'm trying to decide the best way to make the base for the main part of the jig to slide in. The materials used in the pictures is all cold roll steel which has a nicer finish and should be a little harder than hot roll. That also means it's more expensive than hot rolled steel.

What I would need to know is how many people would want the cold rolled style base like I'm showing or use the hot rolled angle iron base like the original 555th jig. I think to make the newer one work better it will need a base and some gussets to keep the middle from expanding. It would probably be a good idea to do something similar on the angle iron base also.

 

[555th]

Lookin' Good!!!!

 

[Polish Taipan]

I'm interested in a cold rolled steel version, have a ballpark on what they may run? :thankyou: Taipan

 

[7.62x39]

Looks good Curtis, nice job.

 

[tarawa]

Super jig....and workmanship!!!!

 

[Stickerman]

I'm thinking in the $125 range for everything in the cold rolled steel. The base in the pictures was made of 1/4" and 3/8" might be the way to go. The cold rolled steel definately has a nicer finish though.

There is another mod I want to do to each jig to keep the flat from twisting when it goes into the base at first. I tried the 1/4" bottom piece at the same width as the inside of the base, but it looks like there needs to be a 1/2" or so piece that needs to be put on each end of the lower plate. That should keep it from wanting to tilt.

 

[Grendeljaeger]

I'd be interested in one!!:thumbup1: Nice work and great pics. :thankyou:

 

[Stickerman]

I just ordered the 3/8" flat bar for the bases so I should be able to get some of these out the door on Wednesday or Thursday. The 1/4" base should be fine if it's either clamped on the outide with a c-clamp to keep it from spreading or drill a hole through the two plates and put a bolt through them. That would only be needed for the first part of the bend. Otherwise it would need some kind of base and gussets that would be more material.. more weight and more time.

I'm doing all of the main work on my milling machine so everything is turning out real nice. It is definately quite a bit of work, but if I can break it up into a set of parts each day it won't be so bad.

 

[papermonkey]

Very Cool! :thumbup1:

I like the 'step by step' pics that show you exactly how the jig is to be setup and used.

 

[mbadboyz]

Super jig....and workmanship!!!!

You pretty much summed it up!

Mark

 

[crffl]

Count me in for one.

 

[Stickerman]

Yeah, I like to see stuff step by step myself. That way we know what we're getting ourselves into I never thought there would be this much work in just building up my AMD 65's. Hell... I'm still working on one of Plinker's jigs plus I have to make the stuff to press my barrel.

Here is a pic of the rivet jig in progress. The piece of 3/4" material for the base wasn't exactly flat when I got it so I just cleaned it off a little with a flycutter. It's not perfect, but all that matters is that it will work.

 

[crffl]

I gotta tell you guys I'm jealous of your metal working capabilities.


I'm fairly well setup for working with wood but nothing for this sort of thing... now look at all the 'stuff' I need to get :thankyou:

 

[Stickerman]

I started out with a mini-mill and no knowledge whatsoever about working with metal. A few broken gears and trashed end mills later.... now I've got a bigger mill and have learned quite a bit by just playing.

I did manage to make an AR15 9mm lower from a 0% forging that uses Sten magazines and finished a Dlask Sig 228 clone on the mini mill. That was a real learning experience there.

 

[ldmcrook]

Count me in for one too.

 

[7.62x39]

It's amazing that just a few months ago there were really no proven jigs available for bending these flats.
Now there are several.

My hat's off to all you guy's who have developed these jigs.

 

[papermonkey]

Great googlymoogly! Stickerman, if you ever want to sell your jigs (both the press and the rivit) let us know.

 

[tarawa]

It's amazing that just a few months ago there were really no proven jigs available for bending these flats.
Now there are several.

My hat's off to all you guy's who have developed these jigs.

We can have a gallery of all the home made tooling!

 

[Stickerman]

I'm making up about five of the flat bending jigs right now. That's what I plan to start with for the next couple of days. As far as the jig of Plinker's design I haven't asked him if I could make them to sell. They are quite a bit of work and I haven't even finished mine yet.

I will be making some of the trigger guard rivet jigs though. The main thing I want to do now is get the flat jigs squared away.

As far as all of the AK stuff... this was all new to me. The AR15's don't take much to put together once you have all of the parts. Nothing like riveting the trunions and all of that stuff. You can buy just about anything for an AR and everybody makes parts for those. I was just looking for something different to play around with and this is definately that.

 

[Thanatos]

I too am amazed. It was just a couple of months ago that people here were questioning whether or not anybody could ever build an AK from a flat, and now there are several proven ways to do it. My hat is off to all the creative, forward thinking, skilled craftsmen here.