[Toten Kopf]

Got my first one and started looking at it noticing that the material is much thicker than the standard bent metal. Does this have any affect on screw/rivet length or the length of the hammer/trigger pins or safety lever?

Rough measurements indicate a .014 (.007" side to side) over all difference in thickness. Are people counter boring the trriger/hammer holes or what?

Just thought that it will look weird with the trigger/hammer pins not flush (or almost) with the RH side of the receiver.

Just my thoughts.......

 

[7.62x39]

I never even got that far.

I got one of their early receiver blanks, one of the ones missing the safety hole and with the front cut incorrectly.

Drilling the hole was not a problem, but after you square the front with the upper rails, the way it should have been cut in the first place, the receiver is now @.125 too short OAL.

I've got $50 tied up ($30 blank + $20 for welding) in a POS that I don't think I'm even going to use.

I sent a email to E&D asking about a replacement blank to help cut my losses, but I never even received a reply.

Screw em, I'm sticking with the Ace bent metal blanks.

I don't think .007 is enough to be worried about, other than the pins not fitting flush, as you mentioned, and having to thin out the upper rail enough to fit into the grooves of the trunnion.

 

[Toten Kopf]

I have a total of 4 U-Weld type flats (not all are for me), at the time they seemed the way to go (not to sure now). I also have one TAPCO (I think) flat that is just a nice paper weight, maybe when I have gobs of time and try to make a bending jig I'll try to do one but it looks like there just isn't much metal for the upper rails let alone making sure the holes line up during the bending process.

I've read other posts where guys are heading towards the ACE Bend after trying the U-Weld. But then mistakes were made which rendered the receiver pretty much usless. I really don't think people are taking their time on doing these projects as a lot of the errors shouldn't have happened. I just don't know what the rush is to get one of these builds together.

Hell, I just finished my Wasr-10, which needed to have the front sight moved and the furniture refinished. Bought it near the end of January and now it's done. I guess that we always have time to do it right the second time....lol

Edited to reduce picture size.

 

[7.62x39]

TK,

Nice looking rifle.
Did you do the conversion, or was it already set up for the double stacks?

 

[Toten Kopf]

I guess you could say it was set up for double stacks, but the only mags that would fit were the ones that came with the rifle. I had to do the dremel thing to get clearance for other mags. Right now I only use waffle mags and assigned the ones that came with the rifle to the vault, they just seem to clunky to me.

 

[AK-74Freak]

we completed a finished build with one of the u bend em blanks. We used a cheap flux core wire welder. I rushed too fast into the first blank and burned through it pretty bad, that one went into the trash can :dunno:

really took our time on the second one though. also used some scrap peices of copper as a heat sink. that one came out pretty good and I smoothed the corners out on a surface grinder afterward. I got a little carried away with the welder, and wound up welding the front and rear trunnions to the receiver, and plug welding on the lower guide rails as well. This build went from start to bang in one afternoon.

tackwelded on a barral extension from tapco and installed a us made gas piston and trigger group. I consider this my "beater" AK that I keep thrown behind the seat of my truck, also has a custom "Krylon" spray on finish. $2.99 for a can of semi gloss black from wally mart, LOL :smile:

But let me tell ya, this little ***** functioned 100% We put a full 1,000 rounds through it the first day at the range.