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Back in May I had bought an AMD 63 parts kit from gun broker for 170$ with the intentions of building an AK from the kit. I had read everything I could find on the subject but had doubts about weather I could do it with the tools I had. It seemed pretty straight forward but I had no spot welder just an 90 amp gasless wire feed welder to weld the lower rails onto the receiver and no press . I tried using a laser cut receiver blank and did not like the results besides the thing had no magwell dimple I had to also build this too. So I decided to build a grass hopper jig to bend a flat cost was aroung 80 bucks. Well I built it and beefed it up a bit figuring it would need it. It did. I ended buying 8 or 10 flats all together. Five were scrap the others were usable(the trick is to hammer the hell out of it while pulling it thru the jig) Now came the drilling part I drilled out the rivets in the front and rear trunnions to tap them and build it with 10-24 cap screws. I must have Broke 4 taps trying this no go. This was really pissing me off. I'm a machinist I should be able to do this asleep. Screw it I welded it. Drilled out the front trunion rivet holes to 3/16 put the receiver over it lined everything up and layed 4 nice beads in the holes and kept the mig gun at a 90 degree angle (straight into the drilled holes). They came out fine!! Hey it worked and I closed my eyes when I welded the beads cuz my welding helmet head strap was busted! The holes near the mag well were tapped so I screwed in the short 10-24 screws and tacked them welding it from the magwell hole They came out great also the weld just covered the whole thread like a tiny mushroom. The rest of the build I just used screws and sealed them with west systems epoxy and high strength filled mixed in for good measure.The first rifle took 4 months to build I bought another kit from apex this one took a week to build and my buddy wanted one this took 6 hours to help him make it. What I learned was there is ALWAYS another way of doing things. 1 use flats with all the holes drilled and the rails allready bent and machined this with save you one big big exedrin moment. 2 A weld is much stronger than a rivet or screw I used .030 wire .023 would have been better I think. 3 Dont spend big bucks on a expensive paint or coating I went to lowes and bought flat black 1200 degree grill paint for 3.99 and painted all the metal execpt the mags it looks really nice. 4 I have a nice fire pit in my back yard I cook Kielbasa on it this is how I heat treated the lower rails. I made up 6 sets . The receiver was heat treated the same and it did not warp and had a vary nice case coloring blue. I fired bolth gunsover 200 rounds of wolf ammo no jams. And finally weld the lower rails on instead of spot welding them. I welded them on befor I bent the receiver in the bending jig this gave me really good access to put on nice heavy welds to hold them on much better than any spot weld so steel cases are no problem stripping off the ejector rail. First gun cost around 500$ the next was half that. If you really want one hurry up and get a kit befor they are gone. They are still available I saw some on the net today besides they don't need to be registered so the Gov dosnt need to be in on your build. I built these guns in a dirt floor garage by the way.... I'll download some pictures next week.
Mikey
Mikey
