[eatatjoes]

I have been floating around these forums for a while and it seems many people advocate building your own FAL or AK-47. I think that is a pretty neat idea, looking around i see that most of the parts can be had without any difficulty whatsoever. The only thing you need after buying a parts kit is a reciever, i have two questions, it is very difficult to build your own rifle from a kit? also, how hard is it to come by a reciever for your rifle, can i buy one at a gun-shop or are they only avaliable to FFL's?

[Southern Raider]

If you want to build an authentic AK, it can be a PITA. To do it as the factory does requires a hydraulic press and riveting tools. Press the barrel out of the trunnion, rivet to the receiver and press back in.

I have built them by simply drilling and tapping the already barrelled trunnions for 10-32 button head screws. You need little more than a drill press and hand tap this way.

US made receivers are floating around. I doubt your local gunshop has one, but they can certainly receive one for you and trasfer to you as any other firearm.

[DMK]

Lots of good info here:

http://www.gunsnet.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=19

[Kharn]

[is it] very difficult to build your own rifle from a kit?
I built my FAL from a G1 kit, a Tapco US parts kit and an Imbel reciever, once I spent the $150 on the reciever wrench, DSA tool kit and everything needed to headspace the rifle it was just a matter of finding a big enough cheater bar to torque the barrel onto the reciever properly (you definitely need a good bench vise for this operation). I built my own AK from a kit, but I used three flat pieces of steel and welded them together to form the outer walls of the reciever, rather than use a store-bought reciever.

also, how hard is it to come by a reciever for your rifle, can i buy one at a gun-shop or are they only avaliable to FFL's?
Your FFL can order you one, its doubtful they would have one in stock.

Kharn

[Dave Markowitz]

Kharn,

Your homebrew AK sound cool. You got any pics?

[Kharn]

Picture below, it messed up the post formatting.

Note that the bayonet lug was ground flat, and the muzzle nut was permanetly attached in place. This was also before I hit the rifle up with a coat of engine spray paint (contains ceramic, so when it heats up the ceramic beads melt and bind together, making a tough shell), so it looks a lot better now than in this pic. The selector had to be modified as the reciever is made from 1/8" thick steel plates rather than 1mm sheet steel, which mainly involved using a locking nut (held in place with a screw from the other side) to hold the nub on the far side of the selector (instead of it going into a hole in the reciever) and dremeling the selector so that it fit into the reciever. The brass and stainless steel screw heads hold the upper rail (that big grey ugly thing) and the lower rail (not visible, they're inside the reciever) on. Instead of a sheppard's hook and traditional pins, straight drill rod was used for the hammer and trigger pins, with E-clips fitted into grooves cut into the drill rod to hold the pins in the reciever.

For more info, visit the forums on: http://www.roderuscustom.tzo.com/ We have forums for everything from 10/22s (including Magnums and 10/17s), to SIGs (pistols, dont get your hopes up for a 55X rifle), AKs and FALs, with a few 1919 projects floating around.

Kharn

[Kharn]

http://www.chesapeake.net/~mcfadden/bigtoys/AKrhs.jpg