[LHRGunslinger]

Supposing it kaboomed & the receiver got bent & cracked could I legally hammer it back into shape, weld up the crack & heat treat it again & rebuild?

[Gr8apmech]

Metal wise I'd say you could but you would want to add an X-ray of the welds to ensure no voids and a complete weld. But this would cost as much or more than another AK.

[LHRGunslinger]

Doing that would cost more than $11k?

[dprice3844444]

if you d it,make sure you don't tell ANYBODY

[GRAPE-DRANK]

If you know a good machinist, it's kind of like a tree falling in the woods. If no one is there to hear it does it make a sound?

It seems to me it should (not that it is, IDK) lawful to replace a registered receiver that is broke.

[Prince Yamato]

You send it to some place like m60joe and they reweld it for you. People even reweld broken autosears. When you're looking at being out $15k, $1000 for a reweld doesn't look so silly.

[LHRGunslinger]

Grape-drank I'm not talking about replacing the receiver. I'm simply talking about repairing the original.

[Prince Yamato]

People make new semi auto aks by rewelding demilled receivers; those are torch cut in multiple places. I can't imagine that anything you'd do to an ak through shooting could approach that level of destruction.

[Sam1911]

You probably should read through this thread: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=605582

There were some comments from knowledgeable SOT2/3 types. Seems "cracked" could be repaired. "Destroyed" or broken in two, could not be. Legally speaking.

Yes, some folks (not many, really) reweld cut receivers and make functional guns. But legally that is building a NEW firearm, not repairing the old one. It appears that the ATF considers putting pieces of a destroyed NFA gun/item back together as "making" not repair.

[zoom6zoom]

People make new semi auto aks by rewelding demilled receivers; those are torch cut in multiple places.
Yeah, but those are generally milled receivers. Not sure how much success there would be in rewelding a stamped sheet metal receiver.