Custom "AK" Project

[Vicious-Peanut]

Looks GREAT!

Nice job.

 

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

Did you need to change the gas tube in order to put the "normal" AKM upper handguard on?

Yeah, I had to buy an AKM gas tube. The stock Saiga gas tube is just a straight tube that does not have the "socket" for a handguard to slide into. Also the handguards and stock needed a little sanding on the lips of the handguards, and the part of the stock that goes inside the gun since these ones come a little thicker than they need to be.

Why not a wood pistol grip?

Wood pistol grip is nice, but I like the shape and feel of the plastic ones better.

Thanks a lot for all the positive comments so far guys! And any more questions feel free to ask.

 

[Geneseo1911]

That looks REALLY good, DK. I love the red furniture AK look. Where did the lower handguard retainer come from?

 

[ThePants]

Nice work! Looks really great!

 

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

That looks REALLY good, DK. I love the red furniture AK look. Where did the lower handguard retainer come from?

Dinzag Arms sells them. They're horribly overpriced at like $80 a piece. It is possible to turn a regular press-on into a bolt on one, but I couldn't figure it out and am hoping someone more skilled than I could figure it out and post a writeup of that somewhere. You could use a regular press on but that means messing with removing the front sight/gas block.



Posting a couple pics for a friend at work (imgur is blocked there)

 

[meytind]

It looks beautiful. Great job. As soon as my conversion parts come, I'm going to convert my Saiga as well. For the part where you ground down the "interdiction tab," did you take off the whole tab or just the bottom part? I'm putting a combloc mag into my Saiga and trying to visually gauge how much steel I'll have to remove but I can't tell.

 

[Geneseo1911]

I was wondering if that was a Dinzag part; I'm not aware of any other sources. The things are horribly expensive though. I wonder if a guy could cut apart and then solder on the surplus type.

 

[Big_E]

Could I use Ironwood's Yugo style pistol grips? Or am I limited too the AKM style? If I am stuck with the smaller grip then I will just put o a Tapco SAW grip.

 

[Moose458]

Great looking rifle, super job.

 

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

Could I use Ironwood's Yugo style pistol grips? Or am I limited too the AKM style? If I am stuck with the smaller grip then I will just put o a Tapco SAW grip.

I think Yugo AK grips use the same screw/nut and would fit fine, but don't quote me on that definitely check with Matt at ironwood.

Also Ironwood makes a great product but if you order, plan on forgetting about it for 2 months. It's a shame he doesn't take credit cards or even paypal (heck, even joe schmoe on the trade boards here takes paypal!) but he does make a fantastic product.

 

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

I was wondering if that was a Dinzag part; I'm not aware of any other sources. The things are horribly expensive though. I wonder if a guy could cut apart and then solder on the surplus type.

Yes, or even mill away the top part with a dremel and use the original lever holes for a screw/nut/lockwasher. I tried this on a previous conversion and ended up cutting away too much and it fell apart. But I think it could be done with a little practice.

 

[meytind]

I just can't get over how good it turned out. Once again, great work!

 

[desidog]

That looks great.

I have wondered about a similar project in .308; but stopped at dinzag's price-tags. Could you ellaborate on the AKM gas tube? are the Saiga and AKM parts interchangeable or does it require some fitting work? I have a Yugo M70 kit unbuilt and a S410, and the parts are all different....but the lower handguard retainer looks like it would fit, if i took off the gas-block and drilled a hole for a pin in the barrel (too much could go wrong for me to have done it already.)

 

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

AKM gas tube, it's a regular AK gas tube. I got mine from AA-OK.com

The parts are interchangeable with a tiny bit of fitting, the gas tube needed the rear upper lip, where the lever on the gas tube release touches it, to be filed/dremeled off slightly.

Yugo parts are a whole different animal

I hear you on Dinzag's prices, same with Ironwood's awful wait times/customer service/payment methods. The only reason they get away with that is they have no competition. I bet you Ironwood would have a dang paypal account the next day if some woodworker started selling AK furniture at $10 a piece less with a REAL website.

The Saiga gas tube is like this, can't latch an upper handguard to it

Regular AKM tube has brackets to have a handguard fit in

 

[CZ223]

Very nice job

Now you got me wanting to convert my Saiga and paint it at the same time. I too like how the furniture came out. How do you think that would look with metalic green?

 

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

Hmm, with metallic green I'd go with a more brownish stain, like a typical medium wood stain. Or some oil-finished wood in a medium brown as well.

If you do go with Aluma-Hyde II, make sure you get the prep work 100%. GREAT finish but it is VERY finnicky not sure if you've used it before?

 

[pgeleven]

outstanding job! i used duracoat on my AK project, 3 coats per color and let it sit for a minimum of 48 hours between coats. my 'safety scrape' is just that, only a line scrape line across the receiver. it does suck yours chipped like that. other than that, you should be very proud of your final product

 

[iyaoyas98]

I see the Tapco Galil for Saiga handguard comes with a retainer. Is it not the one you need to hold on the lower? Will it work with other handguards? My Saiga is in the mail, so I'm stabbing in the dark here

 

[wally]

This is simply untrue.

The two rear pins are simple roll-neck pins and their edges can be easily rolled up - at which point, they can be pushed out (sometimes they fall out with the help of gravity).

I'm all for following instructions - when they make sense. Destructive methods are not always the best methods.

A bit off topic, but will the same work for the magazine catch lever pin? I've got one where the mag catch lever seems a bit short letting the mag rock fore and aft a bit more than I like, although the gun seems to function fine with known good mags.

I like the look, but doubt I'd put the effort into an AK, maybe after I retire . Let us know how that finish holds up with use. You could have saved yourself some work on the mags by getting the parkerized Korean onces from CDNN for $10 each

I see the Tapco Galil for Saiga handguard comes with a retainer.

Its not a real retainer, its just a clamp, if it holds under recoil is a crap shoot, I like the Galil style hand guard but while it has worked on my .223, it didn't hold on my 7.62x39 for more than a couple of mags. On the real retainer there is a half round cross-pin with a lever, these require a notch in the barrel that most Saiga seem to lack.

--wally.

 

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

You could have saved yourself some work on the mags by getting the parkerized Korean onces from CDNN for $10 each

No, I could not. I live in New jersey and those Korean 30's are illegal.

 

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

just using this thread to up a few more pictures for at-work viewing.

 

[sprice]

very nice!

 

[Mustanir]

we call it "ZABARDUST" means excellent piece of work.

 

[DMK]

I missed this first time around. Nice job Dark Knight! I like the color scheme and use of wood instead of plastic. I have to give you credit for all that sanding. Must have been a real chore.

I'm working on converting two Saigas myself. One is a .223 and the other in .308 is very similar to this project in fact with stained Ironwood, the dinzig retainer, a Romanian upper gas tube and metal refinishing, but with Gunkote instead of Alumahyde.

 

[shibby]

wow, that looks really good. Good work!