School me on pinning front site block on my AK

[opto_isolator]

Fellow THR's - I have 2 AK's that I replaced my front sight blocks on. At the moment, they are press fit on. I've read that they should be pinned such that they do not fly off when shooting with the brake installed. That being said - I need some guidance.

The front sight block didn't have any holes drilled for pins. It looks like this:

but, there are no holes drilled below. So - how do I proceed? Remove the sights and drill the holes with the sight removed, or do I drill them while installed? I'm not sure of the proper methodology. Also - what drill bit size do you use?

Any help anyone can provide would be great! Thanks!

 

[HILLBILLY-06]

I read an article about that somewhere, back when folks were buying AK's that had canted front sights on them. I don't remember where I read that, but they were wanting to take them off just to straighten them, but re-pinning meant re-doing the pin groove in the barrel also, because they wont stay on good at all without it. It also keeps them from shifting all around too. But if you do it wrong, well you will also have a canted front sight.
Try to google AK build or something, that may help. I just forgot where I read the article. It was a good one too, pics/illustrations, step by step on how to do what you want to do with that front sight.

 

[opto_isolator]

Yeah - I've read a few articles. I've fully converted my Saiga, but I think this may be a little outside of my level of comfort. I may just see if I can find a local gunsmith that would be able to do this safely - definitely don't want to damage my rifle's barrels.

 

[BBBBill]

Be careful with that. Very few local gunsmiths have any experience with that. Post up your general location and perhaps someone can recommend a qualified guy.

 

[opto_isolator]

Thanks, Bill. I'm located in Orlando FL.

 

[carbine85]

Lock up front post in a drill press vise and drill through the sight block. Take your time to make sure everything is level and square. After that line it up on the barrel in it's proper position and mark the barrel where the pins should pass through. You can either drill the spots or use a dremel to make the pin slots.

 

[opto_isolator]

Any thoughts on how to prevent the bit from walking when drilling the barrel?

 

[wally]

Any thoughts on how to prevent the bit from walking when drilling the barrel?

I think you are supposed to put the sight on the barrel and then drill through both using the indents in the sight base for location. Start with a center drill and make sure you use the correct size drill for the pin diameter.

Lacking a lot of hold down tooling or the ability to make a fixture to hold things square and plumb, I'd degrease the barrel and inside of the sight base, and then mount it with a bit of JB Weld or other quality epoxy and then do the drilling after the epoxy has cured so things stay put during the drilling.

 

[opto_isolator]

Good feedback! Thanks!

 

[carbine85]

Try centering bits. I bought them graingers.com