Who has built a Romanian PSL from a parts kit?

[jojo200517]

First I want to ask if anyone on here has actually build a Romanian PSL from a parts kit and a receiver. I am looking at centerfire systems book and a PSL parts kit is $319.99 with trunnions front and rear but it says serial numbers don't match. From the picture it looks like it includes trigger gaurd and trigger parts. Further down the page I see a Romanian receiver for $79.99.

I watched a series of video's on a build on youtube ginsboy2003. The video was done almost a year ago and he ran into a few problems and challenges along the way. He had some custom made blocks of metal he used to help setting the rivets in the receiver which looked like one could chop out with fairly decent ease and didn't need to be highly precise. For setting the rivet heads he used what he refers to as an aircraft rivet set, which was a pneumatic tool that looks pretty identical to my little air hammer chisel with some punches designed for seating the rivets. I didn't quiet get the whole switching of the trigger gaurd instead of just switching the mag catch onto the new receiver. It seems one rivet would have been easier to cut out and put back in than 5.

From the looks if it i'm not sure one could use the modified bolt cutters like many have done on AK builds, but i'm not sure, maybe you could??

From watching videos and additional research I have found out to use a yugo rivet set for the front trunnion. However the real problem is that he had to make the rear rivets on his lathe. Now its been a year so i'm hoping someone can tell me I can just go out and buy rear rivets, as I think this would be much easier than buying and learning how to use a lathe.

One last thing, he mentioned you must check your head-space and insure that it was correct. He didn't show this part but buying the gauges to check it should be simple enough, however i'm completely lost as to what you would do to adjust it if it were off.

I know this is kinda long but any help someone can give me would be appreciated.

 

[Rail Driver]

I'm interested in this as well, as I've been considering buying a receiver kit and parts for an AK.

 

[plunge]

i have been thinking about building one also. here's some links to receivers, parts kits and other various PSL things i have been bookmarking. i think the last link is the one for the rivet set.
https://www.apexgunparts.com/product_info.php/cPath/51/products_id/2077
http://www.weaponeer.net/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=49&idproduct=324
http://centerfiresystems.com/draprt02.aspx
http://thedsmlab.com/project_psl_build_overview.html
http://centerfiresystems.com/drakit-mm.aspx
http://centerfiresystems.com/drakit.aspx
http://centerfiresystems.com/DRAREC-ROM.aspx
http://ak-builder.com/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=29975

 

[jojo200517]

Thanks plunge for the links. They are very informative and I'm glad to see you can just buy the rivets correctly without having to turn your own in a lathe.

Reading the other build on your link and watching build video's on youtube I seen a pattern here of common issues. First the new receivers come with trigger guard attached but no mag catch installed. In both cases people chose to swap the entire trigger guard instead of just the mag catch. Looking at a normal AK here I kinda see why, that spring is strong and could make swapping just the catch a real pain i suppose.

I did like his method of pushing the barrel in and not putting force directly on the total length of it, I have noticed by handling one of these rifles a good while back that the barrel is pretty light weight. Maybe that was necessary or maybe not since both builds said it went in easily tho. Still it did give an option to avoid pressure on the barrel itself.

Also I noticed he checked headspace but he had a kit with matching serial numbers. Centerfire systems are out of stock on all matching kits, the ones I looked at says serial numbers do no match, which leads me to still ask how one adjusts the headspace if it is off and I would assume there is no guarantee it will be right since the numbers don't match.

I did notice he pressed the rivets with a tool in his press and I see the tool is $250 bucks on ak builder. OUCH. The riveting tool for the trigger guard was another $65 I believe.

One more similarity I noticed is it would appear that the receiver rails are not cut out wide enough as he had to trim them up also. The method was quiet fancy and professional but some of us don't have a milling machine. I suppose that puts me back to grinding them by hand like the video method shown on youtube.

The more I look at this the more I think that just for building one rifle that the amount of tooling required may be a bit excessive.

The headspace thing is what bugs me most. If I could get a kit with all matching numbers to ensure headspace being correct or fine out how to adjust it I might consider this but if not I guess it was just a nice thought.

 

[jojo200517]

I know I haven't posted on this in a while but no one else said anything about adjusting headspace so I set about learning about what headspace is, how it works and stuff the best I could and also how it is adjusted on the PSL.

I read some stories about the web about several rifles coming from the factory with not enough headspace to go into battery.

Apparently from what I was able to gather you adjust the headspace by moving the barrel in and out of the front turnion. With a set of proper gauges I can see where it would be easy to get set. The problem then arises of reinserting the barrel pin as it isn't going to be aligned with the hole. Everything I read said they reamed out the hole in the barrel with a carbide drill bit or end mill. Is it just me or would that not make the hole in there oblong and cause the barrel to be able to shift around fore and aft? It seems to me you would need to machine it all out to match