Phase I of Saiga Conversion Complete -- What do you think?

[takezo 0]

I spent a lot of time on the mill and lathe this weekend.

I decided to go old-school with the Saiga using some furniture salvaged off a Romanian (gift from a friend).

I'm going to make it look like one of those long-barreled Yugoslavian AKM's.

 

Cut the handle off the fore-grip and reshaped the wood (rough shaped--will do the final shaping and sanding this weekend).

Removed the front sight and gas diverter to install a stock AK grip retainer (which cost 5 bucks at the guns show).

This was not as easy as I thought--lots of fitting required. But it looks cleaner than a clamp on adapter type.

 

Also removing and replacing front sights and gas-diverter is not easy, but I came up with some simple solutions with simple tools.

If anyone wants to know how, I will share. There's some tricks to reinstalling these components correct and straight, and I also came up with simple solutions with simple tools to get this done.

 

What do you think? Photos attached.

 

Question: I'm going to strip all the old finish off this furnitue. Is this stuff stained? And with what? What would you recommend? Finishes?!! Oils?!!!

 

FRT

Edited February 11, 2009 by fiveringstakezo

[usmc_mwroseberry 0]

Very nice and big start. I would recommend going with the Bulgarian FSB so you can put a muzzle break on the beast. They are WORTH EVERY PENNY. What you have going looks very nice and I wish I had the patients to strip my barrel and install the hand guard retainer. If I do the conversion I'm going with the screw on. But I may just stick with my custom molded hand guard.

 

Good luck with the rest of it and we are looking forward to the update.

 

Thanks,

Merritt

SGT USMC vet.

[takezo 0]

You'll have to link me a photo of an FSB. What is it?

 

I have a Chinese Muzzle break made to go on an SKS, which I was thinking of modifying to fit the Saiga.

 

I'm going to drill and ream it so that it's a press fit, then tac weld it on.

 

Let me see what a Bulgarian FSB looks like please.

 

I will post a photo of what I'm going to mod in a little while.

 

FRT

[WILLIEVEE 15]

I spent a lot of time on the mill and lathe this weekend.

I decided to go old-school with the Saiga using some furniture salvaged off a Romanian (gift from a friend).

I'm going to make it look like one of those long-barreled Yugoslavian AKM's.

 

Cut the handle off the fore-grip and reshaped the wood (rough shaped--will do the final shaping and sanding this weekend).

Removed the front sight and gas diverter to install a stock AK grip retainer (which cost 5 bucks at the guns show).

This was not as easy as I thought--lots of fitting required. But it looks cleaner than a clamp on adapter type.

 

Also removing and replacing front sights and gas-diverter is not easy, but I came up with some simple solutions with simple tools.

If anyone wants to know how, I will share. There's some tricks to reinstalling these components correct and straight, and I also came up with simple solutions with simple tools to get this done.

 

What do you think? Photos attached.

 

Question: I'm going to strip all the old finish off this furnitue. Is this stuff stained? And with what? What would you recommend? Finishes?!! Oils?!!!

 

 

How did you remove the sight and gas block? I'm at that point with three 7.62s. I agree with the looks.

[WILLIEVEE 15]

Screwed that post up.

 

Looks good. How did you remove the sight and gas block? I'm about to start pounding!

[usmc_mwroseberry 0]

http://www.dinzagarms.com/saiga_762x39/74fsb.html

[takezo 0]

Removing the Front Sight block...

 

The toughest part is removing the pins.

You need a very good quality punch slightly smaller than the diameter of the pins, ball-peen hammer, a good vice--and someone to help.

 

The vice needs to have aluminum grip-covers, which you can easily make out of soft aluminum and snips.

 

I had someone help me hold the action as I lay the barrel horizontally over the vice--with the pins sticking slightly over the edge.

 

One side of the pins will be slighly mushroomed--one side will be clean.

You have to punch the pins out from the clean side (non-mushroomed side).

To determine this run a file over the pins and see which looks smaller in diameter.

 

Have a friend firmly hold the barrel and reciever for you.

With the punch directly centered over the pins--you have to give it a very strong initial whack.

Once it starts moving it's easy going.

Do not let the punch get stuck in the pin holes. You may have to switch to a smaller diameter punch.

 

All the pins come out the same way--even the long pin for the foregrip.

 

Don't loose the pins.

 

Removing FSB...

 

A hydraulic press would be best for this, but I used a vice, brass drift and a hammer to drive the barrel out.

I opened the jaws of the vice (with the aluminum caps) so that the FSB wouldn't slip through with the barrel and reciever hung vertically.

I heated the FSB with a heat gun real hot--then let it cool. FSB/shroud and barrell will cool at different rates and loosen slightly.

Using the brass drift (solid rod) slightly smaller than the diameter of the barrel, give the barrel a good hard whack or two.

It will start to slide out--the forward part of the barrel is slightly tapered, so once the FSB/shroud starts moving it goes off easily.

Use the same method for the gas-diverter--only this comes off much easier.

 

Handguard retainer grooves in the barrel...

 

My Saiga did not come with them, so I had to mill these.

You cannot do this with a dremmel--it takes machine work.

Well you probably could do it with a dremmel, but you have to be very, very careful not to take off too much metal.

I patterned the grooves off a Romanian AK, and it worked.

 

Actually don't even attempt it with a dremmel--this requires a milling machine and experienced hands.

 

If you make a mistake, there's no going back--and the only way from there on is using the Dinzag clamp retainer to cover the mess. lol

 

I found that different kinds of handguard retainers had slighly different key (slot) widths.

So obtain your retainer before you pass it off to a gunsmith for this operation, or before you start cutting.

You should have something to pattern these gooves/slots off of.

After I milled the barrell, there still was some considerable fitting to make it slide on smoothly.

The metal retainer I had was not perfectly round, so I had to so some filing with jewler's files.

 

Reinstalling the gas-diverter...

 

Secure the barrel in a vice (aluminum caps!)

I used a lenght of 3/4 inch copper brass water pipe to drive it back onto the barrel. It goes on easy.

Drive it back over the barrel with it aligned by eyeball.

Note how far back you go. Drive it back as far as the paint mark, then stop.

Now align it up with a cresent wrench (to move it) as you look down the holes--get it visually aligned.

But it's still not where it should be.

Use a drill bit that is slightly smaller than the diameter of the pins as guage--when the drill goes in easy, the diverter is aligned.

You'll need a dial-caliper to measure the pins (mine were slightly bigger than 1/8 inch, so I used a 1/8 inch drill).

 

Reinstalling the FSB....

 

I cut-off the FSB shroud and filed it flush with the FSB. If you don't cut off the shroud I'll tell you how to do it after this paragraph.

 

Heat up the FSB with a heat-gun.

Secure the barrel in the vice (aluminum caps!)

Align it visually and gently tap it onto the barrel with a hammer and aluminum block to protect the FSB.

When the FSB becomes flush with the barrel, use a 4 inch lenght of steel 3/4 water pipe (yeah pipe). Just by a threaded nipple from Home Depot or Lowes.

Gently taps the FSB back onto the barrel until the pin holes visually align.

Use the drill bit and wrench method until the drill goes in smoothly.

 

FSB with shroud....

 

Just drive the FSB back down with a hammer and aluminum block against the shroud until it is flush with the barrel, or the pin holes align.

 

Reinstalling the pins....

 

First taper one end of all the pins--this will make them self align when you drive them in.

There's a method of using a machinist's vice to press them in--which is how I did it, but you'll probably not have acces to one.

So get the pins started (tapered end first) and tap them gently in.

Get you pal to hold the barrel across the vice, with the square of the FSB and diverter resting on a flat edge.

Take the punch and wang them down until they are flush.

Take a smooth file and flush them off and clean off any mistakes (burrs, etc.).

 

Clean off any burrs and scratches around the end of the barrel with some fine emory cloth.

 

Hey this may not be the way Tony Rumor does it, but it works!

And when I say use a vice, I mean a good sized vice that it securly fastened to a heavy duty work bench.

 

And note: don't go crazy clamping the barrel down in the vice. Do not crush or deform it by using too much pressure.

Edited February 11, 2009 by fiveringstakezo

[WILLIEVEE 15]

Thanks,

This is exactly what I was looking for, pins were a breeze but I did not want to start just pounding, I've done two s-12's but my first 7.62. Thanks again for the great infomation.