Downsizing magazines to limited states

[Polak 10]

I learned today that magazine rebuild kits can be had in NJ.

 

I know Klassy used to make them and if he can answer some questions, it would help me.

 

1. 
    
   
2. What length (for the 15 rounders) did you have the mag bodies cut to?
   
3. How did you attach the floor plates? JB weld?
   

[Klassy Kalashnikov 1,393]

Hey, I PMed you the instructions on how I do this. I'll post it here too for anyone interested.

 

I do not have any pictures unfortunately. What I did was disassemble the factory magazine, and measure the length of the body, follower, and spring, and cut them all to size. On the factory body, I cut the bottom off at about 1/4" away, and those bottom lips are joined to the resized body with JB weld. Make sure to rough up all the contact surfaces where the two pieces of the body are rejoined. After JB weld I go back the next day and smooth out the drips and blobs and such on the inside. Make sure you use a heavy cutoff wheel, the polymer magazines have steel on the sides and front inside of them. To make a proper magazine it must be able to have the top round "sink" about the size of 1/3 of a round, but not too much as you don't want to make an illegal 16 round magazine (god forbid) I find it a little easier to make a magazine sized for 9 or 14 rounds, then afterwards, shorten the bottom of the follower and the little post on the floor plate little by little until it can eventually fit a 10th or 15th round. Easier to adjust the size that way.

 

If you make steel magazine bodies into 10 or 15's it's actually a lot easier than the plastic. Though there are hardly any 5.45 mags in steel. If you make steel mags for your 7.62 let me know as well. I will help with anything, feel free to ask whatever else.

[Polak 10]

Can you take a picture or two of the 15 round mag you did? I'd like to see the JB welded part, and the length of the mag.

Edited March 13, 2010 by Polak

[Klassy Kalashnikov 1,393]

Well, the 15 rounders I did for my 7.62. I practiced making a couple of 10's for my 5.45 and then ran out of magazines to work with. The 15's were made from steel magazines. The steel magazines were much easier to work with. Having no 15 rounder for reference at the time, for the first one I unloaded the section of an empty body and eye balled it, it only held 13 so I fine tuned the size of the follower little by little till I got it just right for 15. Steel ones are easy to work with because they require no additional bonding. You just cut the desired part of body to size and make it look like the original bottom did, meaning, you give it ears on the two sides 3mm long and those become the new track for the floor plate to slide onto.

 

What puzzled me about working with the steel ones was how simple it was to resize the body with just hand tools / dremel. It really confuses me why the factory that makes the 10rd steel mags in Romania or wherever it is, does not do this, and instead does that god-awful re-weld thing that makes AWFUL magazines. I don't know if you got a 7.62 but if you do, don't buy those magazines, god they're bad...

[Klassy Kalashnikov 1,393]

OK. Here's some new pictures for you. I left the JB weld bulbous on the outside, but if you want something a little easier on the eyes, you can just sand/file/grind it flush on the outside too like I did to the inside. It's a little bit shorter than a factory magazine, so it only held 9, I went in and shorted the follower enough so it would hold and feed a 10th. Also shown is one of the steel 15's I made.

[Polak 10]

Thanks alot.

 

No 7.62 yet, but the 5.45 is in the mail.

Edited March 14, 2010 by Polak

[jimdigriz 580]

You just cut the desired part of body to size and make it look like the original bottom did, meaning, you give it ears on the two sides 3mm long and those become the new track for the floor plate to slide onto.

 

What puzzled me about working with the steel ones was how simple it was to resize the body with just hand tools / dremel.

 

What tool do you use to bend the two new sides (for the floorplate) up? I'm thinking about making a 20 rounder or two for my 5.45. I assume that for the spring, I'd just need to cut one third off.

[paprotective 362]

Today I made a 10 round from a 20 round AK Promag (it has notches at 10/5 round mark.)

 

For them its just cut and put back together..

 

Wish PMag made the 20's in AK74 style/size.. I'm sure they'd make the same bumps..

 

They apparently when they made the 20 round molds to make notches they can cut off at the factory and then sell 10 and 5 rounds.. (I'm speculating but I noticed the 30's DON'T have any notches for cutting down)

 

Then after I cut my 20 round I read Pmag makes a 10 round.. duh.. Oh well at least I had fun with my new dremel.

 

I cut my follower a little to much (trying to get to 15, I got 12 and then tried again) and now it wiggles and mis-feeds. Now I need a follower so I can just stick with a 10'er.. anyone got a spare follower??

[Klassy Kalashnikov 1,393]

You just cut the desired part of body to size and make it look like the original bottom did, meaning, you give it ears on the two sides 3mm long and those become the new track for the floor plate to slide onto.

 

What puzzled me about working with the steel ones was how simple it was to resize the body with just hand tools / dremel.

 

What tool do you use to bend the two new sides (for the floorplate) up? I'm thinking about making a 20 rounder or two for my 5.45. I assume that for the spring, I'd just need to cut one third off.

 

On the steel mags for 7.62, I cut the body so it looks like this (get ready for bad diagram)

 

http://forum.saiga-12.com/uploads/monthly_03_2010/post-21696-12686030288804_thumb.png

 

Then, where that mess of short lines attempting to look like a dotted line is, I put that 3mm tab in the vice, nice and tight, and gently tap on the body with a hammer to bend it little by little and it eventually it's at a 90 degree angle and can be a new tab. The metal they make the magazines with is pretty maleable so don't worry too much about snapping it. I deburr the edges with a dremel for smoothness and it's all done.

 

As for the 5.45 plastics, I cut the lips off at the bottom of the magazine, with a tiny section of body maybe 1/4" and then join that 1/4" + lips piece to the length of body that will be the rest of the magazine. Keep in mind the communist plastic magazines are nothing like the promags and need to be cut a little differently. They have steel plates all at the top everywhere the magazine goes into the gun, the locking tabs are both steel front and back, the sides have a sheet of perforated steel embedded in them the whole way through, and the front of the magazine has a steel spine the whole way through. They are basically a steel skeleton magazines with a plastic skin. It's best to mark with tape where you are going to cut, then take a pipe saw and cut into the plastic all around until you reach the skeleton. Then break out the dremel and cut the steel that will reduce the shrapnel flying at you. I use regular ceramic wheels at ~25,000 RPM and that kicks up a lot of molten plastic globs (I wear a ridiculous looking home made mask when doing this)

Edited March 14, 2010 by Klassy Kalashnikov

[jimdigriz 580]

Then, where that mess of short lines attempting to look like a dotted line is, I put that 3mm tab in the vice, nice and tight, and gently tap on the body with a hammer to bend it little by little and it eventually it's at a 90 degree angle and can be a new tab. The metal they make the magazines with is pretty maleable so don't worry too much about snapping it. I deburr the edges with a dremel for smoothness and it's all done.

 

Thanks. I'll try a 20 and a 15. If it works, I may do a whole batch of 15s to sell to NJ people, in order to fund a PSL without freaking the wife out about spending yet more money on rifles.

 

 

In case I do end up doing this, what would you guys think a reasonable price on working 15 round steel mags would be? The price would probably have to be different for 7.62x39 and 5.45x39, since you can get 30 round steel mags for $8, but the cheapest price I'm aware of for 30 round steel 5.45 mags is $20.

[Klassy Kalashnikov 1,393]

Yeah, it would all depend how much your time is worth and which caliber. There is a huge demand for magazines in both calibers and for the most part quality manufacturers have ignored the demand. I'd say $25 each for steel 7.62 magazines would be a fair price, and for polymer 5.45 magazines probably about the same.

Edited March 15, 2010 by Klassy Kalashnikov

[paprotective 362]

I think 5.45x45 mags in 15 rounds and 10 rounds would be PERFECT for mfg..

 

We can get the 7.62x39 in 10 rounds and UP, but the 5.45 is pure LUCK .

 

I just paid $25 for a factory 5.45 mag and that was LUCK people (they only had 1)..

 

We can't even get RAA to get us some and the 5.45's have been coming in since when August 09 (or sooner)??

 

I'd be happy if ANYONE would help us 'poor souls' out..

 

off the soap box...

[jimdigriz 580]

Yeah, it would all depend how much your time is worth and which caliber. There is a huge demand for magazines in both calibers and for the most part quality manufacturers have ignored the demand. I'd say $25 each for steel 7.62 magazines would be a fair price, and for polymer 5.45 magazines probably about the same.

 

I'm not capable of doing polymer mags, but I think the steel ones wouldn't be too hard. The problem is finding 5.45 30 round steel mags for a decent price. I'm guessing most people wouldn't want to pay $35 for 15 round 5.45 steels, but they would probably have to go for at least that much to make it worthwhile to do.

[paprotective 362]

This is what halted Klassy also I believe also. I gave it a thought today also..

 

If the damn 7.62x39 mags would fit in and take 5.45 followers.. We'd all be in business IMHO..