Jumped in with both feet...

[MD_Willington 11]

A bit long winded, so bear with me!

 

 

So yesterday, Independence day 2007, I decided to jump into it with both feet !

 

I had previously gathered up all the parts, including 135* Cobalt HSS bits, these things are great.

 

My son and I disassembled the Saiga and got to work.

 

The plastic came off with very little effort on our part, the butt stock was tough at first, but once I had it wiggled out, my son grabbed it and pulled it right out while I held the receiver.

 

For end came right off too

 

Then we took the receiver assembly to the shed and set up some blocks to level it out.

 

At that point my son went off and got to work on his own project, something about a dynamite cat trap, he has an active imagination for a little boy that is almost 5.. lol

 

No actual dynamite was produced, just a lot of sawdust. Hell he'd be a genius if he could make dynamite out of sawdust, sand and rocks!

 

Took the shoulder off the pins at the back, removed everything from inside the receiver as described in the conversions.

 

I used my chain saw sharpening file to pretty much file off the tops of the rivets on the plate and under the trigger guard, now that was pretty easy with that file.

 

I had the weld centered up, it started centered but walked a bit, I was able to remedy that though and missed only about 0.5 mm of the weld, a quick rap with the back of a screwdriver and it popped off.

 

The key to the weld, center punch or deep scribe with my tungsten carbide scribe, cutting oil (mix of synthetic 2 cycle oil and Dexron ATF), Cobalt drill bits, and a bit of patience.

 

Now I have the double hook, so I did have to make another slot in the receiver, so I scribed it out as on the other side and carefully drilled, cut and filed. I'm not a pro in the shop but I tried to keep it as pretty as possible.

 

I did a quick fit of everything and I'll need some minor adjusting.

 

Overall, I think it went well.

 

I'm about 90% done at this point. I need to pretty things up a bit, get some paint to match.

 

 

Overall it took most of the day to do. I was surprised how easy it was to do, I have done more complicated work in metal shop in highschool, lathe, milling etcetera but would not consider myself a "Pro" in the shop.

 

Hopefully I will get it done soon and then I can show it off!

 

 

Later

 

MD

[MD_Willington 11]

Okay so here is how it went down. For some reason, even though I made the pictures smaller, they come out full size for me... but they should be smaller for you....

 

So far it is still a low cap rifle, but looks more traditional, so not exactly like back home in Russia, but quite a bit closer to the actual thing...

 

Got my 5 parts

 

Took the "Group Photo"

 

Assembled

 

Showing off double hook

 

Now this thing needed some fitting, the small tang at the front was ~0.25mm long, so I trimmed that bit up with a jewelers file and it works great.

 

 

 

I checked the function with the bolt in place, works just like the old trigger, but a lighter pull.

 

I need to pull the butt stock and trim the part that fits in the receiver, that way I can get the plugs in the two back holes, the stock interferes just a little with the back end of the nylon plug. Easy fix.

 

I touched up the paint with semi-gloss epoxy, a pretty close match. I gave it a quick coat and hung it in the sun yesterday, man it was hot, so it baked on.

 

Now I just need to get it to the farm and belt out a pile of rounds.

Edited July 6, 2007 by MD_Willington

[JK-47 33]

That rifle looks great. There is somthing classy about using the 10 rounders in a converted rifle, that I can't quite put my finger on. Let us know how it shoots!

[MD_Willington 11]

Thanks.

 

Busy weekend and haven't been able to get around to shooting it...

 

I'm going to try the automotive door trim on the cover to see if the brass doesn't dent up, if it works, I'll have an ejection buffer that comes to a grand total of $2.00.. we'll have to see.

 

 

I have some bowling pins and a used helium tank that need a few holes put in them .. LOL

[MD_Willington 11]

How it shoots..

 

Well the helium tank has seen better days

 

 

$2.00 Dented brass cure

 

 

Functions just like it did in the "sporter PC configuration"... but now it has all the good parts on it that make it look the icon we all know.

 

[Afrikaner 2]

Niiiiiice

[TOU 0]

Niiiiiice

 

Agreed! So how do you like that grip? Would you buy it again or try another one?

 

Thx,

 

TOU

[MD_Willington 11]

The grip is okay, it works, etcetera but there are better ergo grips available, since I'm going to have some time away from my rifle, due to a licensing issue with my state, I'm going to put a little money away to get one of the better ergo grips for later. It's also the only ergo grip they had in stock at Ultimak so I took what they had.

 

This one is good enough for now.

 

 

If you're going to buy one for a new project, try another.

[nalioth 405]

I like my ergo grip.

 

[markrodgers 0]

i put that same ergo grip on my romy AK a while back, i really like it,as do my friends. cheapest i've seen it is $17 at DSARMS and (i think ) ULTIMAK.

[MD_Willington 11]

Yep, Ultimak, got all my parts there and showed the guys my post on the board here... I live about 15 minutes away from their shop...