mike cyrwus
.223
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2010
- Messages
- 4,827
fyi, for those that dont know, tacmedic is 110% legit and knows his ****.
almost wish I gave a **** about AK's, lol. just kidding!
almost wish I gave a **** about AK's, lol. just kidding!
AK Build Class !?!
- Thread starter tacmedic
- Start date
tacmedic
Well-Known Fanatic
Wow, I'm humbled. Also scared how much that endorsement is gonna cost me! Seriously thank you!mike cyrwus said:
You're in our thoughts, shout if you need anything. And when you need to get away and have some fun come over and we'll build one!
mike cyrwus
.223
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2010
- Messages
- 4,827
You're the humbler, my man!
mike cyrwus
.223
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2010
- Messages
- 4,827
And I need more first aid and basic trauma response type stuff. Time flies and it's been a long time.
poopgiggle
B Class Nobody
asking for a friend: if I'm a total dummy who's never used a drill press before, will I be able to successfully complete this class?
Again, asking for a friend.
Again, asking for a friend.
tacmedic
Well-Known Fanatic
If you can listen and follow instructions then yes.
drmitchgibson
The white Morgan Freeman
If you don't come to this class, I will slap your man card out of your hand with my dick.dr poopgiggle said:
poopgiggle
B Class Nobody
...he said, as though I had a man card to begin with.Mitch Gibson said:
tacmedic
Well-Known Fanatic
Folks, the first class is filling up and more importantly parts kits are drying up. If you are wanting to do this class you need sign up ASAP so I can order your parts while they are still available. You can sign up and put down the money for the parts kits so I can get them and pay the balance later. PM with questions or to get signed up.
Matt1911
Cyrwus Jr.
Sounds to me like you're trying to sneak in an old fashioned while calling it something else.Mitch Gibson said:
tacmedic
Well-Known Fanatic
Only three spots left.
tacmedic
Well-Known Fanatic
Okay folks, that's it the class is full. If you haven't made prior arrangements or payment don't disappear I will do more classes as needed. I just don't want class sizes to be too big and quality suffer.
If you have a kit you purchased previously and want to build it please PM me with what you have so I can start figuring out what's needed and we will get all those kits that have been sitting around collecting dust made into rifles.
If you have a kit you purchased previously and want to build it please PM me with what you have so I can start figuring out what's needed and we will get all those kits that have been sitting around collecting dust made into rifles.
drmitchgibson
The white Morgan Freeman
Alright, this class was excellent! It was a very long weekend, but we made it through with some truly excellent rifles to show for it. It was actually a pretty good value overall, and I feel like I got more than my money's worth out of it. It was quite easy to shoot out to 300 yards and make good hits with iron sights. The rifle I built is wonderful.
We started on Friday night at 6:30pm with a quick meet and greet and some information from Jeff about the history and design of the AK pattern, followed by accounting for all parts in our kits. The only real difference in my kit from any others was that I chose the ALG AKT for my trigger parts while everyone else got an Arsenal trigger. Both are excellent triggers, and I actually feel like the Arsenal trigger has a much better break even though it is about twice as heavy as the ALG AKT. We drilled our receivers for front trunion holes before leaving on Friday at about 9:30pm.
Saturday start time was 8:30am and we worked until 9:30pm. It was fantastic. We riveted the front trunions in, drilled the receiver for rear trunion holes and riveted the rear trunions, pressed in barrels and headspaced bolts, drilled barrels for cross pins and pressed in the barrel pins. After that we pressed all the barrel parts on: rear sight block, handguard cap (no pressing needed, it goes on by hand), gas block, and front sight tower. We then drilled for all relevant cross pins and pinned these parts in place. Those of us that finished early began fitting the stocks and handguards to our receivers.
Sunday we started at 8:30am again. We riveted on trigger guards, finished installing the furniture, and installed trigger groups. I actually had to do a lot of fitting of my trigger to the safety due to having used the AKT, but it didn't take too long, maybe 1/2 hour. We then went through a presentation on AK sights and zeroing fundamentals, and then went to the range and began zeroing. It took about two hours to zero. It was a weird process, but the results were incredible. We zeroed at 100 yards for a 300 yard zero. To me it seemed retarded in theory because I have found the conventional info about AR-15 zeroing to be just as false as anyone else who has ever bothered to test it out. I was skeptical, but with standard ammo and a standard barrel length, it worked just like it was supposed to. Pretty slick. Too cool.
After zeroing we went to the long range and hammered on steel at 100, 200, and 300 yards while verifying that our rear sight elevations were correct. It was beautiful how well it all fell together.
General observations: we built the rifles. The rifles were not built for us. We did everything ourselves and it was a bit intimidating at first, but midway through day two we were going at it like we knew what we were doing. The course was put on by Jeff, but he had help from another knowledgable and cool guy named Josh as well as assistance from his almost-son-in-law Justin as well. They all had experience building AK-pattern guns. Anytime we had questions or needed verification, or reassurance, we got it. We had great step-by-step instruction, but again we built our own rifles. We fit our own parts, headspaced our own barrels, pressed our own rivets, drilled out our own holes. It was a lot of work, and it really didn't sink in how awesome it was until 2/3 of the way through day two. It was very enjoyable. We had a lot of different fixtures and specialized tools to that we were exposed to, and we could try each to see if one was preferable to the other. The barrel pressing jig was really excellent and was sort of a custom setup.
I think that the only downside was that we shared one set of hand tools. That made it a waiting game sometimes, but not for too long. We were at workbenches with two people assigned to each bench, and two of the groups were father-son build teams, and that was cool to see. Some of us were much more experienced with metalworking than others, so there were some wait-times due to that situation, but we all made it through. I was the only person who came with a unfinished receiver, meaning no coating, just bare steel. That sucked, but we were responsible for providing the receiver and I apparently did not find a very good deal on mine although the quality of it was excellent. Jeff said I could coat it at a later time, so there's that.
I will have to post pics later, couldn't copy them from my other review thread.
We started on Friday night at 6:30pm with a quick meet and greet and some information from Jeff about the history and design of the AK pattern, followed by accounting for all parts in our kits. The only real difference in my kit from any others was that I chose the ALG AKT for my trigger parts while everyone else got an Arsenal trigger. Both are excellent triggers, and I actually feel like the Arsenal trigger has a much better break even though it is about twice as heavy as the ALG AKT. We drilled our receivers for front trunion holes before leaving on Friday at about 9:30pm.
Saturday start time was 8:30am and we worked until 9:30pm. It was fantastic. We riveted the front trunions in, drilled the receiver for rear trunion holes and riveted the rear trunions, pressed in barrels and headspaced bolts, drilled barrels for cross pins and pressed in the barrel pins. After that we pressed all the barrel parts on: rear sight block, handguard cap (no pressing needed, it goes on by hand), gas block, and front sight tower. We then drilled for all relevant cross pins and pinned these parts in place. Those of us that finished early began fitting the stocks and handguards to our receivers.
Sunday we started at 8:30am again. We riveted on trigger guards, finished installing the furniture, and installed trigger groups. I actually had to do a lot of fitting of my trigger to the safety due to having used the AKT, but it didn't take too long, maybe 1/2 hour. We then went through a presentation on AK sights and zeroing fundamentals, and then went to the range and began zeroing. It took about two hours to zero. It was a weird process, but the results were incredible. We zeroed at 100 yards for a 300 yard zero. To me it seemed retarded in theory because I have found the conventional info about AR-15 zeroing to be just as false as anyone else who has ever bothered to test it out. I was skeptical, but with standard ammo and a standard barrel length, it worked just like it was supposed to. Pretty slick. Too cool.
After zeroing we went to the long range and hammered on steel at 100, 200, and 300 yards while verifying that our rear sight elevations were correct. It was beautiful how well it all fell together.
General observations: we built the rifles. The rifles were not built for us. We did everything ourselves and it was a bit intimidating at first, but midway through day two we were going at it like we knew what we were doing. The course was put on by Jeff, but he had help from another knowledgable and cool guy named Josh as well as assistance from his almost-son-in-law Justin as well. They all had experience building AK-pattern guns. Anytime we had questions or needed verification, or reassurance, we got it. We had great step-by-step instruction, but again we built our own rifles. We fit our own parts, headspaced our own barrels, pressed our own rivets, drilled out our own holes. It was a lot of work, and it really didn't sink in how awesome it was until 2/3 of the way through day two. It was very enjoyable. We had a lot of different fixtures and specialized tools to that we were exposed to, and we could try each to see if one was preferable to the other. The barrel pressing jig was really excellent and was sort of a custom setup.
I think that the only downside was that we shared one set of hand tools. That made it a waiting game sometimes, but not for too long. We were at workbenches with two people assigned to each bench, and two of the groups were father-son build teams, and that was cool to see. Some of us were much more experienced with metalworking than others, so there were some wait-times due to that situation, but we all made it through. I was the only person who came with a unfinished receiver, meaning no coating, just bare steel. That sucked, but we were responsible for providing the receiver and I apparently did not find a very good deal on mine although the quality of it was excellent. Jeff said I could coat it at a later time, so there's that.
I will have to post pics later, couldn't copy them from my other review thread.
poopgiggle
B Class Nobody
Excellent!
Maybe the next class will happen when I didn't just buy a transmission.
Maybe the next class will happen when I didn't just buy a transmission.
Ipsilateral
Well-Known Fanatic
Looks like fun, this and one of build your own 1911 class is on my todo list some day.
45recoil
likes to party
That's pretty damn cool. As above, a class like this and building a 1911 would be awesome.
tacmedic
Well-Known Fanatic
A father and son pair. AKM and AK74. Completed tested and proven from 0-300 meters. Now they just need a good cleaning and a new coat of Parkerizing or CerakoteView attachment 11227
Attachments
drmitchgibson
The white Morgan Freeman
Finally got some time to get the pics up.
