Had a buddy bring an AK over; I’ve built AR’s but don’t know much about AK’s.
Successfully welded a loose shroud/barrel extension thingy back on after milling out a crush washer so we could time the flash hider and threads would be tight instead of depending on the weld alone.
Next up, replace the piston with an adjustable one. Supposedly a welded pin will show up as you sand to find the end, drill it out and unscrew old piston. Light sanding, can’t find it, keep sanding, finally drill into one open hole of bolt carrier assembly, can see into where roll pin was supposed to be, still won’t unscrew and actually stress cracks where we’ve weakened it.
Ended up sanding til we see the threads and piston unscrews easily. Had heated it to break loctite very first thing, we still don’t know why it didn’t go as planned.
$100 lesson, I’ve done worse that’s for sure but still aggravating.
Successfully welded a loose shroud/barrel extension thingy back on after milling out a crush washer so we could time the flash hider and threads would be tight instead of depending on the weld alone.
Next up, replace the piston with an adjustable one. Supposedly a welded pin will show up as you sand to find the end, drill it out and unscrew old piston. Light sanding, can’t find it, keep sanding, finally drill into one open hole of bolt carrier assembly, can see into where roll pin was supposed to be, still won’t unscrew and actually stress cracks where we’ve weakened it.
Ended up sanding til we see the threads and piston unscrews easily. Had heated it to break loctite very first thing, we still don’t know why it didn’t go as planned.
$100 lesson, I’ve done worse that’s for sure but still aggravating.
