Hey Cat, you ever heard of the freezing method? Some guys have put the barrel in the freezer overnite and just before installing, heat the trunnion, and wallah! No need for a press!!!
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Hey Cat, you ever heard of the freezing method? Some guys have put the barrel in the freezer overnite and just before installing, heat the trunnion, and wallah! No need for a press!!!
That's an interesting approach - let Physics work for you for a change!Quote:
Originally Posted by Gun Bunny
It's worth a try, particularly on the rear sight and gas blocks...... Hmmmmmm
Hey Cat, How is the transfer going? It's good that you are getting experience on yours so I can send you mine to replace, LOL.
It's going well so far. My biggest worry was getting the rear sight block off without dinging it up, so I got midieval and hacksawed the old barrel in a couple places. A big hammer and four sockets (which were NOT ruined!) later, all the components were off the old barrel. It's a good thing Mrs Cat wasn't home at the time, because each freed component was followed by a burst of very loud, very joyous vulgarities.
I was also afraid that the Century monkeys might have done something lame like slightly enlarging the openings in the components to get them to fit the US barrel better....which would make them too loose to use on the Bulgy barrel... but fortunately they hadn't!
All that remains is the buying of a bottle of case lube, maybe a half hour with a press, and reinstalling the pins and she'll be ready to go.
Yours..... If I had easy access to a press, I'd probably take you up on it.
I do highly recommend that you buy one of those Bulgarian barrels while they're still available.
From what I've seen of NDS receivers, you swap your barrel out and you'll have one of the best AK-74s that there is.... even with it having originally been built by Century.
Think about it - after the barrel change, all Century will have done to your rifle is rivet the trunnions into the receiver, park the gun, and install furniture. You could replace your furniture (if you wanted to), and you could Duracoat it one of these days, and that would make their Parkerizing irrelevant. That just leaves ten little Century-installed rivets.
FCG is by Tapco, so you know THAT is good. The Bulgarians did the rest.
I'd probably do that if I had the money but things are super tight right now. Sounds as if yours is going to be a very nice rifle afterwards.
No pics yet, but everything's done except for pressing the barrel into the receiver.
Getting the gas block and the sights on STRAIGHT was a bit of a *****.
Good to see this shaping up right!
Here's a piece of the barrel from the muzzle.
Note the crappy rifling - that gun almost *was* a semiautomatic musket!
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ns/rifling.jpg
So close, yet so far away!
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...74-soclose.jpg
Check out her 'tan line'! I may cold blue it, or I may leave it like it is as a reminder. I may even duracoat it sometime. Who knows?
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...74-tanline.jpg
Awesome looking job so far! Keep up the good work! :congrats:
And remember, this is sacred work. Why, the AK is even God's weapon of choice:
http://failblog.org/2010/06/23/epic-...-fail-spree-3/ :wink:
Are some of those pics of the "crown"? (the bottom 2 on the left)Quote:
Originally Posted by The Cat
Glad it is shaping up for you Cat!
Yeah - that's the crown... but the external damage you see was done by me. I was none too gentle on it when I removed the front sight.
That's some SOFT metal...
COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DC member Shadenfreud got me access to a 30 ton press today!
Youtube user 'buildyourownak' recommended using case lube when pressing the barrel in, and I think that was very very good advice.
Headspace is GOOD! Yet another kudo to Bulgarian quality - the barrel pin notch aligned perfectly with the pin hole in the trunnion. I checked the headspace - it was a little tight with the GO gauge... and a few swipes with a file on the pads on the back of bolt lugs took care of that.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...4-barrelin.jpg
Here she is, cleaned, reassembled, oiled, greased, and ready to shoot. It's a bummer that the weather's lousy today, or she'd be on a range somewhere.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...4-complete.jpg
:notworthy:
Way to go, Cat!