My AKM rebuild

[Bill Hollinger]

A while ago I bought a AKM with a Krinks Krap receiver. The hammer and trigger pins were as lose as a goose so I bought a Nodak NDS EZ1. It arrived today and I jumped right on it. Everything went together super easy. I am very pleased with how the rivets all turned out! Head spacing is perfect! There was no fitting of the bolt carrier as it slides, no glides like silk on the rails.

The previous builder used "E" clips to hold the pins so I need to get one of those Tapco pin retainer springs or Red Star Arms retaining plate to finish it and take it for a test drive! Note the "Bullet Button" and five round magazine. Lousy Kaliforniev!!!

As far as I'm concerned, Nodak is the best! Great people, great product!

New Nodak Spuds NDS EZ1 on the left and the Krinks Krap on the right.

Information

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[Bill Hollinger]

I put the Red Star Arms retainer plate on it today. What a simple solution. Easy install and she's ready to go.

We need more folks interested in the AK platform I see

[Midmichigun]

Bill,
LOL! Well, actually I missed your awesome post!
The way I describe this forum, is a place for restorers and preservationists... not builders!
I have put together a few AKM's (semi auto clones) via the cheap Romy G kits that came in awhile back. I only have 1 left, which was a "water damaged" special.
Your tooling is also a bit more extensive than what I used!
I do have to say, the receiver looks of good quality, and your craftsmanship is flawless!
I bent my plates out of Tapco "specials" when they were running them for something like $5.00 for a blem.
Thanks for sharing!!

[Bill Hollinger]

This was my first complete build or rebuild. I have a few others I'm "working on" right now. Two are Yugo underfolders and one a milled Bulgarian underfolder. The milled Bulgie will have to wait while I figure out what to do for trunnions and a barrel.

Since I'm retired I need to keep busy so I'm tinkering. This one was a receiver replace and not a build from scratch although I do have a Yugo that is a "from scratch" build that is in the works. Fun stuff!

[jmoore]

What's the story behind the riveting tool?

[Bill Hollinger]

You like that huh?

It is an AK-Builder tool Riveting Tools - AK-Builder.com Curtis Sebring has high quality tools he sells. It gets in between the rails quite nice. I've seen other home made riveting tools that I suppose work fine but I opted for this one. At $250.00, it's not cheap but it sure does a great job.

[jmoore]

You like that huh?

Sure, but I'm already fairly well overrun with rivet squeezers and hammer!







Sadly, that's not all of 'em...

So you also set the barrel in the trunnion? That would be an interesting build area to describe in detail. Used or new barrel?

[Bill Hollinger]

Holy cow!!! No, you don't need any riveters do you?

On this rebuild I used the original barrel. Setting the barrel, populating it and pinning it was no big deal. On the other builds I'm using a new barrels. I used two 12" straight edges, a laser leveler and white poster paper to align the new barrel to the front trunnion, rear sight base, gas block and front sight. Since there no pin cuts I had to make all those. I used a set of round jeweler's files and lot of time to make them then set all the pins sans the barrel pin. The biggest issue I've seen with even new AKs is barrel alignment. They seem to want to cant to one side which isn't really a big problem so long as the rifle can be sighted in. Next was pressing the barrel to the trunnion. Using the barrel press jig from AK-Builders I pressed the barrel in until close (measured off my rebuild above). This is the tedious part because head spacing is set during this operation. It is time consuming but pretty straight forward. It's all about press in or back out until the head spacing it correct. Once it it correct then its back to the small rat tail file, a few blisters and pressing the barrel pin in.

The cool thing about the AK platform is pretty much no matter what, they will run and run good!

[Midmichigun]

AK builds are easy. If you have a used barrel and trunnion, setting headspace is nothing. New barrels are a bit more as indicated by the above description. And yes they do like to cant!
I got in when Romy kits were $125.00. I missed all the cheap Bulgy and Yugo kits.
One thing to remember when demilling the trunnion is to be careful drilling out old rivets.... Don't drill into your barrel!
A lot of guys were getting Harbor Freight bolt cutters and altering the nose into rivet setters.
The #1 tool needed in an AK build is a stiff hydraulic press. Everything else can be made to work with basic hand tools.