Black gun, almost finished
Still have to wring in the barrel, and I don’t have an upper block. So I’ll wait until I can do it right.
One black gun looks an awful lot like another. Yes, the handguards are on wrong because the nut is not tight yet. I broke the ears off the blasted carry handle because I was (unwisely) holding on to it while trying to put the handguards on. I’ll machine some less flimsy ones out of steel and blue them and screw them in place. I will eventually put a FACOG on this anyway.
11 comments Og | Uncategorized
Are you going to make your own block or buy one?
I dunno yet. Whats the skinny? Are they difficult?
More unsolicited advice
Not so difficult. A hollowed out block of wood will do it. Just so that you doun’t pinch the lighter parts like the dust cover. I have a store-bought one that come in left and right side, locks nicely in the vice.
In this picture you can see I just used plastic vice jaw pads. That particular upper would not fit in the standard “A2” block.
http://rebeluniv.blogspot.com/2011/08/arts-and-crafts-ar-15-rebuilds.html
In this series of pictures you can see the block I used.
http://rebeluniv.blogspot.com/2011/09/arts-and-crafts-ar-15-rebuilds-part.html
Still have to wring in the barrel, and I don’t have an upper block. So I’ll wait until I can do it right.
Meh. Thick rags (to prevent surface marring and to even out the force a bit) and a vice, just tight enough to keep it from rotating or popping out.
Worked for me.
(And as Prof. Hale says, be careful about how it’s clamped; you DON’T want to smash anything or deform the aluminum, but you also don’t need any significant clamping force. It really shouldn’t be very difficult, especially with a flat-top.)
Me Jealous.
Other than being uglier than sin and chambered for a small game/varmint round, it looks OK-ish. If one could modify some of the machinery so there’s less sticking up, sticking out, and hanging off then chamber it in something that would put, say, a 6.5mm or 7mm 130 gr boat tail bullet down range at about 2900 fps, you’d really have something. Or is that all just crazy talk?
Hey, I already have good rifles. This is a toy.
Gerry N.: You mean an AK?
Now, now, Gerry, let’s not dump too badly on Og’s new toy. After all, he’s experiencing pride of ownership enhanced by pride of craftsmanship. I let those same sentiments get to me when I was 13, and had just helped a pal build a plywood El Toro sailboat in his garage. That 8-foot sailing dinghy would upset in an 8-knot breeze, but we two felt so good about it we would have taken it down the Chesapeake Bay in a gale, if our Dads hadn’t been a bit wiser…
One hopes that when the S.H.T.F., Og’s good sense will prevail and he will take something better off to war. IIRC, he built himself a reliable .44 maggy levergun a while back, which is a far better candidate for S.H.T.F. service.
Oh, hell, I have an M1 carbine that is the bees knees.