AMD-65 Build Diary

[cal_warrior]

Almost de-miled

Nice collection, Slamfire. Did you build all of those? That is a type of addiction, you know. I'm getting into this first build. I might pick up a barreled Yugo so I can attend a BP soon.

Pressed off the rear sight from the barrel stub last night using my gear puller. Only remaining piece is the gas block, and that's coming off tomorrow. So then I'll have a completely de-miled kit and I can start putting it all together.

Question: do you align/press the parts - front sight, gas block, the other thing - on the barrel and just drill through the existing pin holes to make the half round cuts in the barrel; or do you figure out where the cuts should be, including the barrel pin kerf after head-spacing? (So much to learn...)

[cal_warrior]

AMD de-miled!

Pressed off the gas block yesterday using the ram-press and some kluged tooling. So she's all ready to go back together (optimism lurking in there). So I'll start mounting parts on the virgin barrel. (see my other thread with great suggestions from the forum).

Tried out the "poorman's" receiver bending tooling last night on my extra Tapco flat. I made up some studs with nuts impinging on the reaction plate, but the studs actually got a little cocked as I torqued them down which made the receiver start in with one side going in more than the other. Receiver came out with sides not perfecly square to the bottom. I probably could have prevented it if I paid more attention. Still, it's made me a little wary of this fixture. I'm thinking that I should buy the $190 fixture and then sell it whne I'm done bending receivers. Or, attend a build party.

[Z ME FLY]

There might be someone nearby that can help you bend a flat and maybe spot weld the rails in. Before you start pressing your stuff back on the barrel, I would take some measurements to make sure everything will fit correctly. You don't want the barrel too big and end up cracking the gb or rsb or something else.

[cal_warrior]

Measurements

Yeah, good advice. I've taken a bunch of measurements and it looks like everything will fit together just fine. The new barrel came with a deep blue finish on it and I've had to sand most of it off in areas where parts will be pressed on to make the OD correct (compared to original). Monday I'll take the parts and the barrel to work and press them on. Alignment is not as hard as I thought. The front grip thing that fits in the barrel side slots has a flat on it that I use to align the other parts to by eyeball: very accurate. Moving forward.

[cal_warrior]

Moving forward

Pressed the rear sight, gas block and front sight on: looks good. Yes, I remembered to slide the front grip bracket on before the gas block. Also refinished the wood grips and gave them a mahogany finish because I don't like the light colored wood. Getting anxious to keep going so I ordered a bending jig from AK-Builder. Will probably buy a used spot welder on eBay and put the receiver together. Anyone ever silver-brazed the slides on? Seems like it would hold up OK, but since I don't see it in the forums...maybe not.

[cal_warrior]

Bending Flat Done

Got my AK-Builder bending jig and folded the receiver. Works great. Ready for the next step: welding in the slides. Am considering brazing them in because I don't have a welder. Looking forward to the Canyon Country BP in April. Finding it hard to wait. Almost pulled the trigger on two Romy kits from Apex today. Both would require virgin barrel work, which I'm getting familiar with.

[cal_warrior]

Advice Installing/Drilling Virgin Barrel Pin

I'm working on my Romy kit, but this will prep me for the AMD-65. Got the virgin barreled Romy head-spaced and ready to drill for the barrel pin. Have a 7mm reamer and thinking that just drill to a size under that and then ream to size. Any comments on this? Thanks. DL

[cal_warrior]

Finished the AMD-65 except for the finish. This was the first kit I started, but then switched over to my Romy and finished that first (and did a better job, I think). Here are some pics. Had to weld some additional material after I filed the ejector too short; works nice now. Kind of effed up the rear sight pin install; so went slightly oversized and it's good. Made the center pin a little short, too, so it's squeezed a bit in the middle. Seems to work OK. I learned a lot on this one. Deciding on a finish: probably a nice heavy coat of Duracoat or whatever. Maybe just Park. (Hope the image thing works...) Thanks to all on the forum for promoting Continuous Improvement through transfer of knowledge and good humor. DL

[steelholder]

looks good nice grips

[Gowking]

What rivets did you use for the rear trunnion?

-MRA

[big103]

Nice man, good looking ak.

[cal_warrior]

What rivets did you use for the rear trunnion?

-MRA

Just the standard ones with a round head on one end; I peened the other end flat.

[cal_warrior]

Shot the AMD-65 yesterday: it worked really well. Groups were pretty tight hand-held at 25 yds, and I could nail a beer barrel pretty consistently at 200 yds. The gun was very comfortable to shoot! I was surprised. Some other folks at the outdoor range came over and were digging the AMD and my Romy. But they thought the guns were both banned. I explained the BIY concept and the various aspects of legality and they got excited and interested.