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[Marcus von W.]

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[The Paper Pimp]

I bought a complete receiver from TDK and it'll arrive at my FFL on Tuesday, it's going on my Polish AKM kit and Polish barrel but I'm sending the kit out to a professional smith

[AKSOG]

Good luck. I have heard nothing but horror stories trying to build on them. Even professional places like Two Rivers Arms won't touch them anymore.

[The Paper Pimp]

Good luck. I have heard nothing but horror stories trying to build on them. Even professional places like Two Rivers Arms won't touch them anymore.

i spoke with mario @ PoHF and he said the receivers had something to do with the inside corners not having the proper radius but i already bought mine
mine has the period-correct 3 spot welds (kit is from 1969) over the mag dimple and custom SNs if it turns out to be crapola then i'll have to suck it up and get an NDS 1 EZ

[kcstott]

I have a few AKM build projects that I want to put together using the heat-treated Polish 80% receivers from Cameron "Dark Knight" Childers.

These are Soviet fixed stock AKM's and Polish underfolders.

I want my rifles to have genuine European made receivers, not U.S. made, so I DO NOT want to use something like and NDS receiver or AK Builder flat.

Anyone out there in the Southern California area who works with these receivers I can hire to help me through these builds?

I'm in Southwest Riverside County.

Your polish 80% will be US made once you complete it. You are the manufacturer and it will still count as a US part on your 922r list.
That said I've done a few and even with fixturing and proper carbide tooling they are a pain. Tough on tooling and I don't work on them. Takes way to long to get them to the point where a AK builder flat will be in five minutes of bending.

I've never understood this idea that somehow you are going to build a more authentic AK because you used imported parts. It's a parts gun period. Even numbers matching is a parts gun. It's slightly better as you know every thing will work together but it's still a parts gun.

That said there are templates on line you can lay everything out with a set of calipers and a scribe. if you need I can send you a PDF of the receiver lay out. But I'm not touching those things anymore. if you want to ruin your tools go for it.
Now keep in mind they did at one point sell 80% that were not yet heat treated. Much easier on your tools.

Also it's not just the holes. The top rails on these are close but not complete. I spent a lot of time adjusting these until they were correct.

[valley82]

Don't know of anyone that works with those receivers. Good luck with them. Might try 69mach1-member here.

[AKSOG]

Go read the Maddi Group buy thread in the TRA sub forum at the AKfourm.

I haven't heard anything bad about them here, on AK Files, or on The AK Forum, other than there is some work involved in finishing them. Several people there and here have built nice rifles using these receivers and are happy with them.

Looking at them, I see that the holes need drilling (with a good drill press and something like cobalt drill bits and the AK-Builder drilling jig, which I have, this is said to be not difficult) and areas like the top rails need some trimming.

I've noticed that with a fixed stock rear trunnion in place it is tighter than on my WASR or the rear receiver segment that came with my Soviet kit and the part of the stock that goes in the receiver will need a little sanding down to fit. But the various front and rear trunnions I have around here - Polish, Romanian, Russian, and Egyptian, all fit nicely in these receivers.

The angle the top rail is bent at seems very slightly differend than on my original receivers and receiver sections, but like I noted the trunnions fit in just fine and although very tight the bolt carrier seems to fit in them just fine also.

So mostly, from what I understand, there is just a little extra time and work involved in finishing these up compared to using something like an NDS receiver or AKB flat. And realizing that time and work = money/cost, I have no problem with this. I am very specific about what I want with my upcoming builds - like these Polish receivers, and the receivers parked and then painted to match the existing original finish of the kit - and willing to pay for whatever it takes to do this and take whatever time is needed.

I would also send these kits out to an experienced AK smith and have them built, but like I stated above I really don't want any extra writing on the receivers if I don't have to have it.

[nicoroshi]

Your polish 80% will be US made once you complete it. You are the manufacturer and it will still count as a US part on your 922r list.
That said I've done a few and even with fixturing and proper carbide tooling they are a pain. Tough on tooling and I don't work on them. Takes way to long to get them to the point where a AK builder flat will be in five minutes of bending.

I've never understood this idea that somehow you are going to build a more authentic AK because you used imported parts. It's a parts gun period. Even numbers matching is a parts gun. It's slightly better as you know every thing will work together but it's still a parts gun.

That said there are templates on line you can lay everything out with a set of calipers and a scribe. if you need I can send you a PDF of the receiver lay out. But I'm not touching those things anymore. if you want to ruin your tools go for it.
Now keep in mind they did at one point sell 80% that were not yet heat treated. Much easier on your tools.

Also it's not just the holes. The top rails on these are close but not complete. I spent a lot of time adjusting these until they were correct.

KC nailed it.
Wanna see what came into my shop on a kit that was built then cut apart, and sold (and yes it's from one of the Polish blanks).
See if you can pick out everything that went wrong with this build.
I keep this around as a teaching aide. Having a visual guide helps builders understand things better.


Picture 1


Picture 2


Picture 3


Picture 4




What I can tell by looking at this:
______________________________
Pic 1:
Rails plug welded by someone who doesn't know how to weld.
Hammer axis pin hole in wrong location, and done with a drill bit (Hole not round) most likely due to the hardened steel of the receiver, and wander of the quill/ drill bit.
Wong rivet used for center support, and hammered in.

Pic 2:
Front trunnion was set too far back, and a TON of grinding on the back of the mag well/ selector stop was done to get a magazine to fit.
Center support holes are not in line (again probably due to the drill bit wandering on the hardened steel).
Top rails were hammered down in an attempt to lower height of carrier (probably due to rail height shown in pic # 4)

Pic 3:
Rails were installed before trigger guard and rivets are poorly crushed due to the hammer axis pin dimple of the right side rail being in the way of obtaining a proper crush.
Again you can see the incorrect location of the hammer axis pin hole.

Pic 4:
Rails were welded in too low (15/64" drill bit in picture).
Ejector was not heat treated properly (notice the peen on the tip).

Yes this gun was fired but my guess is it was a jam-o-matic.

Have fun with the Polish heat treated 80% blanks bro.
I won't touch them. They can be built correctly but require quite a bit of skill, and the proper tooling to do so.

[Gunsmith Dan]

OK so if I understand the OP he wants:

Heat Treated Polish style

AK blank "80%" receiver, not a flat

wants one made by a European company

wants one without import markings


correct me if I am wrong but unless someone smuggled it into the U.S. in their luggage not gonna find one fitting those requirements. Unless there is a European company that has a factory here in the U.S. making them that I do not know about.

[AKSOG]

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[kcstott]

And because it's not a firearm no import marks are required.

[The Paper Pimp]

What kind of kit are you having built - fixed stock or underfolder? Who are you going to have assemble it for you?

fixed stock, my particular kit is in 99.99% condition.

Chris Butler

[jamesob]

I built one and used a akbuilder flat as my template. It's fairly straight forward, the tricky part is the selector hole.

[ar15barrels]

It seems like annealing the receiver, doing all the fitting and then re-heat treating it would be the way to go...
Or EDM sink all the holes so you don't have to deal with hole location issues.

[The Paper Pimp]

building on the heat treated Polish receivers is doable, but by an experienced and professional gunsmith. both OP and I are going to send our work out to professional smiths, not garage builders.