philbert001
Expert
A buddy of mine brought me a new project the other day and I thought I'd share!
It's a ban era Romanian WUM-1 Thumbhole AK, with the crescent cut receiver. As the pics show, someone appears to have attempted to convert the thumbhole stock to a pistol grip stock, apparently by chewing on it! I was going to try to replace the thumbhole stock with an unmolested one, but they aren't easy to find, so we decided to go back to what an AK is SUPPOSED to look like!
It does have the detent on the slant cut muzzle brake, which I'm told is desirable. (I'm not an AK guy, and this is the first one I've tinkered with)
I started by making a cardboard template, and confirming where the bends will be.
Next, I tucked the template inside the receiver, leveled the bottom of the template to the bottom of the receiver, traced the crescent cuts, and trimmed it to fit.
Next, I traced my template to a piece of hardened sheet metal. My 2 buddies with WAY more AK knowledge than me insisted that any old sheet metal would do, but mild steel is pretty soft, and as a body and paint guy, I just don't trust it in a firearm! If mild would have been fine, then I made it stronger than needed. No harm in that!
Next, I trimmed it out, leaving it slightly oversized, to allow trimming, for a perfect fit, then using my benchvice and a body hammer, I put the appropriate bends in it.
Then, I put it in place, held level to the receiver with a welding magnet, and got it fitted nice and tight to the crescent cuts. I left the back oversized, so I could square that part up after I weld it in.
You'll notice in these next few pics, that the metal I'm using is a bit thicker than the receiver metal, and that it sticks out a touch. The bends are made flush to the inside walls of the receiver. My idea being that when I weld it in, I can angle my torch more toward the thicker piece, allowing me to put more heat to it, without blowing holes in anything!
At this point, I was ready to burn it in, but found that my argon bottle was empty!
Welding will have to wait until I get into town, and can get a full bottle!
As to not kill momentum, I disassembled the rifle as much as I could, and stripped the 7 coats of krylon from the rifle and it's components, in my sandblast cabinet.
That is where I'm at, till I run into town probably Friday, to pick up more argon. I'll update after I get it burned in, ground level, and square cut the back of the receiver. Then, it'll be time for a nice ultra flat black duracoat job, and a standard set of furniture! I hope this thing doesn't give me an AK bug too! I already have the AR bug and the bolt action bug and the 1911 bug, and the 10/22 bug and the... (You get the idea!)
If any AK experts see anything I'm doing as a safety hazard, please speak up! As I said before, this is the first AK I've tinkered with! I try to do everything overkill, so my parts are stronger than any of the factory parts, but you never know! They say you can repair an AK with tractor parts. If a chunk of a tractor fender is good enough for a receiver fix, I'm sure I'm safe here!
It's a ban era Romanian WUM-1 Thumbhole AK, with the crescent cut receiver. As the pics show, someone appears to have attempted to convert the thumbhole stock to a pistol grip stock, apparently by chewing on it! I was going to try to replace the thumbhole stock with an unmolested one, but they aren't easy to find, so we decided to go back to what an AK is SUPPOSED to look like!
It does have the detent on the slant cut muzzle brake, which I'm told is desirable. (I'm not an AK guy, and this is the first one I've tinkered with)
I started by making a cardboard template, and confirming where the bends will be.
Next, I tucked the template inside the receiver, leveled the bottom of the template to the bottom of the receiver, traced the crescent cuts, and trimmed it to fit.
Next, I traced my template to a piece of hardened sheet metal. My 2 buddies with WAY more AK knowledge than me insisted that any old sheet metal would do, but mild steel is pretty soft, and as a body and paint guy, I just don't trust it in a firearm! If mild would have been fine, then I made it stronger than needed. No harm in that!
Next, I trimmed it out, leaving it slightly oversized, to allow trimming, for a perfect fit, then using my benchvice and a body hammer, I put the appropriate bends in it.
Then, I put it in place, held level to the receiver with a welding magnet, and got it fitted nice and tight to the crescent cuts. I left the back oversized, so I could square that part up after I weld it in.
You'll notice in these next few pics, that the metal I'm using is a bit thicker than the receiver metal, and that it sticks out a touch. The bends are made flush to the inside walls of the receiver. My idea being that when I weld it in, I can angle my torch more toward the thicker piece, allowing me to put more heat to it, without blowing holes in anything!
At this point, I was ready to burn it in, but found that my argon bottle was empty!
Welding will have to wait until I get into town, and can get a full bottle!As to not kill momentum, I disassembled the rifle as much as I could, and stripped the 7 coats of krylon from the rifle and it's components, in my sandblast cabinet.
That is where I'm at, till I run into town probably Friday, to pick up more argon. I'll update after I get it burned in, ground level, and square cut the back of the receiver. Then, it'll be time for a nice ultra flat black duracoat job, and a standard set of furniture! I hope this thing doesn't give me an AK bug too! I already have the AR bug and the bolt action bug and the 1911 bug, and the 10/22 bug and the... (You get the idea!)
If any AK experts see anything I'm doing as a safety hazard, please speak up! As I said before, this is the first AK I've tinkered with! I try to do everything overkill, so my parts are stronger than any of the factory parts, but you never know! They say you can repair an AK with tractor parts. If a chunk of a tractor fender is good enough for a receiver fix, I'm sure I'm safe here!
