Any gunsmiths in the house?

Yeti831
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Yeti831
So normally I’d just pay the $200 to have a professional do this on a lathe, but literally EVERY “gunsmith” I’ve called within 2 hours of Ogden, UT can’t cut and crown a barrel (public service announcement - you’re not a real smith).

So basically I have an AK103 that I’m cutting the barrel down on. Going to hacksaw to length, 90 degree face it, annular cut to 14x1, 45 degree crown lightly then thread and blue.

Question:
Is there an idiot proof way of unpinning and unpressing the gas block and FSB without a press before I do this? And then pressing on a front sight gas block?

Or don’t be a cheap ass and just go spend the $130 on a 12 ton press at harbor freight?
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Yeti831
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Yeti831 10/19/2021 11:30pm
10/19/2021 11:30pm Edited Date/Time 10/20/2021 12:13am
Boomslang wrote:
https://www.theakforum.net/threads/best-way-to-remove-pins-from-sight-a…

The above may help.
Thanks, dude 👍

In all honesty, with absolutely nobody being able to work on AKs, I’ve been debating opening up my own gunsmith business and tooling up anyway.

I’ll have a very niche field that’s constantly in demand and so long as I only build customer supplied 100% receivers I won’t need an MFG license.

The more I learn to do myself, the more ideas I get 🤘
Boomslang
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Boomslang 10/19/2021 11:38pm
10/19/2021 11:38pm
Boomslang wrote:
https://www.theakforum.net/threads/best-way-to-remove-pins-from-sight-a…

The above may help.
Yeti831 wrote:
Thanks, dude 👍 In all honesty, with absolutely nobody being able to work on AKs, I’ve been debating opening up my own gunsmith business and tooling...
Thanks, dude 👍

In all honesty, with absolutely nobody being able to work on AKs, I’ve been debating opening up my own gunsmith business and tooling up anyway.

I’ll have a very niche field that’s constantly in demand and so long as I only build customer supplied 100% receivers I won’t need an MFG license.

The more I learn to do myself, the more ideas I get 🤘
If there is a market then I'd "pull the trigger" on opening a shop. You won't need much space, just the correct tooling.

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Yeti831
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Yeti831 10/19/2021 11:41pm
10/19/2021 11:41pm Edited Date/Time 10/19/2021 11:42pm
Boomslang wrote:
https://www.theakforum.net/threads/best-way-to-remove-pins-from-sight-a…

The above may help.
Yeti831 wrote:
Thanks, dude 👍 In all honesty, with absolutely nobody being able to work on AKs, I’ve been debating opening up my own gunsmith business and tooling...
Thanks, dude 👍

In all honesty, with absolutely nobody being able to work on AKs, I’ve been debating opening up my own gunsmith business and tooling up anyway.

I’ll have a very niche field that’s constantly in demand and so long as I only build customer supplied 100% receivers I won’t need an MFG license.

The more I learn to do myself, the more ideas I get 🤘
Boomslang wrote:
If there is a market then I'd "pull the trigger" on opening a shop. You won't need much space, just the correct tooling.

I mean, I figure if it doesn’t work out then I’ll at least have everything to build my rigs from the ground up 😂

Plus having a business will be a good way to write off the tooling haha
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SEEMEFIRST
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SEEMEFIRST 10/20/2021 3:45am
10/20/2021 3:45am
Learn to do triggers too.
Every shop around here has a 2 month backlog.
Yeti831
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Yeti831 10/20/2021 8:41am
10/20/2021 8:41am
SEEMEFIRST wrote:
Learn to do triggers too.
Every shop around here has a 2 month backlog.
Rifle triggers are easy (for me least), it’s just timing/spacing the barrels and gas system, AK specific tooling, etc. that I need to tool up on and learn the variants for.
Matt Fisher
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Matt Fisher 10/20/2021 3:09pm
10/20/2021 3:09pm
SEEMEFIRST wrote:
Learn to do triggers too.
Every shop around here has a 2 month backlog.
Yeti831 wrote:
Rifle triggers are easy (for me least), it’s just timing/spacing the barrels and gas system, AK specific tooling, etc. that I need to tool up on...
Rifle triggers are easy (for me least), it’s just timing/spacing the barrels and gas system, AK specific tooling, etc. that I need to tool up on and learn the variants for.
Based on many of the posts I've seen from you, I suspect it wouldn't take long and you'd know everything about the AK's timing/venting/barrels/spacing/blah/blah/blah. If your business sense is half as good as your logical thinking, then yeah, you should definitely open the shop.
1
SEEMEFIRST
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SEEMEFIRST 10/20/2021 3:52pm
10/20/2021 3:52pm
SEEMEFIRST wrote:
Learn to do triggers too.
Every shop around here has a 2 month backlog.
Yeti831 wrote:
Rifle triggers are easy (for me least), it’s just timing/spacing the barrels and gas system, AK specific tooling, etc. that I need to tool up on...
Rifle triggers are easy (for me least), it’s just timing/spacing the barrels and gas system, AK specific tooling, etc. that I need to tool up on and learn the variants for.
Well there ya go.
Triggers will keep you busy as you hone other skills.
I understand how to do them, but if I screw it up...well, I'm screwed.
I can give my rifle and a hundo to my guy, and it comes back how I wanted it, or he works on it until it is.

I don't have a problem smoothing action, but I don't mess with pull weight. I don't have the instruments, and don't do enough to justify getting any.
Yeti831
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Yeti831 10/22/2021 10:38pm
10/22/2021 10:38pm Edited Date/Time 10/22/2021 11:38pm
SEEMEFIRST wrote:
Learn to do triggers too.
Every shop around here has a 2 month backlog.
Yeti831 wrote:
Rifle triggers are easy (for me least), it’s just timing/spacing the barrels and gas system, AK specific tooling, etc. that I need to tool up on...
Rifle triggers are easy (for me least), it’s just timing/spacing the barrels and gas system, AK specific tooling, etc. that I need to tool up on and learn the variants for.
Matt Fisher wrote:
Based on many of the posts I've seen from you, I suspect it wouldn't take long and you'd know everything about the AK's timing/venting/barrels/spacing/blah/blah/blah. If your...
Based on many of the posts I've seen from you, I suspect it wouldn't take long and you'd know everything about the AK's timing/venting/barrels/spacing/blah/blah/blah. If your business sense is half as good as your logical thinking, then yeah, you should definitely open the shop.
My business sense is virtually non existent beyond knowing my abilities and how the market is (and quite honestly has been the last 5-7 years; 3-8mo times for gunsmith work have been up there with NFA transfer wait times for a long time).

But damn, that’s actually quite a compliment, thank you 👍 I’m not sure what I’ve posted that says I have great mechanical ability (imo, just fundamentals in machining/tooling practices) but I do know my limitations and am not shy to tell someone “I don’t know, let me find out.”
reded301
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reded301 10/23/2021 5:22am
10/23/2021 5:22am
Yeti831 wrote:
Rifle triggers are easy (for me least), it’s just timing/spacing the barrels and gas system, AK specific tooling, etc. that I need to tool up on...
Rifle triggers are easy (for me least), it’s just timing/spacing the barrels and gas system, AK specific tooling, etc. that I need to tool up on and learn the variants for.
Matt Fisher wrote:
Based on many of the posts I've seen from you, I suspect it wouldn't take long and you'd know everything about the AK's timing/venting/barrels/spacing/blah/blah/blah. If your...
Based on many of the posts I've seen from you, I suspect it wouldn't take long and you'd know everything about the AK's timing/venting/barrels/spacing/blah/blah/blah. If your business sense is half as good as your logical thinking, then yeah, you should definitely open the shop.
Yeti831 wrote:
My business sense is virtually non existent beyond knowing my abilities and how the market is (and quite honestly has been the last 5-7 years; 3-8mo...
My business sense is virtually non existent beyond knowing my abilities and how the market is (and quite honestly has been the last 5-7 years; 3-8mo times for gunsmith work have been up there with NFA transfer wait times for a long time).

But damn, that’s actually quite a compliment, thank you 👍 I’m not sure what I’ve posted that says I have great mechanical ability (imo, just fundamentals in machining/tooling practices) but I do know my limitations and am not shy to tell someone “I don’t know, let me find out.”
You’ve got most people beat by admitting that you “know” what you “don’t know.”
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