What I have been doing for the AK threads is I made a jig to replace the buttstock, put that jig in my 4 jaw with the rifle in the jig, dial in my jig and the end of the barrel in a steady rest, set up my lathe to do metric and cut my threads....I'm still preparing for doing the work. Here is what I'm starting with...
Your basic Mak90, nothing spectacular there, still a fun gun though.
As you can (sorta) see, the old compensator is pinned on to the barrel. Have I mentioned I really dislike this setup?
Here's where I am still "preparing". I received the die and die holder from Global. The die itself is well made (from Poland I believe) but the holder itself is a cheap piece of Chinese junk. It'll get the job done though, well, with bit of help.
I was a little concerned with the die and how it would match up to the new compensator (brand new untested stuff) but I really had no way to check out a left-handed 14m-1 (metric) set of threads. The die would not fit on the threaded pilot shaft that I am planning to use so I wanted to figure out what was going on before I tried to thread the barrel. What I finally ended up doing is going to the hardware store and buying a 14m-2 bolt. I cut the threaded end of the bolt off with a hacksaw and proceeded to use the die to cut some threads on the remaining bolt. It cut some very nice threads but with one little unacceptable problem, the threads are a slightly smaller diameter than the compensator by enough to make the fit feel kind of "sloppy". The small diameter combined with the "parkerizing" on the "pilot" kept the die from threading on to the pilot. Once I was sure the die was okay I ran the pilot through it to clean it up before use.
I know that I could use some different agents to "snug up" the threads but I'd rather have my threads a bit closer to "perfect". That brings me to an issue with the die holder, it is actually a few thousandths too small to expand the die to where I want it. I am using some scotchbrite to remove the paint on the inside of it to hopefully open it up enough. If that doesn't do the trick I may have to put it on the lathe to open it up even more.
Well, that's where I'm at for now. Oh, still trying to find/decide on what I want to do with the stock. It should be something that looks "black ops" but most everything I see on the market looks like cheap plastic junk. Keep looking I guess.
-Ron
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