AMD-65 Build - Flat to rifle

[Quarterbore]

This post is being set up as a place where I can share my current project... I have hundreds going on thousand plus photos of the project that I hope to crop down and turn into a webpage but taking good pics and documenting the project is taking much longer then I hoped it would...

So, I am going to share my progress here in lesser detail so visitors can see what I did and why until I can get the webpage up....

Following is a brief list of the steps I have completed and the order that I did them...

1. Disassemble AMD-65 Parts Kit

• Remove barrel from Front Trunion
• Remove rivets from Frnt trunion
• Remove rivets from rear trunion
• Disassemble and remove rivets from trigger guard assembly

2. Bent Flat to form Receiver
3. Fit receiver for:

• the front trunion,
• rear trunion and
• make opening to allow bolt/carrier to be added to receiver.

4. Installed trigger guard assembly into new receiver.
5. Set front trunion based on magazine fit to trigger guard
6. Located and drilled holes for the front trunion
7. Riveted Front Trunion in place
8. Align rails to be parallel with rail on front trunion & spot weld them in
9. Heat treat the FCG holes and ejector in the receiver.
10. Press in the barrel
11. Headspace
12. Press in Barrel Pin
13. Install Center Suport
14. Set rear trunion based on requirement for top cover to fit properly (based off the rear sight on the barrel)
15. Drill and cut rear of receiver for AMD-65 rear trunion.
16 SKIPPED THIS STEP!!! Try to install the rear sling swivel
(NOTE: I may skip step 14 on this build as I only have one rear sling swivel and I want to build a SBR from my last AMD-65 kit and that kit I want to make as correct as I can...)
17. Rivet the rear tunion in place
18. SilverSolder extended muzle break onto the AMD-65 barrel

Here is where I am... Note the following are my Next Steps (order may change as I work on this but I think this is the order it needs to be done. My order is based on my experience building on OOW receivers where things were just a litle oversized and I learned that sometimes the order does matter for a good and proper fit!

19. Assemble rear stock assembly
20. Test Fire (any test dumies out there )
21. Sand, file, or buff out as many "oops" marks as possible
22. Durakote finish in a flat black

Then, next build is going to be a Romanian AKM "G" series" or perhaps a cut-a-way AKM...

[Quarterbore]

Reserved Post for Project

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Reserved Post for Project 2

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Reserved Post for Project 3

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Reserved Post for Project 4

[Quarterbore]

Thoughts for the day...

Tonight after work I heat treated the FCG holes and the ejector. This went smoothly and I performed the first step by getting the holes or ejector red hot and maintained a nice bright cherry red for 45-seconds to ensure that all the metal was at temperature before dropping it imediately into a bucket of cool water. After this I took the receiver to the shop and scrubbed the scum off the receiver with a green scrub pad like you would use to do pots and pans.

I next tempered the steel to a blue color and I tried to get this to color for about five seconds before moving to the next hole. All holes were done one after another with the ejector last. I had trouble seeing the color change on the ejector and I was afraid to over heat it so as soon as I started to see blue I stopped. The receiver was allowed to cool at room temperature for a couple hours (mainly because I needed to spend some time with the rest of the family... not that it took hours to cool!).

Later I went back to the basement and learned how to use my Xebec barrel press. After reading the directions several times and playing with all the pieces I managed to get to work and pressed the barrel of my AMD-65 back into the trunion. I needed to make some minor adjustments to the 3-point-pressing adapter as the long arm of the unit hit the flange that is attached to the barrel. After a little scratching my head I dug out the trusty dremmel and cut a notch in my tool and the barrel was in.

Well, I learned a lesson at that point... I checked the headspace on the AMD-65 and the bolt would not close on my Go Gauge. This meant it was time to swap the press around and press out the barrel a little to correct the headspace issue. Well, as luck would have it the barrel must have liked where it was as when reversing the movement the press built up pressure and the barrel "jumped" in the trunion some amount that was... well... too much! That was indicated by the bolt not being able to close on the Go Gauge. Well, by this time I was tired but I was not going to make that mistake again so I slowely pressed the barrel back in until I could see the barrel move an ever so tiney amount and I checked the headspace. I needed to do this quite a bit until I found a point where the bolt closed on the Go Gauge with modest pressure from a pointer finger while the Bolt could not be closed on the No-Go gauge with much more force... I spent at least an hour messing with this barrel to get the headspace to work out...

When done, I have a slight bur inside the barrel pin hole that I chased out with a small and fine tooth file and I pressed in the barrel pin. Lastly for today I took the furnature for the front end of the AMD-65 and attached it so that at long last my project can start looking like what it is supposed to...

Attached is an image...

I just checked and for this build I have taken 877 photos so far... One of these days I will get them organized so I can share but I need to get this build done too!