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So, I have this AK I've been building... for about a year now. Build until I need a part, then stop. Build until I need a tool, then stop. Well, I finally have pretty much everything. Mostly.
The gun: A Chinese 5.56 barrel/bolt/carrier on an Global Trades un-drilled hybrid Euro/Chinese trunnion on an OOW 5.45 receiver?with some zippy weiger mags.
I bought some tools from maas guns because everyone on the FAL board ranted and raved about how great they were, and how great he was.
First, I ordered his trigger guard jig. And while you're at it, I say, send me one of your big-ass rivet sqeezin' bolt cutter things. I go out and stand by the mail box.
Now I consider myself to be a fairly mechanical person. I?m no machinist, by any stretch, but I?ve made a few parts here and there for my motorcycles and cars. I decide, against my better judgment, that I would read the directions before I used the tools? let me just go to his web sight and? hmm, not there, let me look in the box again? no, well let me search the ?build it yourself? directory, no, nothing there? Oh well, I tried. It?s not rocket science, right?
I got the package, and with great delight, opened it up. The trigger guard jig looked like shit. Not only did it look like shit, the four dimples where the rivets seat were not square, i.e., if the rivets on the left were seated in the jig, the ones on the right were ALMOST in the jig. Of course, I had to try it, and my rivets looked like bubble gum stuck to the bottom of a desk. Oh yeah, not only were the dimples in the jig not square, they weren't shaped like rivets. It appeared to have dimples, at one point, that were mostly rivet shaped, but then someone came along with 450 horse power nitro-injected dremel tool and 'cleaned them up' until they didn't resemble dimples at all. So of course I have to drill out my rivets, and replace them, and ding up my trigger guard in the process. That made me happy.
And, of course, I checked out the rivet squeezer, too. Now, if you haven't seen his squeezer, it's a little different than most. The rivet head buck is a separate piece from the bolt cutter jaws. Everything looked Ok, except the buck. When I set a rivet head in it, the dimple in the buck was smaller than the rivet head. I had to assume this would make big-ass smileys on my rivets.
I emailed Jerry, and he told me that the buck will be fine, just use it, and it won't make smileys. Ok, and about that trigger guard jig... he tells me how sorry he is, a bad batch got out, and he'll send me a new one, as soon as I send him the old one. What? Surely it would cost more in postage than the steel is worth, and this thing is certainly not going to build any AKs.
As some of you may know, Jerry had a stroke at this point. I really do feel for him and his family, my father had a stroke not too long ago (and he still won?t quit working).
Anticipating that I would never hear from anyone again if I didn?t speak up, I emailed his son (with condolences, as well as a reminder that I had a jig coming), who graciously accepted my word that Jerry was going to send me another, and sent me another trigger guard jig.
Problem solved? or not. On this jig, the dimple for the rear trigger guard rivet is too small, and it smileys the rivet (not a show stopper at this point, because it will be concealed beneath the grip); but it has another issue. The dimple for the rear trigger guard rivet is raised above the level of the four magazine catch rivets?so much so that when you attempt to press them, if you pressed the rear rivet first (and I did), that you can not press all four rivets evenly at the same time.
Now I have two rivet jigs that suck. But I don?t let that stop me. I keep building.
Next, I bust out the rivet tool, and proceed to smiley the fuck out of every rivet I touch, which is a bummer, because I?m not doing it on a test piece, I?m doing it on my rifle. Plus, you don?t need three hands to press a rivet with this rivet squeezer, but it might make it possible. The handles are so far apart when I begin the squeeze, I have no leverage at all?and it?s awkward to try to hold both handles, apply pressure, hold the ?buck? on the rivet, keep the tool centered on the buck, and the anvil squishing the correct part of the rivet. Just to challenge me even more, it seems, the ?anvil? jaw did not fit well into the mag well to squish the rear trunnion rivet. The only way I could even get the tool on it was to come in low from the rear, with the tool angled over the trigger guard. Oh, and I dicked with the adjustments on the bolt cutters, which helped very little. They say there is a ?learning curve? on these tools, but I can?t figure out how ?learning? will make the rivet heads fit in the buck and not have smileys on them.
So, please, somebody tell me.
How do you use a maas guns bolt cutter rivet squisher?
I turned up the regulator on my compressor to about 125 psi, and my $10 dollar Harbor Freight air hammer rivet gun STILL won?t make a decent rivet head. I?ve played with the regulator on the gun, too. Should I have bought the $12 dollar air hammer? I?m bucking against a piece of steel on the concrete floor. What the fuck am I doing wrong?
Is it wrong for me to expect to NOT have to modify the tools to get them to work?
For those of you that make your own tools, what size ball end mill do you use to make dimples for rivet squeezers and bucks, and how deep do you cut them?
If you don?t use a ball end mill, what do you use?
Is this thinly veiled review in the wrong forum?
Am I a dick?
I will post pics in the next day or two, when I mellow out.
The gun: A Chinese 5.56 barrel/bolt/carrier on an Global Trades un-drilled hybrid Euro/Chinese trunnion on an OOW 5.45 receiver?with some zippy weiger mags.
I bought some tools from maas guns because everyone on the FAL board ranted and raved about how great they were, and how great he was.
First, I ordered his trigger guard jig. And while you're at it, I say, send me one of your big-ass rivet sqeezin' bolt cutter things. I go out and stand by the mail box.
Now I consider myself to be a fairly mechanical person. I?m no machinist, by any stretch, but I?ve made a few parts here and there for my motorcycles and cars. I decide, against my better judgment, that I would read the directions before I used the tools? let me just go to his web sight and? hmm, not there, let me look in the box again? no, well let me search the ?build it yourself? directory, no, nothing there? Oh well, I tried. It?s not rocket science, right?
I got the package, and with great delight, opened it up. The trigger guard jig looked like shit. Not only did it look like shit, the four dimples where the rivets seat were not square, i.e., if the rivets on the left were seated in the jig, the ones on the right were ALMOST in the jig. Of course, I had to try it, and my rivets looked like bubble gum stuck to the bottom of a desk. Oh yeah, not only were the dimples in the jig not square, they weren't shaped like rivets. It appeared to have dimples, at one point, that were mostly rivet shaped, but then someone came along with 450 horse power nitro-injected dremel tool and 'cleaned them up' until they didn't resemble dimples at all. So of course I have to drill out my rivets, and replace them, and ding up my trigger guard in the process. That made me happy.
And, of course, I checked out the rivet squeezer, too. Now, if you haven't seen his squeezer, it's a little different than most. The rivet head buck is a separate piece from the bolt cutter jaws. Everything looked Ok, except the buck. When I set a rivet head in it, the dimple in the buck was smaller than the rivet head. I had to assume this would make big-ass smileys on my rivets.
I emailed Jerry, and he told me that the buck will be fine, just use it, and it won't make smileys. Ok, and about that trigger guard jig... he tells me how sorry he is, a bad batch got out, and he'll send me a new one, as soon as I send him the old one. What? Surely it would cost more in postage than the steel is worth, and this thing is certainly not going to build any AKs.
As some of you may know, Jerry had a stroke at this point. I really do feel for him and his family, my father had a stroke not too long ago (and he still won?t quit working).
Anticipating that I would never hear from anyone again if I didn?t speak up, I emailed his son (with condolences, as well as a reminder that I had a jig coming), who graciously accepted my word that Jerry was going to send me another, and sent me another trigger guard jig.
Problem solved? or not. On this jig, the dimple for the rear trigger guard rivet is too small, and it smileys the rivet (not a show stopper at this point, because it will be concealed beneath the grip); but it has another issue. The dimple for the rear trigger guard rivet is raised above the level of the four magazine catch rivets?so much so that when you attempt to press them, if you pressed the rear rivet first (and I did), that you can not press all four rivets evenly at the same time.
Now I have two rivet jigs that suck. But I don?t let that stop me. I keep building.
Next, I bust out the rivet tool, and proceed to smiley the fuck out of every rivet I touch, which is a bummer, because I?m not doing it on a test piece, I?m doing it on my rifle. Plus, you don?t need three hands to press a rivet with this rivet squeezer, but it might make it possible. The handles are so far apart when I begin the squeeze, I have no leverage at all?and it?s awkward to try to hold both handles, apply pressure, hold the ?buck? on the rivet, keep the tool centered on the buck, and the anvil squishing the correct part of the rivet. Just to challenge me even more, it seems, the ?anvil? jaw did not fit well into the mag well to squish the rear trunnion rivet. The only way I could even get the tool on it was to come in low from the rear, with the tool angled over the trigger guard. Oh, and I dicked with the adjustments on the bolt cutters, which helped very little. They say there is a ?learning curve? on these tools, but I can?t figure out how ?learning? will make the rivet heads fit in the buck and not have smileys on them.
So, please, somebody tell me.
How do you use a maas guns bolt cutter rivet squisher?
I turned up the regulator on my compressor to about 125 psi, and my $10 dollar Harbor Freight air hammer rivet gun STILL won?t make a decent rivet head. I?ve played with the regulator on the gun, too. Should I have bought the $12 dollar air hammer? I?m bucking against a piece of steel on the concrete floor. What the fuck am I doing wrong?
Is it wrong for me to expect to NOT have to modify the tools to get them to work?
For those of you that make your own tools, what size ball end mill do you use to make dimples for rivet squeezers and bucks, and how deep do you cut them?
If you don?t use a ball end mill, what do you use?
Is this thinly veiled review in the wrong forum?
Am I a dick?
I will post pics in the next day or two, when I mellow out.
