Bubbatime...the story continues, post #20

[supernova]

So I got bored the other night and decided to head to the garage and mod stuff. I had recently thrown my SKS-D in an ATI side folding stock and decided I wanted a blued bolt carrier with a hook style cocking handle. So I put a piece of 3/8" flat bar in the vice and started grinding out a finger groove, then cut it out with a zipcut. I cut the old cocking handle off the bolt carrier and ground it down smooth, then held the new handle up to it, made a couple marks and did some more shaping before beveling the mating edge and welding it on. After some grinding with a 36 grit flapper and a zipcut for the tight areas it looked like this:

After some more shaping and smoothing with 80 grit sandpaper I cleaned it up and put it back in the rifle.

And a side by side comparison with my Factory 306 Norc bolt after some 150 grit sanding. After these pics I headed back to the shop and went 220, 320, 400, 600 and 800 grit to prepare for bluing.

Sorry bout the crappy pics, my phone is no Nikon. But anyways, thats where it sits now. Hopefully the bluing goes well, it will be my second time bluing steel I did have the rifle out yesterday for some shooting and the new handle works great, I definetely prefer it over the old round knob. So what do you guys think? Any input would be appreciated

 

[Curtton]

i've seen a few SKS cocking handle mods before and i must say yours is the best .

heres mine , an albanian carrier on my SKS-D .

 

[supernova]

Thanks Curtton, I appreciate the kind words.

 

[G37]

I agree, throw it under a buffing wheel for a final polish and it'll look superb.

 

[deagle2008]

wow nice work i was thinking about finding an albanian bold cary for my russian but now i saw yours and i wounder how much you charge to make another one for me?

 

[Curtton]

heres a better pic of albanian cocking handle by a confused seller on gunbroker.com .

http://ww w.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=179750869

 

[knuckledusterbook]

Great job! I like it!

 

[supernova]

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. After running 1000 grit over it last night I contemplated just polishing it, it looked like a round mirror. But I went ahead with the blueing today in keeping with the original plan. I think I put like 5 or 6 good coats on and now its coated with oil but still has that same discoloration that is produced when rapidly heating steel. I still need to polish and re-oil it in a few hours so I'll have to wait and see how it turns out.

 

[Exoce†]

Looks badass. Nice work.

 

[NeitArms]

Looks nice, good job.

 

[supernova]

Finished! for now...

Well I got the blueing finished up, polish and re-oiling took alot of the discoloration and unevenness out. Its not as deep and shiny as I had hoped but what the heck, it matches the rifles blueing nicely. I had decided not to blue inside the reciever channels but spilled some blueing in there oh well, not bad for a first try, I'm happy. And now some more pics

The heavy coat of oil adds alot of gloss, but when dry the blueing matches the factory blueing on the SKS. This project turned out better than I had hoped, its everything I had wanted and I can live with the imperfections. Mission accomplished

 

[peter2772000]

Beautiful! Great job, bud!

 

[Satain]

Out Standing Job!
Derka, Derka, Defiantly Aproved!

 

[supernova]

Haha thanks guys, I appreciate it

 

[Curtton]

i can hear the tacticool boys wondering " can he put one on the left side?".

 

[supernova]

i can hear the tacticool boys wondering " can he put one on the left side?".

I wanted to, but its in a spot that would be digging into my side when carrying with the sling. Otherwise I would have

 

[saskcop]

That looks absolutely great!! Good job.

 

[collector67]

That's decent work-sure looks like an Albanian cocking piece!

 

[lone-wolf]

Looks good. I like the bluing.

 

[supernova]

So I got bored again and this time I decided to do something about the finicky 5 rd. AK mags that came with my SKS-D. Theyre just too short to really grasp during mag changes, But I just cant justify spending the crazy amount that full length AK mags go for just to have 25 rds of air to grasp. Ok, they look badass too but still. First I considered strapping 2 together with a side by side coupler, but the increase in width was uncomfortable, and it didnt gain much length. I couldnt find any type of AK magpuls, but I like the idea of Canam's AR mag couplers that connect 2 mags end to end. So I pulled the floorplates off 2 of my mags and had a good look and thought up a plan to weld them together end to end, they have indents stamped into them that leave enough space to reach in with a knife to push the lock button down. I couldnt find any reason why it wouldnt work, so off to the shop I went. I drilled a few holes in one and spot welded it to the other with 1/16" E6013 rod. The end result looks about the length of a 20 rd. tapco duckbill mag, but because there is 2 followers inside, it only holds 10 rds. Now I can grasp the mag properly for much smoother mag changes. Ive even got the one hand flip, lock and load down pat

After more thought, I figured a better way to do it (strength wise) would be to weld around the outside of the floorplates, then die grind a small slot on the front bottom edge of each mag body so I can reach in with a pick and lift the plate that locks the floorplate on, to dissasemble the mags for cleaning. If this one holds up I'll make some more and find a mag pouch for them. What do you guys think?