I dropped my sks gas piston, now it doesn't fit!!

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Skeet Mcgee

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Hi all. I bought my first sks and was cleaning it when I let the gas piston pop out and fall to the ground. It made a very slight dent on the corner/face of the piston where it normally contacts the gas block. it won't slide down the gas tube now that it is slightly bulged outward from the dent. It is a very slight dent which makes me feel like I could polish it out or sand it. Am I playing with fire if I try that? I had no idea the tolerances were so tight.


 
This ^

Get a small jeweller's or gunsmith's peen of the type used for displacing burred screw slot material back into place. Tap it back and then smooth with fine emery cloth wrapped around a flat mill file.
 
As a machinist I hate to say this, but I bet if you rubbed the deformed metal against the side walk until the bump you made was flat, it'll work just fine lol. it's an SKS, it's a tough gun. sand off the protruding material until it slides into the tube nice and I'm sure it'll work great.
 
Love taps with a smooth faced hammer preferably in the 4-6 ounce range. It's EASY just take your time, the material is still there why remove it?
 
I agree.... swage it back and smooth out.

Kinda crazy it dented that easily.... you throw it off the Seattle space needle or something?
 
Yes... the tube is not hardened like the piston. Just lay tue piston head flat on a sturdy surface (preferably metal) and tap tap tap with a smooth face hammer.
 
It might , as others have said , lightly tap the burr out and then polish . I bought a used SKS several years back that had the same issue as yours when I bought it ( I got it ridiculously cheap because it wouldn't function properly ) It took about ten minutes to fix and has been chugging along ever since . Don't sweat this one to much , a little work and it'll be hammering the rounds out like a good commie rifle should lol
 
Peen it back as much as possible with the proper hammer. You could probably chuck it into a cordless drill and smooth it out ever so slightly with some fine emery cloth as long as you don't go too crazy.
 
I used the smooth face of a masons hammer and tapped the dent until mostly flat, then lightly sanded with 100 grit sandpaper (finest I had on hand). Seems to have worked like a charm as the piston now moves freely down the tube again.

Thanks all!
 
I'm sure some conscript in some Soviet country did the same thing at some point and didn't want to catch sh$t, id tap it out and sand or file, then burn up another 1200 rounds. This is the predecessor to the ak, made for a largely conscript army, it'll take what it'll give, one h#ll of a beating
 
if it were me... I would put it in a vice (wrapped halfway in leather or something, and not too tight)... Then I would carefully take my file to it, then sand and polish.

banging on it with a hammer on a hard surface has as much chance to deform the round piston head as the fall did IMHO Removing that small bit of metal will do NOTHING to the function, but deforming the head likely will :)

just my 2 cents

what size is it.. you got a caliper? It would be neat if you could swage it with an old bullet sizing die :)
 
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