Naughty Vicar
Regular
- Location
- Central Ontario
After I put the Archangel stock on my SKS, I wanted a way to keep the cleaning rod in its place along the barrel. If you put a little upward pressure on the rod it locks the end of it in the 4 little tangs located under the front sight. That's what the cam on the bayonet does when it's folded up. This modification is what I ended up doing. It's fairly easy, will only cost $10-15 at your local home-improvement store (depending what tools you already have) and will take a couple of hours. Add some good background music and some Southern Comfort and you have yourself a great afternoon.
First, wrap some masking tape on the barrel where you are going to be working so minor slips with the file or hacksaw won't damage the rifle. Remove the bayonet lugs with a hacksaw, leaving about 1/8”. I tried using an angle grinder with a cutting blade, but I found that the metal was heating up and I didn't want to change the temper of the metal. The hacksaw was faster anyhow.
Then do a rough shaping with an angle grinder, rounding off the corners. Go slow and easy with this because the grinder takes off material very quickly and can be difficult to control. I ended up taking a big chunk out of the front when the grinder skipped on me. Finesse is the key word here. If you don't have a grinder, you could do this step with a file, it's just going to take a little longer.
Finish off the shaping with a file, then polish it up somewhat with some 600 grit sandpaper. I didn't go nuts with the final finishing because the rest of the SKS is full of machine marks anyways.
Mark the centre of the flat face and drill a 5/32” hole down through. I used a drill press but if you don't have access to one you could do it with a hand-held drill, just keep the bit as perpendicular to the face as possible and try not to wobble around. Go slow and use lots of oil.
Tap the hole – I used a #10-32 TPI tap because the metal isn't overly thick and I wanted as many threads as possible. By the way, don't borrow someone else's tap for this because in order to get far enough down for the threads to be cut properly, I had to grind off the non-cutting tip of the tap. It's a tight space. That's why I used an $8.00 CT special. Use a few drops of oil and again, take your time keeping the tap as perpendicular as possible.
Clean everything off, degrease with 99% rubbing alcohol and cold blue it up. I used B-C Perma-Blue and put on 4 applications following the instructions of the bottle. The only thing I did differently was to heat up the metal with a hairdryer, set on high, before every application. After, I put a good coating of gun oil on the re-blued area, let it sit overnight then wiped it off. I managed to get a nice rich black out of it, and considering I've never blued anything before I was quite impressed.
Screw in a 10-32x1/4” set-screw and you're good to go. The cleaning rod doesn't need much pressure put on it, just enough to lock it in the tangs. You don't really need an Alan key to loosen it off, there is still enough sticking out that you can do it with your fingers, but a key is handy anyways.
Note: One concern I have is whether or not the constant vibration of shooting is going to loosen off the screw as it's not the tightest. Maybe some temporary Lock-Tite might remedy this. I'll test fire it this weekend and let you know.
First, wrap some masking tape on the barrel where you are going to be working so minor slips with the file or hacksaw won't damage the rifle. Remove the bayonet lugs with a hacksaw, leaving about 1/8”. I tried using an angle grinder with a cutting blade, but I found that the metal was heating up and I didn't want to change the temper of the metal. The hacksaw was faster anyhow.
Then do a rough shaping with an angle grinder, rounding off the corners. Go slow and easy with this because the grinder takes off material very quickly and can be difficult to control. I ended up taking a big chunk out of the front when the grinder skipped on me. Finesse is the key word here. If you don't have a grinder, you could do this step with a file, it's just going to take a little longer.
Finish off the shaping with a file, then polish it up somewhat with some 600 grit sandpaper. I didn't go nuts with the final finishing because the rest of the SKS is full of machine marks anyways.
Mark the centre of the flat face and drill a 5/32” hole down through. I used a drill press but if you don't have access to one you could do it with a hand-held drill, just keep the bit as perpendicular to the face as possible and try not to wobble around. Go slow and use lots of oil.
Tap the hole – I used a #10-32 TPI tap because the metal isn't overly thick and I wanted as many threads as possible. By the way, don't borrow someone else's tap for this because in order to get far enough down for the threads to be cut properly, I had to grind off the non-cutting tip of the tap. It's a tight space. That's why I used an $8.00 CT special. Use a few drops of oil and again, take your time keeping the tap as perpendicular as possible.
Clean everything off, degrease with 99% rubbing alcohol and cold blue it up. I used B-C Perma-Blue and put on 4 applications following the instructions of the bottle. The only thing I did differently was to heat up the metal with a hairdryer, set on high, before every application. After, I put a good coating of gun oil on the re-blued area, let it sit overnight then wiped it off. I managed to get a nice rich black out of it, and considering I've never blued anything before I was quite impressed.
Screw in a 10-32x1/4” set-screw and you're good to go. The cleaning rod doesn't need much pressure put on it, just enough to lock it in the tangs. You don't really need an Alan key to loosen it off, there is still enough sticking out that you can do it with your fingers, but a key is handy anyways.
Note: One concern I have is whether or not the constant vibration of shooting is going to loosen off the screw as it's not the tightest. Maybe some temporary Lock-Tite might remedy this. I'll test fire it this weekend and let you know.
Hi, my name is svt1940 and i am a purist 
