Hey all,  

 Thanks for all the helpfulness on my question about buying a WASR-10.  Got it Wensday and could not help myself.  As soon as I got to the City to get a Mag that I could use for a template I busted out the dremel!!   :yeah:      And since when I posted my question about the WASR everyone was like get pics   so I got em.   There is only two hard steps in converting a WASR   the first.   Making that first contact with a cutoff wheel.  Because one wrong move and you have a really ugly problem or a parts kit!  So here we go,   this pic is the reciever before the knife was busted out.  



The first thing I did was took a 5rnd Mag that I got from Carltons in Weatherford TX  and drew the width of the body onto the reciever with a pencil.  I chose a fiver cause #1  cheap  #2  alot easier to work with than a 30 and such.  This picture is prolly the hardest thing I have done so far to a gun and thats puttin a knife to it.   also you can see the wide pencil marks on the reciver.  Take a caliper and make two marks at I think 2.10 and do not cut past that    



This I found was like having Sex,   start off easy then once ya get er warmed up go to town on that ass.!!!!

this is the wide body rough cut,   the mag does not fit so you have to be easy removing mterial here and finesse it a little bit.  



Once I had the wide part of the mag done I went to town on the thin part,  




Yes at this point it is ugly but hey not all things in life are pretty This pic is almost the same but has been cleaned up a little and ready to start making the mag fit.





At this point I ran into an unexpected problem that I had to find a shitty solution for but made it through it.    the little magazine supports have to be chopped down.  BIG TIME  this is a closer pic of what I am talking about,



this is why they are a problem,  magazine fits but dont fit.  



this is how far down I had to scrap em down.   I pretty much grinded a little checked grinded checkedc till it fit snug but not tight.  





An before you know it,  actually 2 hours worth of grinding fitting checking and worrying if I had done the right thing,  


It fits!!!     :rockin:  
It fits really good.  Its loose enough that it has a little side to side play but hardly any at all.   The mag will not fall out yet but the more I lay with it and get used to my First AK47 and the way the mag goes in the more I think I like it..    






Hope this helps,  I couldnt find anything with this kinda stuff,  I could only find how to clean up century's crappy job at the same process.   I think I used a #455 or something like that Dremel reinforced cutoff disc and a dremmel.  thats all it took.   Cost of gun,   ,   Cost of MAg  , cost of cutoff wheel package of like 5   .    I think that adds up to so seems like it was worth playing with.

...........................................

What would that compliance thingy be exactly? I've got a single-stack WASR-10 in the mail right now, and I was under the impression that all the required US parts were already installed. Not a big deal, as I will keep it single-stack for a while...

Sorry supposed to be Compliance but the P sticks sometimes!!  

Go ahead and convert hell who will know but you,  I caint tell any difference in my orig parts and the comp parts.   I read somewhere that the Pistol grip WASR's already have the parts but the drogon stocked WASR's didn't   so who really know's!!  :)

My WASR 10 Came stock, accepting low and high cap mags.

Hmm would love to see a picture of that.  The low Caps dont fit in the high cap hole too well.  

Anyways  got a cool stock at the Ft. Worth Gunshow today    :)




Some of you purist out there prfer the pistol Grip and stock,  I seen this and thought it was cool.  Personal Preference I guess,  but it looks cool and is an incha nd a half longer than the stock stock, and the plastic stock they were sellin

I just got my WASR-10 Single stack from FAC and it's got a Tapco G2 trigger installed - sweet ;)

Where did you pick up the single stack for $185?

I ordered my WASR-10 Single Stack from http://www.gunsnstuff.net/ (A.K.A. FAC - Part # RI1165N). It's one of the later models with the funny serial numbers, mine is along the lines of BV-XXXX-86.

I had my FFL order from FAC on Monday, CC was charged on Wednesday and it arrived on the following monday. (From MN to NH, ~$15 shipping)

The Sights on mine are straight and it appears have many US parts already installed - including a tapco G2 trigger. :) The wood stock matches nicely but appears unfinished. Maybe I got lucky, but for $189 I think this is a GREAT deal.

If you've gotta have a hi-cap: Check for all the US parts and dremel out the mag well - You've just saved $100 and have probably done a better job.

It came from Sarco,   like 168 or something and my gunsmith guy owed me a transfer  for good to go,

The gun cost 185$ alltogether with the build, or the build cost 185$ and so did the gun?  Thanks

Nice write-up kells81!

Looking good, son . . . . .

got that puppy last week  just picked up a SAR-3 with no mags.  lol 2 AK's in two weeks and havent even tgot to shoot em yet.

I have another question, can you get a Wasr-2 or Wasr-3 and dremel those out as well?  Thanks

lol dunno about that wolf,   My sar 3 I just got appears to be high cap,   but not sure   I cannot fit a 7.62 mag in there but hopefully the weiger mags I ordered will fit or there will be a write up on that also!!!   :)


And the whole build was 184 for the gun,  20 for the compliance parts and 5 bucks for the dremel cut-off wheels.  The guy that ordered the gun gave me the handguards and the stock was like 20 bucks at the Ft worth Funshow this last weekend....     so that equals===  229  for it

I have no clue about this AK stuff but I was wondering what partsit needed to make it comply?

nice pussy

Quoted:
lol dunno about that wolf,   My sar 3 I just got appears to be high cap,   but not sure   I cannot fit a 7.62 mag in there but hopefully the weiger mags I ordered will fit or there will be a write up on that also!!!   :)


Sure hope someone tells this guy not to open up the mag well of that Sar-3 to fit a 7.62 mag. That would be a bad thing,me thinks !!

lol yeah didnt plan on it man...     tempting though cause I got to shoot it this weekend and had to feed them one at a time..    damn mags just arent getting here fast enough

Ok, this is pretty sweet.

One thing...do we have to worry about the dremeled part rusting?  What did you coat it with?  What can I coat it with?

ETA: where can I find a cheap but good dremel?  

ETAA: is there a reliability issue when converting low cap to high cap?  Does the double stack work well in the WASR-10 low cap?

Yes   I have Ran 300 through the gun since I converted it.  I used a 5 rnd chinise since thats what I found handy,  plus it was small and I could manuver it better than the thrity's I got.  I havent coated the parts with nothing yet but plan on it.  I am prolly gonna just use a laquer paint or something,  whatever I find will have to be a durable finish since the mags slide on the parts I ground down.   The century guns I have seen in the gun stores there is nothing on so I aint to worried about it.  that leaves a cheap dremel.   you can get the rechargeable one from wally world for like 30 bucks,  but I think the best deal is the power dremel with flex shaft since the flex shaft is very very usefull when doing this,  its 50-70 bucks.    then you need the reinforced cut-off wheels,   I tried the rest they wear out before you get started.  

so,  
Reliable,   Yes     so far anyways,  
Cheap,     yes,   getting more expensive every gun show I go to
parts rusting,    hmmmm   yeah prolly but keep em oiled.
just be sure to cut check, cut check,    cut your initian hole to small and use the cut-off wheel to grind the holes larger,    this keeps the lines straight I found.  

Thanks.  My FFL holder is looking for me tomorrow to see if gunsnstuff.net has any of the low caps tomorrow.  If not, then it is a sign to keep saving my money for the hi cap WASR....

My FFL holder called the company and they are out indefinately!!!!

Regardless, my FFL put one on back order for me.

I did this a while ago. it was fun. I picked up a WASR at a local gun show for about 230$. I took it home and went to town it came out pretty good. I also welded some sheet metal pieces in the mag well to act as my dimples. I already posted this picture but here it is again



anyway cool tread and great pics thanks for posting this

Bump!

Will that same procedure work with those Waffler mags???  I really like those.

Also, what are those yellow things on your vise, and where can I get some for mine.

Kells81 or anyone,

A member at TheFiringLine forum wishes to know if any modification to the feed ramp needed. I'm just posting his question for him.

Hank

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174282

Quoted: Kells81 or anyone, A member at TheFiringLine forum wishes to know if any modification to the feed ramp needed. I'm just posting his question for him. Hank http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174282

Not in the case of my rifle, an '01 WASR.  

no,  the only modification was to the bottom and the little supports on the inside.  I am sorry the pics went down,  

Did you check the trunion before you started or just pray it would accept high caps?  I have a WASR10 I picked up for $150.  Is it pretty easy to do?  The pictures make it seem like it's a piece of cake.

Quoted: Did you check the trunion before you started or just pray it would accept high caps?  I have a WASR10 I picked up for $150.  Is it pretty easy to do?  The pictures make it seem like it's a piece of cake.

It is easy as pie I personely did not check the trunion. I just layed it out and did it.

I dont remember checking the trunion,  I read up on it a bit and didnt see anything until I posted this that there was a low cap trunion.  

How do you get a hold of the high cap trunion?

Quoted: How do you get a hold of the high cap trunion?

Not sure what you mean.  The only things I needed to convert the rifle were a singlestack WASR and a dremel tool w/ reinforced cutoff discs.  Buzz through the reciever, then buzz through the welded in magazine guide rails that replace the dimples.  Cut a little, test a little with a doublestack mag.  If you go slow and careful, you'll end up with a rifle with less slop in the mag than most of the Century converted WASRs.  

No feedramp alteration.  No trunnion swap or alteration.

I have a pic of the AK's mag well that I just picked up below. I believe mine has been converted from a low to high. It works perfectly already pushed about 150 rounds through it in the bast two weeks. (more if I could get my hands on some decently priced ammo ) I will have to admit I dint even know there was a low cap AK till I read this post. Then I looked at my gun and as you can see who ever did it did a good job mag fits very well lines are very straight, and I might never of even suspected it if they would have touched up the bare metal. Since I bought mine from a gun shop I am not worried but will ask anyway. Is this allowed/legal? I do plan on refinishing the gun anyway and as noted on this tread before, nobody will probably ever find out, but just to know I guess.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d117/Hawk1911pics/akmagwell.jpg

I am new to AK's and the building of them. (so bare with me please )

Is this single stack issue related to WASR10 rifles that are "bought off the shelf / ready to fire" rifles?

Would I be correct to assume this is not a concern if building one using a 100% receiver and a parts kit?

Your help and info is appreciated, I do not want to build my rifle only to be disappointed that it cannot support a hi cap mag - and end up reworking it to MAKE it support one.

Quoted: I am new to AK's and the building of them. (so bare with me please ) Is this single stack issue related to WASR10 rifles that are "bought off the shelf  / ready to fire" rifles? Would I be correct to assume this is not a concern if building one using a 100% receiver and a parts kit? Your help and info is appreciated, I do not want to build my rifle only to be disappointed that it cannot support a hi cap mag - and end up reworking it to MAKE it support one.

Yup, you're correct.  The WASR is a built rifle coming out of Romania, with a smaller than standard mag well from the factory.  It was built that way to comply with American import and firearms regs.  Any american reciever you build on will have the standard doublestack magwell opening.  I'd be surprised to see a WASR in parts kit form too.  If I'm not mistaken I believe all the parts kits in country are all chopped up .mil rifles.

Now.. You'll see the WASRs for sale with d/s magwell, threaded muzzle, and bayonet lugs.  All of that was added on after the rifle was in the US.  IIRC they all came in with "dragunov" butthole stocks, no threads, no lug, and a s/s magwell.

Tell ya what though, the singlestack to doublestack conversion is a complete cakewalk compared to building the rifle.

Hmmm - I've seen alot of Romanian kits... but now that I look they do not specify they are WASR.

I've seen a few photos of the conversion somewhere on this site I beleive, but nothing that has really clear photos that I  would feel comfortable using as a guide. Know where there's some "newb friendly" (overly simplified) instructions or info?

Quoted: Hmmm - I've seen alot of Romanian kits... but now that I look they do not specify they are WASR. I've seen a few photos of the conversion somewhere on this site I beleive, but nothing that has really clear photos that I  would feel comfortable using as a guide. Know where there's some "newb friendly" (overly simplified) instructions or info?

The Rommie kits are ex .mil rifles, and frankly the only piece that matters as far as the mag is the reciever.. ie- the part that was cut off the kit.  The WASRs are civvie built rifles.  You won't be finding them as kits unless an individual here in the US chopped one up for some crazy reason.

The originator of this thread had some great pix up of his conversion, but he didn't play nice with others and I believe got banned.  C'est la guerre.  His pix were very helpful to me in terms of putting my mind at ease that I was doing the right thing, but it's a VERY easy job if you've got a dremel and a reinforced cutoff wheel or two (the ones with the cross-hatching, not the little explosive disks in a can that come with every cheap bit set).

Essentially, if you look at the side of a regular AK, you see a dent in the reciever above the magazine on each side.  Those dents hold the mag side-to-side in the reciever.  The WASR doesn't have those dents because they wouldn't be deep enough to hold the thinner single stack mag.  Instead, it has slick sides where the dents would be, and two steel rails welded into the reciever sides to do the job.  

First, disassemble the WASR as for cleaning.  Now remove the "Shepherds Hook" retaining wire, and pull out the trigger group.  This will give you room to work

Now.. You need a standard doublestack mag to use as a template. Bust out the dremel and open up the magwell opening on the reciever until it's big enough to accept the d/s mag.  Then, carefully and slowly grind down the two rails until the mag can slip by them and lock up firmly.  You want a LITTLE slack in there to make mag changes easier and allow for variations in mags, but not too much.  The reciever hole doesn't have to be as precise on the sides, but you want it pretty close in front and back.  The rails inside are actually doing most of the work.  WASR rifles sold new as doublestack AK's have been hogged open by Century Arms.  They do a shit job though, and I've seen examples that needed to be opened up further to accept a mag, and others that were opened too far and let the mag flop side to side quite a bit.  With care, a trained chimp would do a better job.  This untrained chimp did!

One other little thing.. If you're like me and want to take a singlestack bunghole stocked WASR and turn it into a doublestack pistol gripped standard stocked AK, you need to worry about US vs imported parts count.  There are lots of posts on the site here that will explain the ins and outs of that, but IIRC the WASR with no muzzle device needs 5 US parts to maintain legality in a pistol gripped configuration.  My WASR came with a romanian trigger group, some now are coming with US parts in their place.  US parts will have clear "US" markings on them, or a maker mark like Tapco or whatever.  Foreign parts will be free of markings.  I put on a US pistol grip, buttstock, and trigger group (t/g is 3 parts) for five to get my count right.

I believe however that if you just want to hog out the magwell to accept d/s mags, you don't need to worry about that shit at all.  I'm no lawyer though, so you might want a little verification on that

I just got done moving and can't find my camera or I'd post you some pix of my d/s wasr.  Take it slow and keep measuring against a d/s mag every few grinds and you'll do just fine.  It's wicked easy for even us non-gunsmiths!

As I stated before I am a newb, so you can imagine the apprehension I have when thinking about putting any cutting device to a brand new rifle.

If you or anybody has some pics this would be great for me to see...I am surprised there are not tutorials for modifications. (A good idea in my opinion - it would keep people like me from asking questions already answered, although I TRY TO find the info before I ask.)

It would be nice to find a gunsmith willing to do this (cheap) - for those who cannot muster the courage....

In leau of modding the receiver, is there any way to modify magazine(s) to "feed into each other" to support a higher ammo capacity? I'd feel more comfortble hacking at a mag than my rifle.
Thanks for the reply - good info

Fixed the pics for everybody, I found them helpful and  As long as the OP doesn't delete them from his hosting service, we can all enjoy them again.

So once you hog it out will it still accept ss mags or will it be way too sloppy for them.

sorry about the pics,   dunno what happenned there,  anyway,  no the original single stacks wont fit anymore,  well they kinda will but wont function,  lets put it that way

Can you convert the 5.45 rifles like this also?

Same question here, I got my hands on a WASR-2, Single Stack 5.45 for $199, so if it is possible to convert one to Hi-Cap, I will give it a shot, if I mess it up I guess I will end up with a parts kit, heheeh. If anybody has done the conversion, with the same results as the WASR-10 mod, I would like to know. THX!

Quoted: Same question here, I got my hands on a WASR-2, Single Stack 5.45 for $199, so if it is possible to convert one to Hi-Cap, I will give it a shot, if I mess it up I guess I will end up with a parts kit, heheeh. If anybody has done the conversion, with the same results as the WASR-10 mod, I would like to know. THX!

Disregard question, I just snagged a High-Cap verion instead. I'm not going to waste time/effort on a low-cap, when for less than $100 more I can get a WASR-Whatever High-Cap version, and if it really does work, and if the front sight gas block assembly of doom isnt canted 90 degrees left or right, then I'm good to go. Cheers!

Thanks for the guide Kells81,

works just fine:

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l195/kchamp84/PrePostOP.jpg

just wondering if you guys think this is somthing that a non-gubsmith could do? i would hate to screw up my AK! any feedback would be great or pictures even better.

I just converted my WASR-2 single stack I bought for $150 from Dunhams. Simple really. Just measure carefully and take your time with the dremel. It took me about an hour and the mags fit perfectly, without wobble.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-3/975911/YHUDH-AK-74%20001.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-3/975911/WXNCF-AK-74%20002.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-3/975911/DNVTE-AK-74%20003.jpg

Pics arent working.