Had a little time to play around with this last night, started trying to determine what size locking shoulder I'll need.

Was confused at first as it wasn't coming anywhere near closing with a pin in place. After digging around, you need to remove the extractor from the bolt. Not all of the guides I read mentioned this, and those that did didn't explain in detail. The reason seems to be that the moderate pressure used on the bolt when determining headspace isn't enough to overcome the extractor spring and the rear of the headspace gauge will stop on the extractor, not the bolt face.

Removing the extractor from a FAL bolt is a pain in the ass, and most people use a specialized tool... that I didn't buy.

I came up with a pretty good improvised tool that worked well. I took an old punch and clamped it in a vice grip so only a nub of the point extended past the jaws. This let me get a good grip on the recess of the plunger and pull it down enough to make the extractor come free.

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I had tried to go cheap with my pin gauges and only ordered a handful in the middle of the locking shoulder range. I had from .254 to .266 around. Wouldn't close on .254 with a GO gauge, so more pins on the way. I'm going to assume that needing one of the smallest sizes means my barrel has relatively little wear (which fits with the nice look of the rifling), so I don't mind dropping $25 bucks on more pins.

1/17

Had time to work on this today.

Filed the shoulder slowly, following each round of filing with a round of sanding. 10 passes with the file at a time at first, repeating around the curve of the barrel.

When I got close, input in the bore sight and started putting on the lower+stock to see how the sights lined up vs the dot.

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Not an elegant setup, but it worked. Overall I think using the bore laser was pretty easy and precise. Not that I have anything to compare to as this is my first FAL build.

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Did some reassembly, starting to look like a rifle now. Gas system went back together with ease, which is another sign I got the barrel timing right.

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If time allows, tomorrow will be playing with pin gauges and headspacing.

Also debating refinishing the surplus parts vs wearing the receiver to (somewhat) match vs just saying fuckit as it has its own rugged charm in its mismatched state.

You'll notice there's no FCG in the pic. The reason is I am waiting on a US made one for 922r.

FALs have 17 922r relevant parts. The reg says max 10 foreign. For now it will be US receiver, hammer, sear trigger, mag body, mag follower, mag floorplate. This gives me 7 US, 10 foreign; and on the sunny side of the rule.

Waiting on FCG right now, thus no FCG in the lower housing.

Plan is to replace current furniture with a nice US made wood set from Ironwood Designs, but that will need to wait a few pays. That way the mag doesn't matter.

I know some scoff at 922r and will point out that no one has been busted for a stand alone 922r violation. I'm cautious, and would rather not be the first.)

things acceptably cleaned up and 922r compliance parts figured out (hate that law but I'm going to be risk adverse and cover my ass)

tried torqueing the barrel, and it came up short. at 100 on the torque wrench, my guess is I am about 15 degrees short. Will need to shave the barrel shoulder.

my attempts at improvised rods to visualize barrel timing did not work well. If I had been able to get it closer to correctly timed, I don't think I would have been accurate enough.

I don't want to buy rods, so I came up with an alternate idea.

The real test of if a barrel is correctly oriented is if the gun can be zeroed. So I'm thinking rather than spend $40+ on rods, I use the cheap ass 308 bore laser I already have. When I think I have it close, slip the lower housing (which has the rear sight) on, slide the laser into the chamber, and see if my sights come close to lining up with the dot.

Is there any downside or flaw to this I'm missing? seems like it would be more accurate and avoid buying another tool

Moving forward on building the FAL a little bit at a time.

Next up was getting the receiver stub off the barrel.

Did the dremel through and split with a chisel method.

What you do is cut at the front the charging handle slot with a dremel, this is where the receiver stub is thinnest and narrowest. The guides I read all said to go slow and stop when either you see the threads or the metal at the bottom changes color. I went really slow and was terrified of going too deep. To my surprise, the color change was pretty distinct, the bottom of the cut turned much darker.

Smacked it with the big hammer and chisel to try and crack it the rest of the way. The guides said you would hear and/or feel a pop when it goes. I felt nothing, it was only with close inspection that I could tell that it had cracked.

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was able to unscrew it easily with the barrel vice and receiver wrench.

Moved on to trying to see how my new DSA receiver timed with the barrel by hand.

Good news is it hand times to ~30 degrees shy of the gas block, so with proper torqueing I should be able to get it where it needs to be.

(in the picture below, the gas block is at about 3 o'clock and receiver is at about 2 o'clock.)

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Bad news is it is pretty tight all the way through, almost too much resistance to hand tighten at all. I suspect I will need to do a good bit more cleanup on the threads.

Next up is finishing cleaning and degreasing all the parts which will be reused.

Might be able to do the actual final assembly next monday. Will post as I do more.

I'm getting ready to build my first FAL, and working on getting the parts to be reused off the receiver stub.

The gas tube nut won't budge.

This thing:
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I have the little multitool for FALs, the little toothed wrench just pops right off.

I tried repeated spraying and waiting with PB Blaster in case there was some rust binding it up (half a dozen time over several days). Didn't help at all, just seems to be torqued on there absurdly tight.

Tried wrapping vice grips in duct tape to pad them and twist it off that way.

other end of the gas tube is disassembled, the tube is actually free floating and is only held in place by the lack of clearance to slide it out.

Its a cheap part, I can get a new one for $10 plus shipping. Very tempted to just get out the Dremel and grind a flat on each side so I can get a wrench on it properly.

I do need to get it off as it traps the gas tube and also prevents me from getting the barrel in the barrel vice to get it off the stub.

Any suggestions before I get destructive?

edit: got it! Tried the heat gun even though it seemed feeble compared to a proper torch. Heated it until the grease started to smoke, and gave a good twist with the vice grips.

Also threatened it a bit.

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