well. ^^ says it all. trying to push the barrel back in with the minimal tools.
should i lube up everything and tap it back in with a hammer & block of wood or what?

If you smooth using some emery cloth where the barrel and trunnion mate that helps.  Use some anti sieze as well.

As far as cheap I used a pipe clamp and my vise to hold the pipe clamp.  Worked so so but it worked.  Others have used a 36" I-bar clamp, not the ones found at Home Depot.

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000224CH/qid=1125370603/sr=8-9/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i9_xgl60/104-4130192-6851136?v=glance&s=hi&n=507846

You will probally need to grind down one of the ends so that it fits supporting the trunnion through the magwell.  Use pennies or nickels between the clamp face and barrel

tag for an answer.  I haven't gotten mine out yet...

tag for an answer.  I haven't gotten mine OUTyet...

Dude clean up the barrel end that goes in  the trunnion,then put the barrel in the freezer for a day then heat the trunion with a torch and have someone get that barrel out of the freezer ,should slide right in for ya.I've done about 15 guns this way works about 98% of the time.Slide a punch through the barrel pin hole to line it up tap that out and beat that barrel retaining pin in and good to go,hope this helps!

If you did 15 and it worked 98%, that means 14.7.    Seriously I'm going to try this.  You think if I freezed the barrel pin it would work too?  Can't hurt.

I've used the clamp method on several, and it works quick, put some anti-sieze on barrel stub after you clean it up a bit and you can press the trunion on in less than five minutes, and don't have to worry about burning yourself, you can buy the pipe and clamp for around $12.

easyest way ive found is a bar 3.5x1x.5 with notchs cut into it that rest on the vice jaws
then use a hammer and a 1/4 inch thick piece of plexy (buffer) to pound the barrel in
i do have a press but on most rifles its just easyer to use a hammer takes like 30 seconds to install a barrel
heres some pics

Hmmmm???

I ordered that 36" bar clamp from Amazon over a month ago.

They didn't indicate that it was out of stock, but apparently it is.  They keep pushing the "estimated ship date" back which must mean they don't have it.

As of today, they say they'll ship to me on Sept. 10.

I really wanted to try the clamp, but I've got a 3 lb. drilling hammer in the garage...

thanks guys, i'm gonna try the freezer trick. that sounds neat.

Try Grainger Industrial supply they have super heavy duty ones. That is where I got mine. (My wife works there also)

another frickin' bump in the road...

I bought this kit because of the quality and now I have to beat on, pound on, heat, freeze, beat on, smash, push pound and pull on the motherf*cker?  Doesn't sound right to me...

What's wrong with drilling and tapping the rivets that are in the trunnion, then screwing the receiver on, then using JB-weld to fill the heads, smooth them over and duracoat?

Try all-thread rod.
http://www.gunco.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13430

Grizzly tools gottem

www.grizzly.com/products/item.cfm?itemnumber=G3545

i've got the barrel about half way in. the spot on the barrel and in the truncion for the barrel pin to go in place is still about 3/4ths of an inch from lining up and i can't get the barrel to go in any further.  

to do like socandy said and pound it in, are there any other ways to do that since i'm without a metal block/a way to really firmly secure the truncion into the vice when i'm pounding on it.

Like ozzy said...try all-thread rod.


www.gunco.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13430

oh. i somehow looked right over his post. lol. that would have answered that question.
i'll be going to lowes in a few minutes to pick that up.

and the 5/16 work on all the barrels then?

i was also curious about the screwing process. once i get the barrel back in and all that jazz(i took it out to make the chance of me running into the barrel that much less), screw the truncion into the reciever. now, is it advisable to use jb weld to secure them/the truncion further, do i need to? or would it just ugly up my gun without much effect.

heres what i did, well hehe i made a jig that fit around my barrel, and with the barrel pointing at the ground in the jig i used a hammer to tap the front and back part of the trunion, to set it then i pressed it in! now you can simplify this by simply using the hammer method of hammering it front and back till its all the way in, just take your time and loob it up!

I tried the I-Bar clamp method and it didnt work for me, i tried and tried and tried and no luck i got so fetup with the whole process i got a block of wood and a brass hammer and beat it in.  Line up the rear sight with the trunnion and beat her in, if you're off just a tad bit when you get it to the trunnion put a wrench on the rear sight base where it connects at the barrel and give it a little turn then beat it in slowly till the groove in the barrel lines up to the holes in the trunnion where the barrel pin goes in, i've done five this way so far and all have come out nicely. I did this one with this process and it came out primo, the reciever didnt twist at all, i'm still waiting on my FCG (from DPH) to complete this build.  McM

Quoted: I ordered that 36" bar clamp from Amazon over a month ago. They didn't indicate that it was out of stock, but apparently it is.  They keep pushing the "estimated ship date" back which must mean they don't have it. As of today, they say they'll ship to me on Sept. 10. I really wanted to try the clamp, but I've got a 3 lb. drilling hammer in the garage...

go to ace hardware, or home depot, you can pick up the pipe and clamp and put it together yourself for about $12.

Yep. Thats the way they build them!!
All depends on how much of an AK collector/purist you are and resale value.

i can't get the clamp to tighten the thing in there, and knocking it with a block of wood and a hammer isn't getting me much further either, in fact its not getting me anywhere at all.

img306.imageshack.us/img306/7775/dsc006084bo.jpg

add to that the barrel is crooked a tiny bit as you can see in the pic. not sure if that will cause me any problems or not. seems like it might make the barrel pin a little hard to get in, not sure of an easy way to fix that.

img306.imageshack.us/img306/1903/dsc006072ba.jpg

Quoted: i can't get the clamp to tighten the thing in there, and knocking it with a block of wood and a hammer isn't getting me much further either, in fact its not getting me anywhere at all. img306.imageshack.us/img306/7775/dsc006084bo.jpg add to that the barrel is crooked a tiny bit as you can see in the pic. not sure if that will cause me any problems or not. seems like it might make the barrel pin a little hard to get in, not sure of an easy way to fix that. img306.imageshack.us/img306/1903/dsc006072ba.jpg

Did you sqweeze the 4 front rivets enough so that the barrel doesn't bind on them?

Edit: Nevermind... looks like you didn't put any rivets in yet.

yeh, no rivets in there, i'm going the screw route. i just took the barrel out to ensure that i didn't drill into it when i was tapping the old rivets out. i could have gone without, but i'm paranoid and would rather have more problems that can be fixed than a problem that can't.

I REALLY like that all thread method. I have a way to make that method even better! I bet you were using grade 5 (cause of how much you said it costs). Go to a fastener store and get grade 8 all thread. This would be much stonger for this purpose. I sure like this method over any of the ones I have seen outside of buying a barrel press kit and using a 12 ton press.

Quoted: Dude clean up the barrel end that goes in  the trunnion,then put the barrel in the freezer for a day then heat the trunion with a torch and have someone get that barrel out of the freezer ,should slide right in for ya.I've done about 15 guns this way works about 98% of the time.Slide a punch through the barrel pin hole to line it up tap that out and beat that barrel retaining pin in and good to go,hope this helps!

This is how I did it with perfect results only I didnt freeze the barrel. Heat that trunnion up to about 3-400 degrees F and it should expand past its pressed fit. Freeze if you want to be sure

I've done two rommies with the following method:

First, you probably need to press the barrel back out and start over.

Polish both barrel and trunnion. Sandpaper and then dremel with rouge on trunnion, dremel only on barrel. The trunnions are very roughly machined but barrel is pretty good usually. Don't try to remove massive amounts of metal, just to polish a bit and knock off sharp edges.

Barrel to freezer for several hours.

Put trunnion in a vise. Coat trunnion with heavy grease. Apply propane torch to trunnion. grease will melt with the heat and trunnion will expand. A good 20/30 seconds of heat spread around trunnion should do it.

Before insertion, try your best to line up RSB to go in trunnion slot cut for it, but this is tuff.

Forcably push cold barrel into hot trunnion. Work fast, you will have about 1 second before heat/cold swap between parts and it stops you. The RSB/trunnion is usually what stops me as I can't get then aligned perfectly with that very narrow channel clearance. Anyway, go as far as you can,

Adjust barrel cant with a 7/8 wrench on RSB.

Make this assembly vertical now in your vise.

Tape 2 pennys/nickle to the muzzle and use a small block of wood and finish it up with light taps from a 4lb hammer. Checking pin hole alignment as you go.

Be careful, even with pennys, muzzle will flare and your hider/break won't go back on.

Leaving hider on might help come to think of it if it will work, haven't tried that though.

Also RCBS resizing lube might work better than grease. Some folks use never sieze. I like grease because you can reheat and make it very slick again if necessary.

Hope this helps.

One advantage of using the all thread method is that if you get stuck and cant get it to crank in any further, you can use a hammer in combination with the all thread to take it the rest of the way.  I did this on an AMD 63 that was super tight.  It works like hcpookies method of getting the barrel pin out by using a vise and a hammer (my favorite way of getting the pin out, btw).  

Another other advantage is that it aligns the pulling force exactly with the axis of the barrel.  

One thing I didn’t mention in the Gunco thread is that as you pull the barrel in, it is very easy to correct for barrel cant (i.e. front sight base not aligned with the trunnion) by twisting on the front sight base with your hand while you have the barrel moving in.  It is so easy that you have to be careful to not go too far.  Just guide it in as you go.

As to the grade of the all thread, I just used the elcheapo stuff that is available in any hardware store.  It is fairly soft, but it worked.  Like bryan666999 said, grade 8 would be better if you can find it.

The all thread method is only good for 7.62.  A 5.45 bore is too small of course.

After fighting my first barrel, I now always use anti seize.  

I generaly polish the barrle with some fine sand paper, and a wire wheel,  and clean everything really good. then apply cutting oil to everything. Then line verything up, and drop it onto a big lead block (about 40 pounds worth) I ahve the muzzle break on real tight too, so as to protect the barrle, just in case I miss the lead block. the momentum of the trunion/receiver is generaly enough. as the barrle gets about 1/8" to 1/4" inside, I make sure it is perfectly alligned, and continue to beat the muzzsle on the lead block (if it isn't alligned, you can vise the barrel, and used a padded crescent wrench to turn the receriver/trunion). I hold it by the receiver with both hands, and quickly thrust down onto the lead block as hard and fast as you can. it works very good, and it cannot damage the reciever this way. I had a couple that were VERY tight, and couldn't move all the way, (I think I didn't polish these)  so I ended up gettting a long peice of 1/8" X 1" flat stock, and put it ont he trunnion(just behind where the pin goes through, and beat it with a hammer, (with the muzzle resting on the lead block) I used a 3# hammer, this worked on the worst stuck barrles ever seen.