AK Sponsor
Posted: 10/21/2005 10:45:35 AM EDT
|
well I went and got impatient...just couldnt wait. my flats I ordered from tapko came in the mail on tuesday and I spent all my breaks and lunch at work finishing up the base for my 555th bending jig. then I spent an hour after work putting on the finishing touches and attaching the flat to the jig ( crap that took forever!!) today I greased her up and set it on the brake press at work and viola....... a few things that need to be worked on #1 the mag well has a bent/rounded edge on it now, no idea how that happened?!? #2 the top rail that is hammered by hand looks all dinged up ( isnt it all covered /hidden or dremmeled away any way?) I used a very small body work hammer and used lots and lots of little taps so as to not over do it. #3 the " y " marked hole ended up right at the bottom of the bend and appears to be a little deformed. #4 the reciever is not square and one side where the rear trunion attaches is splayed out a little, although I think a vice grips or vice would fix that (opinions any one?) #5 the hand bent lip that slides into the front trunion did not fold over as nicely as I had hoped and looks like it is not even on both sides. hopefully I did not waste this flat! ( I ordered 3 just in case) and I did slide the front trunion into the flat, I had to bang it a little, but it went on and I also test fitted the rear trunion (kinda) I have to dremmel the opening for the side folder thingey ( nice technical term eh) I also test fit the gas piston carrier and it seems to glide on the rails nicely. I know the issues im having are because of my tooling. I was having a bitch of a time getting the angle iron lined up and welded with the 1.36 gap between the pieces and its not perfectly square and does not have a uniform tolerance of 1.36 the length of the jig base. 555th any advice on getting that exact tolerance and keeping every thing square? I really had a devil of a time with this sucker ( the angle iron base)..... I will post pics tomorrow when the digital camera is charged up and that will give every one a better idea of what im talking about. |
|
LMAO...not to be mean, just cause I've been there. I would never show or even admit to my first bent rec!!!! 1. Put the flat back into the mandrel and gently hammer the magwell into shape. Go GENTLY so you dont ding it up. Use a rubber mallet or similar soft headed banger. Or, use a hardwood board and a reg hammer. 2. Use the above technique next time for the top roll over, and do it gradually so you minimize dings. You can hit it very lightly with sand paper to even it up, but don't take too much off as this is the top rail... 3. Y hole in 2 of mine did the same...(Tapco flats), but the hole is still in the right place, and the FCG went in just fine. I think this is just the inaccuracies of the bend method...no worries as long as the FCG works out. Plus the head of the pivot pin hides the egg shaped hole. 4. Rec's seldom come out perfectly square, but if you put the trunion in and clamp it, it should get very close to true... 5. This could be a problem. When you do the fold over, you have to bend it sharp, or the front trunion will not work out. You might try to massage it into shape, or start over. Flats are cheap, and the experience of folding one or 2 is invaluable. Good luck and have fun! |
|
thanks for the responses guys 2falable : what i ment was the parts that are not covered get dremmeled so you can get the bolt carrier out of the reciever after the gun is fully assembled, not dremmeling away all the dented parts. lol thenorm: I hear ya but im enough of a newby and so, almost piss my pants, excited over actually being able to do this I just had to share. no it is not perfect and that does bug the beegeepers out of me but like you said the experience of actually bending one is invaluable and I will be spending the next week remaking the angle iron jig and trying to get it closer to perfect. if I can get the base part made correctly I will have a few to sell in the near future but I do not want to sell a shoddy prouct so it is back to the drawing board and reworking the base before I would be comfortable selling them. the main part of the jig I cut out at work on a laser cutter so those are perfect and look really good but the base is giving me fits at the moment. Slugger |
|
OH! you MADE the jig. Well that's even cooler... From what I can see of the one I have the critical points are (just thinking out loud here, I'm sure you thought along these lines): Width of the base jig should be a tight slip fit for the mandrel plus 2 thicknesses of reciever material. I would clamp 2 cut pieces of receiver plus a very thin piece of shim...like rice paper that measures out less then 0.001 inch. Normal printer paper is about 0.002 inch...way too thick. Could be no shim worlks best... Then you want to chamfer and polish the top exdges of the base jig so that the flat folds easily. And don't forget to put some bearing grease on there when you fold. The sides of the jig should be very parallel....and match the mandrel. The mandrel should have a front end and a back end so that it goes in the same way everytime. |
AK Sponsor