Ok....you guys know we have some Sword and Son projects going on with AKs. The first one runs great, but the heat treat job I did on the ejector is lacking. I notice while I was out in the yard today shooting, and I had a FTE/FTFeed. The ejector is deformed slightly from the caseing hitting it, and Im not getting the right ejection angle everytime. The weapon has a couple hundred rounds through it, and will not remain reliable at this rate.

The ejector rail is made of 4130 steel (Tapco rails). I heated it till it started to glow, queched violently with water, heated till started turning red again, quenched with water, heated till red again and let cool slowly. After doing some adjusting to the ejector length with a file, I had to do it again where I exposed the softer inside with file.

Did I do this right?

hmm...that's a bit different than the approach i've been using which has yeilded good solid unpeened ejectors for me.

i heat till it starts glowing reddish-orange, quench in water, then (after cleaning the scaling off with a wire wheel on my drill) heat again till it gets the bluish-purple "wave" of color, letting it air-dry.

i've got about 20 or so receivers that i've worked on and done all of them this way; nary a one has had any peening problems on the ejector.

Can I re-do this tip, or is it ruined?  I hope not!

Thank you for your help.

honestly i have no idea.

if it's ruined now, you're already going to have to replace it right?  why not try re-doing it, and if it doesn't work, you're not really out much of anything except some time.  you might get lucky, who knows.

Someone could weld the tip up with a harder material.  I don't know enough about welding to tell you what wire to use but I believe this would work.

if it turns out you need to put on a new ejector rail, drop me a PM.  i have a spare set of lower rails from the first flat i ever bent.  i'll put it this way--the rails never even made it into the receiver.  but then, everyone's allowed to fudge on their first try.  

i'd be happy to drop 'em in the mail to you no charge.

file it square again
take of whatever you need to make this happen upto 1/8 it wont effect anythang

then redo it as ferret said red hot quench then blue and let it air cool (at room temp)
dont go take it out in the shop where its 14 deg and let it air cool

Thanks!!!  I will give it another try.  I appreciate the help, I really do.