I've spent the last three weeks (approx. 2-3 hrs./day) researching building my own AK variant.  I used to own an Egyptian variant long ago, but wasn't impressed with the canted front sight post and overall quality (for some reason I never even THOUGHT about just fixing it...hinking.gif), so I eventually traded it off.

Now, after browsing the pics/articles on several AK forums, I've decided that I just can't live without one anymore...lol.  I now have a new, Romy kit from TAPCO with all the compliance parts waiting to be built, plus 3 Yugo underfolder kits on the way.  I figured I'd build one of the underfolders, and sit on the other two for a while (figuratively, of course, the front sight block would make an unusual Hari-Kari story...lol).  I'm not a big fan of "kit hoarding," but I didn't see anything wrong with trying to sell the other two in a year or so, trying to recover some of my investment in the first two builds.

These will mainly be "SHTF" builds, but WILL get shot most weekends.  I would also like to add, that after browsing through literally HUNDREDS of pics, this one has to be my favorite; it's 18BSOTTM's M92.  (I'd post a pic, but haven't figured out how to do it on this forum yet, if someone else is the "pic master," I would appreciate the pic in this thread for reference :)).

Also, I'm an aerospace CNC machinist by trade, so I just can't leave well-enough alone.  I'm COMPELLED to make some of my own parts...lol.  So here's the bulk of my questions thus far:

I wanna make a krink look-alike.  Not for the collectability aspect, but just for the coolness factor.  I don't care much about having an ultra short barrel (I'll probably design build either a fake suppressor or a cool flash hider to keep within the 16" legal limit), but I definitely want a krink-like front sight block.  

Tell me if this will work (if you know) and what problems I might run into.  I want to take a standard Romy or Yugo barrel, and use an AMD gas tube/piston.  As far as I can tell, this setup would put the gas tube ending at around the end of a standard length handguard.  I'll be using the galil-style handguard, so there's actually no upper handguard piece to deal with.  I will also make a krink-style front sight/gas block to get rid of the "AK-triangle," as I call it.  I also want to cut the barrel off at approx. the end of the front sight block and permanently install a fake can or long suppressor.  How exactly does the gas port interact with the block?  Will the AMD tube/piston length function correctly at that length will a normal length barrel?  I'm assuming I'll have to make a new gas port in the barrel, but how will I plug the old port? Weld?

I'm a pretty competent machinist/welder/fabricator, but I'm no gunsmith.  Any help, tips, or feedback would be greatly appreciated.  

BTW, AWESOME site, this is the only one I've bothered posting this question on.

-WRM

You should post this over on gunco.net.  Those guys are the undisputed kings of AK modification.