for a Romanian Kit

What size drill bit is used to drill out rivets?

Do I drill all the way through the rear trunion or can I just take the heads off and punch them out?

I see 2 pins in the front trunnion. Do both need to be removed to get the barrel off?
And does it matter which way they come out?




Has anyone else tried to get on the pookieweb building site? I planned to use that an my
build guide, but as soon as my kit came I was unable to get in. Murphy's Law in full effect.

Thanks

So far I have built one Romanian and am in the process of deconstructing two more.  The holes in the front trunnion are generally a 5/32 or a #21 drill size.  What I did with the rivets was first I ground the heads off with a bench grinder, being careful not to hit the trunnion. Once the heads are ground off you can see the outline of the rivet shank.  Very carefully make a punch mark in the center of the outline.  I then use a 1/8 center drill to start a hole.  A center drill is a drill with two ends and it is very short so it doesn't drift like a normal drill bit will.  Then I go to a larger drill and drill all the way through the rivet.  On the front trunnion, remove the barrel first. After drilling through the rivets you should be able to pop the rivets out.
I have had to drill completely through the rear trunnion rivets in order to remove them. Wouldn't come out otherwise.  
The barrel pin that you need to remove is the big one at the rear of the sight block.  The smaller one is the rear sight pin.  I drove mine out from left to right.  After soaking in Kroil for a few days it came out with easily.  Tomorrow I will tackle the other two pins in the barrels of the two kits I just received from DPH.  They have had the Kroil treatment for a week now.
Hope this helps.

Thanks yankee56. I have already drilled the rear trunnion rivet heads off and removed it from
the cut receiver. I still have to remove the rest of them. I dont have all the major tools for this
project and I'm starting to wonder if I have gotten into more than I expected.

I believe Pookie's web site is down for repairs...(hard drive prob)... hopefully he'll be back soon -  I'm in the same boat as you as far as this being my first AK build... I already screwed up one flat - but I learned a few things.. especially to take my time.  The only tool I haven't acquired is a spot welder, it sucks to have to depend on somebody else to get my rails welded on.  It would be easier to just order a finished receiver, but the build wouldn't be as enjoyable to me.  Just take your time and keep reading the many forums.

Oh, yes, you can take the heads off and just punch them out, that's assuming you do take off the barrel to get at the forward  two on the front trunion

the front rivits should be removed after removing barrel lock pin and pressing out barrel, very easy then. front and rear rivits are swell neck rivits, this means the have a slight taper which is filled in when bucking that makes them larger than hole in trunion kind of like a bowtie. on front and rears you need to drill a hole on one side smaller than rivit,  the use punch slightly smaller than drilled hole as you knock out rivit you swage down swell neck on that side and rivit goes right out other side. use center punch and center drill to get started.