I noticed the Polish Underfolder flats available at AK-Builder fror $35.

Looking for comments on these - has anyone tried them ?

I'm building one right now using that flat.  Too early to tell but all the signs point to good.  He also makes a '74 sidefolder flat that I'm gonna try very soon....

Kepp us posted Eyegun.. I wanna try the side folder flat, but these are way too much money to wind up crap..

I am also interested in the sidefolder flats - don't see that they are available yet.

Would the sidefolder flats be what should be used for AMD65 sidefolder kit ?

Please keep us posted on your progress with the underfolder flat....!!!

I'm delaying ordering for the moment...

The sidefolder flats are for AK74 sidefolders.  AMD sidefolders are a walk in the park compared to '74's.  With zero experience, an AMD sidefolder was my 2nd build and it looks like a pro did it.

I just bent the polish flat yesterday and am in the process of trimming the rails to fit the front trunion.  I used ak-builder's jig to do it.  It is the 4th flat I've bent and it looks great so far.  BTW, it is the first (no practice) spotwelding and heat treating I've ever done.  Lotsa firsts on this baby.  If it's anything like curtis' other stuff, this is the real deal.  I'll try to post a pic soon.

OK, so here's what I have so far.  Remember I've never heat treated or spot welded so far.  Hell, I never even put in a cross member rivet either.  After quite a bit of trimming, I have the front and rear trunions mostly fit.  The rear trunion holes line up quite well- only a little bit of trimming to go.  I need to trim the rails along the entire length of the receiver to get the BC to slide.  The rear trun is held in place for now with a machine screw.  I have not dressed the outside of the receiver yet to improve cosmetic appearance.

I too am new to bending.  Have one of  his benders and have done 4 so far.  2 were  Tapco, 2 were from AK builder.  The ak builder flats came out much nicer, seem to be of a better material. DPH sells the same flats, I know 'cause I have 2 from there and they are exactly the same.  I do have 1 of the under fold flats, I was getting some practice before doing that one.  The 2 flats from AK Builder bent well enough that I would now be comfortable doing the underfolder flat.  

Progress report:  I just finished the front end of the gun.  

Keep in mind this is my first attempt at building anything from a flat.  I think I might be an idiot for starting with an UF but I just couldn't wait- I've gotta decide what I'm gonna do with my M92 kits.  

Anyways, I fit the trunions thanks to Dremel for their carbide cutters.  The bottom of the right lower rail had to be trimmed as usual to let the mag into the hole.  I had a couple of AK's I built from 100% receivers to compare to.  Had to inlet the back of the rails to let the BC and bolt in the groove.  Rear trunion holes pretty much lined up automatically (as expected).  TG was easy as usual.  Front trunion was perfectly fit to several mags and ended up being flush with the front of the receiver.  Front trunion holes were located using the tape trick and once the left side was located, drill through the other side.  Barrel went in easily as did the barrel pin thanks to ak-builder.com for the jigs.  Front wood etc fits great.  I used an old AMD brake as a thread protector during the press-in phase.  Looks pretty good there- may have to use it for a little while once the gun is finished.

Later tonight or tomorrow I'll finish riveting the rear trunion then comes the jigsaw puzzle of putting the stock together.  I printed out a guide for UF stock assembly and have it on my workbench.  Can't remember who did it but it is great and worthy of printing for future reference.

Hopefully Tuesday or Wed I can be out on the range for a testfire.  I'll take my new (to me) bulgi 5.45 krink for a ride as well.....

OK, I'm convinced.......just placed an order for 2 of the underfolder flats with Curtis.

Now I can only hope there is not a long delay on getting my order for the plinker river jig I previously ordered !!!

Can't wait to get started on these builds.....

(grin)....

Forgot to say that I used a plinker's jig on these rivets.  I had a bolt cutter tool but broke it.  

Plinker's takes a while and some effort to set up but is the ultimate rivet smoosher.  It will also do countersinks.  It comes with a CD that has a ton of pics and very very useful information on it.  Attention to detail is a must with this jig.  I liked it so much I bought his long rivet jig also.  This will be the first gun I have used the long jig on (yet another first on this gun).

Finished last night.  I put the rear trunion on using Plinker's jig for the short rivets and the long jig for the long rivet.  I trimmed the long rivet a little too short perhaps because I have had problems with long rivets being too long.  Anyways, it turned out OK.  This was the first time I used plinker's long jig BTW.  

Assembly of the stock went OK, only had to disassemble and re-do once.  I read somewhere that you should make the folder holes a little larger than smaller, so I enlarged them a very little bit with a round file and a dremel sanding disc after the trunion was riveted- thus using the trunion as an elargement guide.  Thank God for whoever posted a tutorial (I think it had an earthlink address) or I would NEVER have figured it out.

The gun cycles fine and no major issues are apparent at this time.  Tonight I'm going to deburr and polish the rails a little.  Test fire is tomorrow morning and I'm gonna take my new bulgi krink out as well.

One small 'issue':  I used a carbide grinder in my dremel to trim the rails.  I noticed it made great headway and removed a ton of metal quickly.  I got my left arm and shirt covered in small metallic splinters.  I didn't think anything of it at the time- just took off my tshirt and washed my hands and arms.  Picked 1 or 2 splinters out of my hands and forgot about it.  The next day at work I felt another splinter in one of my fingers so I took advantage of a slit lamp (microscope) and checked it out.  I had about 40 splinters in each hand, only about 15 or so in each were removeable.  The rest were under the surface and had already started rusting!  Moral of this story:  be aware of what is shooting around your workbench.  Wear gloves and a long sleve shirt.  ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION

NICE rifle, eyegun. How many have you built? I'm getting set to do my first build, I hope I can start making them that nice before I run out of Romy kits.

I think I'm up to 10  so far, including 2 screw builds.  AMD63, AMD65, Bulgi '74, Pol UF, Romys, ???

I'm in the Gorge, if you're in the neighborhood anytime I'll be glad to show you what I know about building AK's and we can testfire at the range 10 min away.  I think someone was trying to get a build party together earlier this summer but it never came to be....  It would be nice to get together with some of the guys near PDX, and socandyman and see how they do it..

Hey, I neeed a underfolder blank for my krink kit, don't have a bender - can someone bend a flat for me and send it to me? Would this be ok or is it going past the "80%"? Thanks

- Chris

Quoted: Hey, I neeed a underfolder blank for my krink kit, don't have a bender - can someone bend a flat for me and send it to me? Would this be ok or is it going past the "80%"? Thanks - Chris

No, once it's bent it's a receiver.
It would require having a manufacturers FFL (07)

Range report.  Test fired both rifles today (the new Pol UF and my new (to me) krink).  Anyways, 60 rounds through each, zero issues.

Firing them together, the UF has obviously a LOT more kick than the krink.  I am surprised the krink is so mild, except for the giant fireball.  The UF had a very sharp kick to it.  I'll have to fire it next to a full stock AK for comparison.  My last UF was a preban Norinco.  I hated it because the UF was so unpractical for me at the time.  Also, it was very uncomfortable on my chin.  I guess I have changed the way I shoot this type of folder- my cheek weld is more of a cheek touch.  Makes it more comfortable.

So, in order to recap:  This Polish UF lives!  It was built using an ak-builder.com polish underfolder flat, an ak-builder flat bending jig, and plinker's jigs.

Several firsts on this build for me:  first time I built using a flat, first time I ever spotwelded, first time I ever heat treated, first time I ever did an underfolder, first time on the plinker's long jig.  This was the fourth flat I bent ever.  This rifle is reliable and very accurate.  It would never have happened without ak-builders jigs and especially that pre-holed flat!  Also especially helpful was this UF assembly tutorial.  I don't know who made it but I would have never figured it out myself!  Thanks!!

Now I gotta get one or two of those '74 sidefolder precut flats from curtis and maybe he'll have some M92 flats also