I was thinking of just chopping it off and using a peice of stock, to pound out the ribs.

also, how  do you put hte upper portion of the handgaurd on?

You can shorten one by drilling the spot welds on the rear section of the gas tube where the gas tube locks into the rear sight base, drill the spot welds out then with some work/heat slide it to your desired length, cut of access and weld the spot weld holes shut. As far as removing or installing the upper handguard, put the back end of the gas tube where it fits intot the rear sight base in a vise, with it clamped down simply rotate the wooden handguard untill its 180 degrees and then it simply comes right off, some are tight so i use a rubber strap wrench to take them off without messing up the handguard. McM

Thats the way ,a little heat helps .To get the handguard in i put the sight base side (flat edges) in a vice ,start one side in and twist it,alittle grease or trimming if necessary..

Quoted: You can shorten one by drilling the spot welds on the rear section of the gas tube where the gas tube locks into the rear sight base, drill the spot welds out then with some work/heat slide it to your desired length, cut of access and weld the spot weld holes shut. McM

Cant do that, the rear of the gas tube has the part that locks into the front portion of the rear sight block. I have to chop it off the front.

There was an excellent tutorial awhile back on this.  But I will go from memory as I also need to do this soon.  First take your AMD tube, take measurement, cut your Romie tube approx .250 longer.  Use a Mapp torch or Oxy Acety torch to heat end of tube to cherry red (anyone please correct if I am mistaken regarding color).  Use a .375 (3/8") extension from a socket set as a forcing mandrel to open up the ribs on the tube for proper fitment to the gas block assm.  Use a simple mill bastard file (please use chalk on the file as it is a shame to abuse a perfectly good Nicholson bastard file without it) to bring to correct dimensional length.

Well, that is all I remember.  Hope I am close as that is what I am going to do.  If anyone else has any suggestions please fire away, as I am about to do this pretty soon.

the best tutorial I have seen is as www.sksboards.com
scroll down to the ak 47 build forum, and there is a sticky tutorial on an AK pistol build....written by Fragger...best tutorial yet....

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