cetme build help

hey guys, i dont know if its current sale prices versus actual value or what but a century built cetme for $600+ leaves a bad taste in my mouth and reasonably priced private sales ive missed out on 3 for 450-500$. can you still build these things for $400 or what? cheapest complete reciever is $200 resold ptr manufactured. Anyone have any parts for sell to help out on a build? i see flats for $69 but my welding skills are shoddy since i have only a no gas wire welder and its been years since doing any welding, and ive no mandrel set. any help is appreciated as well, i see trigger packs on CTD for good deal for g3 that can be modified as well as forearm. so theres $60 in stock set and complete trigger assembly. id like to do a budget build. never built a firearm just repairs on mine and friends, but im an auto tech so tools are there and press at work if needed. thanks again!

Cheap kit -$180, Bend your own flat -$60, Barrel -$200, US made parts $100, shipping on the parts -$40 comes to around $580 as the cheapest way to build. Used century cetmes are plentiful here for $499 but you have to plan on spending money to fix the bolt gap issues.

Cdnn was selling cetmes for $500 new.

well heres where im at. all parts ordered except cocking tube, barrel, and reciever. im at 275$ right now and need to modify an sef g3 trigger assembly before i order that reciever for sure. ive got mostly cetme parts from apexgunparts except for stock assembly, handgaurd, trigger pack which i understand all need slight modification. anyone have leads on cockingtube and barrel? im undecided on flat or ptr complete reciever.

Just helping you out here. You mentioned that this will be your first build, you do know about 922(r)? You can not have more than 10 imported parts in your build. USA parts can be aquired from PTR that will help you meet 922(r). For me building weapons is not about saving money, its about the accomplishment.

Piecing together a cetme is the most expensive route to take. Buy a kit from centerfire systems and you will get a c-tube. There are no (real) cetme cocking tubes for sale anywhere that I am aware of. HK tubes will not work in a cetme build.

haha guess shoulnt have place that order, wouldve saved bout $130 already. $500 is a fair deal to me but in this area they are rarely for sale under $650 and they get snapped up. i jut want to build one. i found an oddball us manufactured cocking tube that says its 4mm larger i.d. than g3, this would work correct? and yes i do know about 922r compliance. helped a friend do a mak90 to ak furniture and 922r comp. just want to have fun building a complete rifle. Holescreek you build cetmes right? think i watched a video of you bending a flat

Yeah, I've built a few cetme's. 4mm larger ID than a g3 is too big to work. The ID of a cetme C-tube is right about .708" (18mm) while an HK tube is somewhere around .715" ID IIRC. Problem is the HK tube cocking slot and lock position is shorter than the cetme by a lot. Apex gun parts sells a piece of pipe that someone turned on a lathe and machined a slot in to use in place of a cetme tube but I'd have to be pretty desperate before I'd use one of those. I've made my own c-tubes (the right way) but they were too expensive for someone building on a budget.

I saw a near mint condition very low serial numbered CAI St. Albans cast stainless cetme at the OGCA show this morning with a $500 price tag on it. Darn near bought it myself because the serial number was somewhere around 100.

wow thats a good deal on that CAI. well thanks for info. would a ptr91k cocking tube work from hkparts its listed under cetme/g3/ptr parts or is that still going to have the same issue? i think that tube you referred to is the one i was talking about to, has no ribbing. if i understand right the hk tube doesnt work because the cocking support is longer on a cetme correct? so then can the entire cocking tube assembly from g3 be used in place of cetme? I figured its gonna be a hodgepodge, no different than anyone else cetme i guess.

An HK C-tube will only work with an HK BCG and HK C-handle support. Cetme C-tube will only work with a cetme BCG and cetme C-handle support. PTR parts are HK sized, not interchangeable with cetme.

gotcha, thank you very much

alright so i cancelled the parts order and just ordered a centerfire kit. the only question i have left is about barrel installation into trunnion, is the procedure i read of while pressing in barrel to have bcg locked and check bolt spacing sufficient, and does the chamber end of barrel need any finishing after this process?

Just about everything I could think of on the subject of barrel pressing is in this thread:
http://www.weaponsguild.com/forum/index.php?topic=13958.0

Not trying to pull anyone away from this site, just too lazy to retype my tutorials.

Guess I'm a little late to the party,But I have a complete kit with original barrel still in the trunion with c-tube still attached plus an extra c-tube,bolt,small parts, trunion and furniture I was going to sell for about $400

That's a great price, you sholdn't have any trouble getting that amount for it at all. That has to be a real early kit with the original barrel.

thanks holescreek! after doing searching i see you do have quite and illustrious internet career of building and supplying info on these.

I'm relatively new to the platform having only been building them for a few years. I try to help out when I can. There are a lot of "myths" that new builders have to wade through to get started but once you get past those it's a straight forward build.

well i do appreciate it, my g3 furniture odgreen is here, gewher works recievers flat tommorrow and waiting on the centerfire systems parts kit. ive read tons and feel very confident with only some apprehension about reciever bending, barrel install, and cocking tube welding. i know the procedures now and just gotta get my hands in it! got a total of about $220 so far and still need a barrel $180 from bravo5 unless something us made and cheaper comes along. 922r is right on track, could trade something else for a foreign barrel if i could find one.

Holescreek- Is there any difference between a Cetme and G3 barrel?

The only difference between the two is the G3 has a straight knurl behind the flash hider threads where the spring in the G3 flash hider locks on. The knurl does not interfere with the cetme flash hider and is mostly covered up by it.

A little off topic, but I have seen several references and recommendations to Holescreek's tutorials...

Nice to see you are a poster here also!

Thanks! I joined this site a long time ago but lost interest in the AR platform pretty quickly. I wasn't aware of the HK section until a recent customer happened to mention it. I primarily live on the weaponsguild site and that's where my tutorials live. My other haunt is militaryfirearm.com, as it is kind of a reincarnation of the old cetmerifles site. Tons of information there from some of the most seasoned DRLB veterans.

The HK/Cetme community is relatively small and for the most part we wander from site to site looking for anything new.

well i built a bending jig i think will work if anyone knows how to post pics from iphones i could get a pic up

ok so receiver bent, trimmed and fitted. mocked up trunnion, cocking tube, recoil spring and end plate, and bolt; everything smooth and cycles fine. I will be trying with a mag tonight. So I still have question about barrels, as i see bravo5 has them and hkparts has decent priced ptr-k model barrels in 16 and 18". My question is i see they are listed as g3 and have no chamber area knurl, i also see bravo 5 are oversized and at least the 18" ptr is as well, oversized at sight tower. Are all replacement barrels requiring sight tower reaming to fit or is there one i am missing that is direct replacement and in stock? any help or other sourcing is appreciated!

It sucks that everyone has gotten away from direct replacement barrels. Have you looked on gunbroker? A couple of years ago you could pick up original Santa Barbara cetme barrels still in the wrap for $99. Last time I looked they were up to about $200 and still don't count towards your US part count. Oversized diameter barrels will require machining the triple frame to fit. B5 offers them seperately for a bit more money.
I have an unused B5 heavy barrel (designated marksman) with the fitted triple frame I'd sell for $200 shipped, that's about $40 less than their price with shipping.

whats the barrel length and weight? Does the triple have a press fit or just silver solder and the sling pin? and last but not least these barrel press through the trunnion after setting the barrel into the trunnion?

Just got sent this link:
http://www.hkspecialiststore.com/product_detail.php?Category=55&Page_Number=1&Index_Seq=1063&Home_Page=

$99 G3 barrels, best price anywhere. I bought a couple of the MP5 barrels from them last week, the company is legit.

All G3/cetme barrels press into the trunnion, all need silver soldered and cross pinned. The B5 barrel I have is an 18" with threads for the flash hider.

thats a seemingly good deal! are those us made with correct fluting i wonder? is pof patriot ordinance factory? Geez i feel ignorant about some of this stuff, some guys could look at a picture and know more than me, live and learn.

The $99 barrels are MKE (Turkey), not US made so no 922r value. They are G3 barrels with the straight knurl for the HK flash hider. They will work fine for a Cetme. I suspect that these will sell fast then turn up again on GB at much higher prices.

thanks again holescreek, i owe ya no doubt. heres another though, cetmes dont have cocking tube gap right?

They absolutely do. You have to set your c-tube gap to the same gap as your BCG at a minimum. Most people set it for bolt gap + .015". Without a c-tube gap the carrier will beat the c-tube off the receiver when your bolt gap closes up. This is the fatal flaw in a lot of tutorials.

how do you measure it? do i need to mark where the BCG bottoms out in the cocking tube, i see the bcg goes up into the cocking tube support? where the cocking handle is attached. Not like g3's i have seen when the BCG is flat at the end and butt up against the cocking handle support. I guess im asking do i just shim the BCG since the charging end goes into the cocking handle support about an inch, or mark the outside of the BCG where it bottoms out and then adjust cocking tube towards muzzle end until gap achieved.

Here is a link to my tutorial on setting the c-tube gap:
http://www.weaponsguild.com/forum/index.php?topic=21704.0

Essentially I cut a shim the diameter of the end of the carrier tube that is the thickness I need and stick it on the end of the carrier, then slip the c-tube with the support inside over the tube and into the receiver against the shim then tack weld the tube. Once tack welded, remove the carrier and insert your heat sink to finish the weld.

ok, so process same as g3 but in a blind hole as opposed to visible contact points, easy enough. i tell ya i sandblasted today in rain and it still amazes me how fast metals can rust once stripped. will still have to do a little more after final welding though so no big deal. mocked up everything again last night sans barrel and it worked perfectly, rounds stripped off without mag contact issues, manually inserted round into bolt and pull cocking handle back and round ejected perfectly. this had been an enjoyable experience thus far. im thinking guncoat matte black for finishing. Any suggestions otherwise? how much thickness will parking add, im torn between park and paint or just the sandblast finish and paint. the texture of it after 80 grit glass media blasting looks and feels so much like parkerized, but its a toss up to me.

Up until the PSG1 I used to just blast and Duracoat, usually multi-colors. On the PSG1 I just blasted and parkerized and left it. I did two FALs, one parked, the other black oxided. Lately I've been toying with black oxiding over parkerizing, it gives a nice texture to the black. I've never used any other paint than Duracoat. Too cold today to paint anything. Ice storm came through last night and left 1/4" on everything. Glad it's going smooth for your build.

the park is nice at times on certain firearms i admit, but im just not a fan of it on this one. btw when all this is done and running you need to tell me where to send the money for a nice dinner haha for your help. it is appreciated immensely. so far the big thing was workin on the reciever i had about 6 hours in it total making it just right. i learned a while ago....go slow, go right, go once.

i forgot to ask to what are most folks doing with the receiver interior. the flat arrived with a little rust on the interior surface and ive wondered if i should coat the inside

Wait until you get the flat bent and welded up and straightened. You could scour the inside of the flat with a steel wool pad and some WD40 to get the rust off the inside first if will give you piece of mind later on.

Don't forget to deburr all of the edges inside the flat before you fold it, it's a whole lot easier to do before it's bent.

I used Gun-kote from Brownells.

how does it compare to duracoat? have you used both? i like the duracoat mainly because they have a aerosol kit so i dont need a sprayer. think you mix 1 part hardener to 4 parts duracoat in a supplied bottle and attach to aerosol can and spray on. fitted the mag catch tonight and going to install paddle mag tomorrow, gonna be a little tricky with the blind hole deal but itll work out. barrel arrives wednesday and then its on.

well again thanks holescreek i have tweeked his thing over the past week and i must say these are fine rifles, amazing how little recoil there is. compared to the ar/ak its a moot point. i truly see where the love of these things comes from. onto finishing now!

Without pics it didn't happen!

haha well instruct me on how to get them from my phone to here, i just cant figure it out. i got them here though!

I'm too old to understand all that technology. Maybe a 12 year old kid will come along and lend a hand.

figured it out its official

Cool! Did you parkerize it or is that the color? Can't tell from the photos.

its just the glass bead blasted finish, waiting on the duracoat kit to get here-hk semigloss black. id leave it as it is if it were durable, i considered park but closest place is 30+ miles from me and i dont know them or have the slightest inclination to leave a firearm with them.

I don't have anything duracoated and have never used it. The gun-kote was the aerosol can so it was really spray & bake for me. The only wear points so far are the inside rails and the brass deflector. The deflector has a color difference, not sure how to describe it other than that. The rails look like the finish has been ground into it.
Pic of said rifle:

thats a good looking reciever, i am still teetering now between gunkote and duracoat. im really interested in the spray kphos too. too many options.

This Cetme is just parkerized, for all the hassle of painting I can park a gun in about 1/3 of the time. Up until last year I Duracoated everything until I bought a stainless steel tank and a propane camping grill to heat the solution.

i been thinking bout parking and might try the manganese phosphate. seems easy enough after watching people do it. what are you using thats long enough to fit a barrelled reciever in? holescreek is that one just iron phosphate parked? i think i may have one issue though, we used small amounts of stainless to fill in pores during welding in 3 small places, is that going to affect parking?

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