It was mentioned I should share this project here. Hopefully some of you will enjoy it. This is a WIP.

I apparently never took a photo of the parts before I started.

The To Do list was simple enough;

-Reweld
-Denials so none of the good bits can be used and keep AFT off my back
-Make it semi auto
-Make it closed bolt
-Make it able to be charged in the original way

Since the barrel is scrap I had to get another. Lucked out that Marcolmar had a few left over.

Next step. Make a jig.






Then put it all together.



Bonus points for who knows what the other little toy on the table is!



Designed a trigger and disconnector based of another home brew design by a guy that goes by Sundance and found some A2 and D2 because for some reason I make triggers out of D2 and A2.





Designed and machined a striker in A2.  



The got to throw this one away because I screwed up and got to make another, out of 4140 then did an oil quench harden on it.

Overall made a few chips. Calipers for scale.





Running my mill is always a blast but the hydraulics make a racket. Best X and Y power feeds every though.



Made some pins because I have to pit a striker in the middle of where the original pin goes.







"Only" have the striker spring setup and the charging latch to get working. May have to make another striker rod. Still have to get the spring hole in the stock. The charging latch needs the retaining pin hole, to be mounted in the lower and to be fitted as it is wayyy too tall right now.

Once those things are done I get to see if my weld that sets headspace is good enough. Once it runs and I dont blow my face off I will get back to struggling to remove the origional gas block off the scrap barrel and put it on the new barrel to make the gas block and carry handle right.

Here is how it sits today with my last reweld and FCG redesign project, the DPM.

So, just found out my current plan of sleeving the wood in the stock with a steel tube isn't going to work with the tube I have. Need something smaller and thinner wall. Back to the drawing board!


Any ideas?

Very cool project, thanks for posting. There is a great diy gunsmith group on Bookface called Restoring History One Weapon at a Time. Lots of great posts and ideas from guys that are building.

Thanks! I'm pretty excited to finally be able to pull the trigger on this one!

I don't have a bookface account and don't plan to ever have one again. I am part of a little forum dedicated to building and have gotten info from some amazing people there.

Great post!
I don’t think that even a lot of “gun people” realize just how much skill and effort is involved in rewelding a receiver.
You’ve got some real talent.
I have a UK- 59 and know just how many very small rails are inside that big receiver that need to line up perfectly.
P.S. That DP-27 (Stalin’s record player) is making me drool Did you make that from a parts kit, too?

It is a DPM. Has a pistol grip and the newer stronger bipod and a few other harder to spot changes from the DP-27.


Yes, it was a polish parts kit that was rewelded. I designed the FCG in that one too. The design has a lot of influence from the same Sundance but with my own twist. The FCG is made in D2. After a little tweaking of the gas system it runs pretty good! It is a very very soft shooter with a low cyclical rate. Lots of mass moving in that one too. Surprisingly accurate.


Almost took out a window when I lost one of the locking wings for the bolt off the surface grinder when grinding in headspace. Had loads of fun grinding in headspace coins too. Stupid things wouldn't stay on the magnetic surface of the surface grinder.


Getting things lined up in the UK-59 was not fun. Hours and hours of running a file and using a sharpie to find the high spots. Probably more like days of running a file. Must have run a file down it every night after dinner for a few hours for 2-3 weeks.

All this posting about your UK59 and mine got me thinking and I ordered two more 250 round belts and cans from Marcolmar.
I’m such a whore.
That makes six 250 rd belts and cans, seven 50 rd assault drums and belts. 🤣🤣🤣

I probably need another assault drum.

The belts are all 50rnd segments if my memory serves. They basically clip together. You can load it all up then just pull the starter tab off and clip it to the new belt and keep going.


I havnt opened the belts in my 250rnd can yet. Everything is still NIW.

Correct about putting 50rd belts together to make them as long as you want.
I made a pair of 100 round belts for the range.
They are not too unwieldy off a bench.
All my belts are loaded up. Marcolmar said the belts wear in better when kept loaded.

Well, guess I should load up a belt and let it sit. We had a couple failure to push the cartridge through the belt using one of my belts on the FA one I got to shoot. I figure that's due to just new belts.


More work on the striker spring stuff tonight. Need to make a plan to do the charging latch stuff here soon.

Alright, I think I got the striker stuff sorted out. It seems to hit hard.

The first problem is the charging mechanism is not yet done so I cant test it.


Second problem is where to put it as the safe is full...

Time to buy another safe.
You know you’ll be putting together an MG 42 soon enough. 🤣🤣🤣

A stripped MG42 receiver came into my LGS a while back and the buyer was denied. Unfortunately I never heard anything further on that one. Was kinda hoping I could snag it. Oh well. The next ones on the list are a pair of PM-63 RAKs. One in 380 and one in 9mm Mak. That and I have to weld up some AK FCG holes a friend screwed up and redrill them. That one will end up as a tiny AK-47 SBR. The RAKs will end up as SBRs too.


I've been thinking about replacing the small safe with another big one around 100 gun or so. Just havnt pulled the trigger on that. Plus, I plan to move out of Oregon semi soon and don't really want to move several tons of safe.

Alright, more progress on the charging mechanism. I think its ready to weld into place and I need to put a hole in the receiver so I can push the retaining pin in and out. Then the tab that releases the carrier and bolt needs to be made and installed.


Getting closer. Got a 2gun comp coming up soon and hopefully have this thing running in time.

Nice build.

Your other toy is a Max 11/15 or 10/15.  I cheat because I had one.

Thanks!

Max10/15. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

Well, one major step forward completed. The charging catch is welded into the FCG pocket. Only have to design, make and install the trip for that and machine a catch pocket into the carrier. Then it'll be time to test fire. Hoping I can have that all done by the weekend. We shall see how it actually pans out.

Picture time!

After making the charging catch 2 more times, broke the original (hardened D2 is brittle, who knew!), made the second one too short so it didnt hold the carrier when charging and finally hand filed in #3 then I clipped almost 2 inches of spring off the striker spring so the striker rod would travel far enough and failing at welding, breaking off the charging catch release with my fingers by accident and having to weld it back on again it seems to charge fine and appears ready to test! finally!!

Test run went good and bad.


The Good:

Goes BANG every time!

Everything worked as it should!


The Bad:

Its not stripping rounds out of the belt. If I single feed a round it goes off fine but fails to chamber the next round. Belt is new and a PITA to load. Not really sure how to break in the belt.

Broke another charging catch. Broke the catch right off the body. No idea how. This one was A2. Going to change the shape a little and see it that helps.

Its not zeroed at all. No idea where it is hitting at 35 yards.

When I first got my NIB Ukm and belts, Marcolmar recommended oiling the belts and ammo.
I laid the loaded belts flat and sprayed CLP on each side and wiped off any runny excess.
I had about 4 FTF in the first 50 round belt, but it’s ran like a sewing machine since.
Any new belts I load will get the same treatment.
I will be taking out the UKM soon to sight in a 3 power reflex sight in a week or two.
I will try to use the newest belt I can find and not oil it to see how it runs.

I've been talking to a.guy that worked on the Marcolmar UK59 project. Lots of excellent info.

Lube didn't help me at all.

I found I might have a couple issues.

First being the charging catch was getting hit when the carrier came back because I didn't clearance the carriage to go over the charging catch didn't think I needed to. Apparently it will happily move further than expected.

Second is I had the charging catch too far back. I was wasting almost a 1/2" of spring compression when charging the gun.

I plan to make another charging catch today (#5) and see how it goes. I'll probably have to tweak my charging catch release lever to make sure that is clearing things well.

Thumpy has gotten some more TLC. Running great! 3 light strikes out of 48 rounds. More than I want but really promising!!!

Figured I needed some photos.



It was ringing steel from 35 to 50 (that poor 6x6x0.5 plate) to 140 to 180 yards. Was a good day.


And then there is my brand. I now belong to Bar UKvz59 Ranch! It doesnt hurt anymore which is a surprise. Gas blocks get hot. Dont touch the hot gas block.

That’s great that you got it running.
Sorry about the gas block lesson.

Broke the charging catch assembly out of the FCG today so I gotta weld that back in. Couple light strikes today again. Gotta figure out that one. Ran on position 2 on the gas block. Pretty sure it'll run fine with the original gas block then.


Gotta fix the charging mechanism and make a cover for the bottom of the receiver. Plan to run it as my carbine for the shoot this coming weekend.

I just mounted a Primary Arms 3 power reflex sight on mine.
Going out next Monday to dial it in.
The iron sights work well enough but I like the idea of having a little distance advantage. Attached File

Hell yeah man!

I'm hoping to have the lower front cover fixed tomorrow as it was slagged by whoever demilled it. Then gas block swap!

Great to see a firearm brought back to life!

Parris, what's the muzzle blast like off that flash hider? One came with my barrel but I have never mounted it. I use the original cone instead. Makes a fireball and a hell of a thumpy.

I’d say it’s about on par with my 16” barreled 308 AR.
Every belt I get some real blasters out of nowhere that I attribute to the inconsistency of Russian made steel case ammunition having a stiffer powder charge.
I caught a good example in a picture
Attached File

@Deerhurst

I finally got out and as I told you I would try, I didn’t lubricate the belts when I loaded the rounds into them.

Without the lubricant I was getting failure to feeds regularly.

The rounds were jammed with the tips above the chamber and the rims above the bolt face.

The experiment is slightly flawed because the first 50 rounds were Wolf copper washed and this was the first time I used them. Subsequent belts were my usual Red Army Standard, and while I still had an occasional FTF, they were no way near as many as with the Wolf. Maybe 1 a belt for Red Army, 8 or 9 for the Wolf.

Up to now, I had never had any failures with the UKM, even when rapidly firing 5 or 6 round “bursts” as fast as I could get them through a 50 round belt.

Also. While the burns that I received on both hands and forearms were no way close to the burns you received from the gas block, the hot brass burns I have are still very visible and have taught me a valuable and lasting lesson about firing the UKM prone without wearing gloves and long sleeves.

Interesting.

As long as I don't light strikes with mine it seems to run. Everything is hot and burns me. Ha!

I do need to readdress the striker rod to help prevent light strikes.

Swapped out the marcolmar gas block for the original. It's pretty close to square but a PITA to put on perfectly square. Gonna test things tonight. Hope it works! I'm excited to have all the original wood on it!

One of the marcolmar guys told me lube on the belt won't help. He said he has some astronomical 50,000rnds through a belt and it doesn't really break in or stretch.

Don't know if I posted earlier but I modified my charging catch location and mine chambers the first round without issue. The hard part is keeping charging catches alive for much time.

Made a new striker a while back. Helped some.

Ordered a couple more 50rnd cans from Marcolmar. They are "B Grade". They look and fit better than the one that came with my kit so that's a win!

Took the UK to a match Saturday with the hopes of fireballs. It light struck every round. Found the firing pin isn't being pushed all the way forward for max protrusion. The hardened 4140 striker is softer than the firing pin and has worn a divot where it hits the FP. Filled it in with weld today. Hopefully that solves that issue until I find a better striker material.


I have a decent scar from that burn. Probably didn't smell like bacon when I was cooked.

Still running great! Still need to paint it. Spent a little quality time with it today.

I love that cone flash hider.

It makes quite the fireball!

The cone is the original milspec muzzle device.

Totally jealous 😄

Let me know if you ever make it to Oregon and we can go run the UK!


Hopefully I'll have it painted by then. I've gotten distracted by a PM63 build and a RPK-47 build now....

Bet!