UPDATE: 3/4/2009
Wood! No, not the morning kind but the Ironwood kind.
I got a slight discount on the buttstock and it is probably due to the weird looking grain as seen in this picture. I can live with it for the discount I got.
I was surprised to see the extra storage compartment. I didn't think that Ironwood bothered. This allows me to pick up a surplus G1 buttplate with a trap door. Nice!
Pistol grip.
DAY 1 OF STOCK FINISHING
I decided to follow Ironwood's
stock finishing directions faithfully since I have never stained anything in my life...
Today I sanded the pistol grip and buttstock with 150 grit sandpaper and then again with 220 grit sandpaper making sure not to round out any edges. I then took a very wet sponge and rubbed both pieces down with water. This will raise the grain and make the wood feel fuzzy. Both pieces are drying right now and I will continue tomorrow.
UPDATE: 3/7/2009
I got a couple major components on Thursday - the barrel and the upper receiver. I also got my STG handguards back from Mark over at Zero Hour. He did a fantastic job dura coating these for me.
One of the things that someone building a FAL has to check is the timing of the barrel to the receiver. The small cutout in the barrel shoulder for the gas tube nut needs to fall at around 30 degrees before top dead center. Any more and you will not be able to apply enough torque to time the barrel and you'll end up having to shave some metal off of the barrel shoulder . Any less and you will not have tightened it enough and you risk embarassing yourself at the range when the barrel gets loose on you. As can be seen the barrel times to about 11 o'clock or 30 degrees before top dead center and should not be a problem when it comes time to install the barrel. Perfect!
Admit it... that charging handle is damn sexy on a FAL.
UPDATE: 3/10/2009
DAY 6 OF STOCK FINISHING
After sanding with 150, 220 and 320 grit sandpaper, 4 coats of Watco Exterior Stain and 2 applications of Tung Oil I get this.
I may go a couple more applications of Tung Oil before finishing it off with some Feed-N-Wax.
Since I got a nice bonus from work I decided not to split out the final order (order 12) into 2 separate and smaller orders. I placed that order last Friday. The only 2 remaining issues are: 1) DS Arms sent me the wrong top cover. They sent me a cover capable of accepting stripper clips. I had to RMA the old one back, wait 2 weeks for them to get around to verifying the return, get credit for shipping, etc, etc... It was a pain in the ass. The correct cover is on it's way. Issue number 2 is the fact that the lower is still on back order.
I also received an authentic G1 sling from a guy on eBay.
I am itching to start this build. I have a big old box of parts in the safe that I cannot do anything with. Without the lower I cannot assemble anything. I also cannot assemble the upper because the final order I placed was for all the parts associated with the upper. I cannot even assemble the barrel to the receiver because I am missing the handguard retaining ring. Doh! The wait is killing me.
UPDATE: 3/23/2009
The last order from DS Arms has been received. All orders have now been placed and received. The only 2 remaining backordered items are the lower receiver and the standard length gas piston.
I barreled the receiver today. I ended up having to sand off the parkerization on the end of the barrel where it contacts the inside of the upper receiver. I also had to sand the barrel shoulder down a little bit in order to hand time the barrel to 11 o'clock. Once this was accomplished the final torquing of the barrel was easy. Total time for this was about 3 hours. I also assembled the rest of the upper. It was fairly simple and took about 50 minutes. Here it is.
Now I wait for the lower to come in...
UPDATE: 4/22/2009
HEADSPACING THE FAL
Well, another month has gone by and still no sight of the lower. In the mean time I got around to headspacing the FAL. Below from left to right are the 3 items needed to complete the job: Set of gauge pin rods, Clymer GO/NO-GO headspacing gauges and a FAL extractor removal tool. The tool is not needed but your fingers, nails and/or eyes will thank you if you use it - that spring is under some serious compression.
The tool is simple to use. The right end wraps around the firing pin and the left end hooks into a small hole located on the extractor.
Success!
Headspacing is a no brainer. The bolt and chamber are cleaned. The GO gauge is inserted into the chamber and the smallest rod in inserted.
Close the bolt on the rod.
Continuing inserting bigger and bigger rods until you can no longer close the bolt using 2 thumbs pressure. Back off to the previous rod size and add 0.001 inches for setback. This is the correct sized locking shoulder to use. Since the rifle is new I will take setback into account. Basically it allows for the parts to wear in. In my case the locking shoulder size ended up being .256".
Before installing the locking shoulder I made sure that it seated correctly in the receiver - I learned this trick from a thread on FAL File Forums.
A couple of healthy hammer blows later with the aid of a pin punch and the locking shoulder was installed. This is about the time I ran into some problems.
I again inserted the GO gauge and expected the bolt to close. It did not even when I put a lot of pressure on it. I removed and reinstalled the locking shoulder and it still would not close. I again removed the locking shoulder and inserted the .256" rod gauge. The bolt closed on the rod gauge. The only assumption I can make that makes sense is that the locking shoulder I purchased from DS Arms is the wrong size. I will verify the size with a micrometer.
On another note I made a mistake when I installed the bipod legs. It seems I should have looked inside the bag a little more carefully as I forgot to install a small diameter rod that sits between the top bracket and a notch cut out of the barrel. This rod prevents the bipod from swinging more than 30 or so degrees to either side of the barrel. In my case the bipod could swing all the way around. I had to order a small rod online as the parts bag for the bipod legs is now somewhere in a landfill... The bipod now functions as it should.
2 items remain - the lower receiver (should be in my hands on Friday) and the butt stock swing swivel.
UPDATE: 4/23/2009
I bought myself a digital fractional caliper today. I measured the locking shoulder and it turns out it's a .258" locking shoulder and not the .256" one I ordered. It's no wonder the bolt didn't close on the GO gauge. Grrr, guess I'll call DS Arms tomorrow for my third RMA.
UPDATE: 4/24/2009
What can Brown do for you? Well he delivered a lower receiver today!
However, the pistol grip screw is missing! Grrr! That's strike 4 against DS Arms. Once again, I placed another call to them and they have a pistol grip screw on it's ways to me. Somewhere in that pile of parts is a FAL lower... trying to get out.
After about 2 additional hours of tickering around I have myself a completed lower. Oh baby. Getting the z spring into the bottom of the rear sight was a bitch. So was the hammer return spring assembly - I managed to launch the whole assembly clean across the living room twice because of the force of the spring under compression.
A closeup of the hammer return spring assembly, a.k.a. Living Room Rocket.
With the exception of the pistol grip screw, the locking shoulder and the buttstock swing swivel this build is complete. All that's left when these 3 parts come in is a trip to the range to pop it's cherry, adjust the gas system and sight it in. Thanks to everyone who offered advise on the build and offered to lend me parts and tools. A special thanks goes out to Mark from Zero Hour for doing the FFL transfer and for duracoating the STG handguards. I will follow up with a range report soon. Here are some pictures of the completed, built from scratch, G1 look alike FAL