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| Article Written by: O. Milic | |||||||||
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One of most sensitive parts of the SKS and the one which
most frequently gets damaged is the front sight hood.
Front sight hood is not a replaceable part and the only
option is to fix it. One of problems is that this part
is made of milled steel, and as such is not easily bent
back into the round shape. The procedure described here
shows how to fix the front sight hood. We need only one special tool, and that tool is metric 14mm jobber drill bit. This can be obtained through variety of sources. Enco and MSC being two with very reasonable prices for both, part and shipping. Besides metric drill bit we also need some tool to remove the front sight blade. The so-called SKS/AK C-clamp sight tool, available from variety of sources (Tapco, Sarco, etc.) is the best tool out there. Figure 1 shows the C-clamp and jobber drill bit. |
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Figure 1. Tools needed to fix the smashed front sight hood, 14mm drill bit and C-tool. |
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| Figure 2 shows the shank end of the drill bit being tapered with grinder to facilitate the insertion of the tool into the hood at the appropriate time. | |||||||||
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Figure 2. The edge on the shank end of the drill bit is ground off to make it tapered. |
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Any bench or angle grinder would do the job. Other tools
we’ll need are smaller brass hammer (8 oz. OK), padded
vise and a piece of wood 5-6 inches long and 1-2 inches
wide. We’ll use the wood piece to protect the drill bit
tip. Procedure goes as follows: - Disassemble the rifle. Remove the action from stock and remove the gas tube. - Place barreled action into the padded vise so as to grip the front sight base, Figure 3. |
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Figure 3. A typical problem with an SKS rifle - a bent front sight hood. |
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- If you can reach and remove the front sight blade with
C-clamp, do it now. - If you cannot remove the blade because the hood is smashed from the side, you will need a padded vise to bend the hood back into the shape, just enough to move the top hole on the hood to be able to remove the blade. In this case, I have flipped the jaw liners on my vise to obtain the smooth jaws and prevent marring of the front sight hood, Figure 4. |
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| Figure 4. Smooth jaws can be obtained by flipping the vise jaws. Protruding screws do not matter in this case. | |||||||||
| Figure 5 shows the appropriate grip in this particular case. Your case may vary, but the goal is to move the hole on the top of the hood enough to be able to access and remove the front sight blade. | |||||||||
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| Figure 5. Use the vise to bend the hood just enough to be able to remove the blade through top hole. | |||||||||
| - Once that is done, remove the blade with the C-tool, Figure 6. | |||||||||
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Figure 6. With the hole moved to make blade accessible, remove the blade with C-tool |
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- Lubricate the inside of the hood with the grease. - Insert the drill bit into the hood. Note that the cross-section of the drill bit is really an oval (or truncated circle) as there is a lot of material removed when flutes are created. Rotate and wiggle the drill bit by hand and push it into the hood as far as it would go, Figures 7 and 8. |
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| Figures 7) and 8). Push and rotate the fluted end of the drill bit into the hood as far as it will go. Hand force only. Do not use the hammer until you reach the end. Then lightly tap the bit perhaps 1/8” or so. Do not attempt to tap it all the way through! | |||||||||
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- When you reach the point where drill bit cannot be
pushed anymore, use the hammer and tap the shank-end of
it, to push it even further. 1/8” or so is all what is
needed. - Remove the bit by tapping its tip, using the piece of wood as a buffer, this time pushing it back. - At this time hood should have approximate circle-shape, at least on the one end. - Lubricate the inside of the hood again. - Insert the ground, tapered shank-end of the drill bit into the hood and using the wood piece as a buffer, tap the shank-end of the drill bit into the hood, Figure 9, Continue tapping until shank passes through the hood, protruding maybe ¼” on the other side, Figure 10) |
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| Figures 9) and 10). Using the wood piece as the buffer tap the shank-end of the drill bit into the hood. Let it protrude on the other end by about ¼”. | |||||||||
| - Using the brass hammer, start tapping or better said moderately pounding all around the hood, Figure 11. You must decrease the force of hit when you pound near the edges and especially when tapping the two narrow sections at the top of the hood, Figure 12. Be careful with those as you will thin the hood material easily in these places, thus weakening it. Start with lighter hitting and increase the force as you see appropriate. | |||||||||
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| Figure 11. Using brass hammer, pound the front sight hood evenly. Start with light tapping and progressively increase the force of hit until you feel metal is being bent. Reduce the force when tapping near the edges. | |||||||||
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| Figure 12. When tapping the locations the arrows are pointing to, reduce the force. In these places excessive pounding will thin the steel and thus weaken it. | |||||||||
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- After some time, the drill bit will become almost
loose and you will be able to pull it out of hood and
reinsert it back by hand with no effort. Remove it and
check your progress. If not satisfied, reinsert the bit
and keep pounding until you feel you reached the perfect
circle. For help, with the bit inserted into the hood,
point the flashlight toward the hood and from the other
side watch where most of light passes between the bit
and hood. That place requires a bit more pounding. - When you are done, degrease and reblue the hood inside and outside. Lube and screw-in the front sight blade. If you find yourself doing this frequently, you may want to make a special tool, essentially a piece of round steel stock, machined to 14 mm diameter and with smoothed conical end appropriate for insertion into the bent sight hood. The working side is also polished with fine sandpaper to make it smooth. In that case you do not need a drill bit and after removing the front sight blade, you may simply pound it lightly into the hood and continue the process with the brass hammer, the same way as with drill bit. The example of the tool is given on Figure 13. |
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| Figure 13 & 14. A special tool can be easily fabricated on the lathe. Basically a polished 14mm dia. round bar with smoothed conical end. | |||||||||
| Article Written by: O. Milic |
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