Coldsteel 80% receiver and 53M kit

[Bil]

Thanks for the update,Rocco.I know you have been waiting for this since winter.I have always said the original receivers are the way to go,even after having a BRP rear half.They are totally accurate,you have to get it right but the dimentions are all there.Hopefully there will be another new one out soon,as the 53 kits can't all get the German receivers.And Rocco and the Ariz. guys aren't new at this,they have built some impressive stuff. ---bil

[rocco1911]

Yea bill I will send you a pic of the Vickers when I get it done. I have a pic of a Maxim for you its on its way. Little Rhodey will probably get his MG42 done before me I need to save for a original cut one now just dumped $2000 on the vickers & tripod so I need another month to save up

[railsplitter]

CS - quite discouraging long wait - 20 weeks - had to wite them given they ignored emails - at least I beat the price change! Plans are incomplete buffer won't even fit without alteration. Should I bull through this or bail and buy Brian's (BRP) rear halves?

No smiley face here.........

[bolex]

I have read in the MG42 forum that the Yugo buffer is larger than the MG42 and I have read they are the same size. I have also read that the MG42 cut receivers have a clearance cut for the buffer cam to fit. I do not have one so I can not say one way or the other. The bottom line is that the CS receiver I got needed to have a clearance cut for the buffer to rotate and for the pilot diameter to fit. The photo shown of the end of the CS receiver is on this page viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5147&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=105
The ground spots indicated on the photo have matching ground spots on the opposite side so that the buffer would be centered. I used a dremel tool with a cutoff wheel to remove some of the steel and a silicon carbide wheel to smooth it out.

BTW, get your plans off this site and ignore CS's plans they are not complete. I made a binder of copies of how tos, dimensions, from this site and pirates. If I get some time I will gather together information on the dimensions and post it somewhere in one place.

[nutsrusted]

bolex,

I have a 100% positive answer for you because I got my hands on a German rear section. The m53 buffer fits perfectly in the 42 receiver. On the German they cut a small slot for the cam to rotate into and it lined up perfectly with the M53 buffer. In addition, there are clearances cuts on the sides where the rotation happens. Looks like they fly cut the rear for the round part of the buffer to fit snug. When they did the fly cut it actually eliminates the corner where the charging handle stops and you have a detent on that corner of the receiver. Not very pretty even on the original and it looks like they did some hand fitting as well.

[railsplitter]

Does anyone sell the last three inches of a '42 receiver, or is that a banned portion?

[rocco1911]

The point is they screwed up. The receiver does not accomadate the pieces that where made originally by the yugos or the germans its a flawed desine & they should get there act together before shipping this product even if it takes 5-6 months to deliver as in our case on 2 occasions the reciever is not as described good for a dummy build but I'm not sure much else!


This is my opinion yours may vary just buy one and post your own as to Quality & what you receive.

[bolex]

Mine works.

[rocco1911]

You where lucky

[Bil]

As I look through the Bolex build thread,I see luck had very little to do with it-there was a lot of work to get that up and running.I have seen some of the Arizona guys builds-very nice also.I think the diferance is because these are hand-made,each one will be diferant,while the wise-lite ones are all built to the same standard.after waiting for as long as Rocco did,you would hope it would have been of a better quality.I am looking forward to a review of the wise-lite when it gets built. ---bil

[xano]

Bolex that was a very incouraging video. I am still working out the bugs in my sa42 but can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am also using a coldsteel reciever and wiselite grip with no regrets. Yes I did have to do a few mods to fit the buffer assembly, ejection port cover, feed tray and grip but It was a wonderful challenge. I had to find other sources for dimensions and set my gripstick a 1/4 inch too far rearward but was able to make it all work out. None of the bugs I am experiencing seem to be due to the reciever but to the firing pin binding. Im sure nothing that I can't work out. I am using an ar15 fcg with a wolf hammer spring. A one piece firing pin and a mainspring cut to 16 coils. I had to rework the fcg to get all the parts to work together properly but it works very well now. I like the coldsteel reciever. It has worked out fine for me keeping in mind that what I have to work with is a dremel tool, mig welder, and 3 inch grinder. For those of us with lots of ingenuity and little cash it is an affordable option.

[railsplitter]

With some help from Dan at Angola I find the Yugo and German buffers are identical in measurements. So I'll grind the buffer a little and make it fit. I'm hopefull that with that hurdle behind me I won't find more Cold Steel surprises to overcome as I move up the 80% towards the front end .

[bolex]

I copied this from page 4 or something. These were my observations:

Personal observations on the Coldsteel 80% receiver:
1)The receiver is somewhat crude, I expected this because I have bought several AK receivers in the past from coldsteel. The bends are not sharp like the original receiver.
2) I had to go back over several of the welds in the 80% receiver because of cracks in the welds.
3) The area (radius) where the feed tray is too large and a lot of material had to be removed to get the tray to sit flat.
4) The raised areas around the barrel door do not come close to matching the original barrel shroud.
5) Yugo Buffer is too large to fit in receiver. I removed material from the inside of the receiver to get it to fit. A MG42 buffer may fit without rework because it is smaller.

Item 3 is one area that you will need to work on "...won't find more Cold Steel surprises to overcome as I move up the 80% towards the front end" Now that it is pointed out it isn't a surprise

Item 5 has already been determined as German and Yugo buffers are the same size and a clearance diameter is needed to clear them in the receiver. It has been said that this clearance cut is in the original German receivers.

[artech]

I just recieved my Coldsteel receiver today(1-19-08) and I have to say I was hoping for better. I'll post pics soon, but while it's not as bad as Rhody said his was, this one is a very, very rough part.

The surface finish is OK but it looks like the receiver sides are not straight or parallell. I'm at work and have to wait until I get home to do any real measuring so I can't say for sure, but while I think I can work with this piece, it's not at all like the one Bolex got for his build.

This one appears to have been constructed in various sections from parts that are mostly hand-made, and again, it's better than I could do in my shop, but this is not what I was hoping for. Looks like a Pakastani Webley. Initial impression: "Ahh, crap." However, those Khyber pass guns did work, so I'm hoping this will too.

I'll put some pics up soon so folks can see the part. I simply cannot afford the Wiselite part since Paramedics get paid crap, but if I could I would save and scrimp until I could afford the better part. Unfortunately that's not an option for me, so out comes the cutting wheel and the HF TIG unit, and off we go! I'm also doing a Yugo kit build, so I'd like to thank everyone for all the good posts here. I'm sure to be asking for more advice as this project progresses.

[bolex]

Good luck. I believe mine was made at the beginning of production and I know it was before the original dies where ripped-off. I will be interested in seeing the photos. I thought it was intesting that the wiselite receiver required machining to get the parts to fit in the same areas (buffer, cover latch and radius near the cam) my the coldsteel receiver did. Not nearly as much machining as required by the coldsteel receiver, but still it was not just rivet the rails in and assemble it.

[artech]

Here's what it looks like.

[artech]

More pics.

[artech]

And here's what's making me nervous. This isn't a camera thingie, the sides are definitely 'V'd slightly. I can't get a good pic of it, but there is even an inch of MIG wire stuck to one of the welds inside. I just hope I can get this to work without cutting it all apart and rewelding it. Sorry about the crappy pics.

[sdk1968]

first thing i see is that they give you a lot of extra compared with what you get on the WLA towards the camming section.

but if you needed the extra because of a bad demill , this may be the way to go.

also: yes your gonna have to do ALOT more cutting and grinding on the CSS version. but its less than half the price so that shouldnt be a big surprise...

the WLA section went together really good, but you still had to do a little grinding on it.

i do like the little "ear" section being on there (up towards the barrel door) as this is not there and you have to make it on your WLA version.

[flemgunner]

What i the link to purchase one of these?
Glenn