pe 57 flats?

[r7moon]

New to site, looking for pe 57 recv. info or flats. saw some old posts here while researching. did the project work out or not?

[Bil]

I would check over on the Prexis site,Weapons Guild.More likely to have the info. ---bil

[amafrank]

I think you will find that the Stgw 57 (which all the kits are, not PE57's) are a very complex stamping and the likelyhood of someone coming up with a useable flat is virtually nil. A lot of people who are quite knowledgeable have looked into the project and found that there is not a reasonable chance of success especially when you stamp a flat and let a non experienced person try to put something together. I don't mean to sound elitest or anything like that but as simple as the AK's are there is a huge failure rate for the flats as compared to completed receivers. The Stgw 57 requires quite a bit more work than the AK and fitting of the front and rear trunnions is not reasonably doable unless the flats are bent and welded perfectly. So in short I'd say keep looking around....maybe someone will get to it but don't hold your breath.


Frank

[762x51]

Is there someone reading this that has access to stamping machines and willing to make dies for this project?
I have drawings for the receiver flat that were developed from the original (very poor copies) SIG drawings and would love to work with someone on getting this project off the ground.

I have modified the original design to make a 2 piece receiver that would be fairly simple to stamp and then weld the 2 halves together to make the sheet metal receiver "box".

Here is what the receiver would look like:

[r7moon]

I also have the prints, had a friend of mine, a machinist, convert to inch pattern. I can,t see why it would not be profitable for some one to make the box portion and the have the buyer send them the forgings and assemble. There are so many companys out there who build knock-offs and have the capital and equip. to do it. Is it there were just not enough kits sold ,or are they just such a unknown and unpopular rifle? I have had this kit, and a damn nice one at that, for about 10 years. r7

[amafrank]

The rifles would no doubt be pretty popular but the expense of making the stamping dies is huge and the return questionable. The cost would be much higher than an AK for example and how many of the owners of kits would be willing to pay $600-1000 to have a receiver made up for their kit? There are also the issue of licenses for manufacturing and other administrative issues that just add to the lack of interest. If there were 30,000 kits out there with anxious owners wanting recievers it might be doable but chances are that there are more like 3000 kits out there and many of them don't have the forward casting for the receiver. That is not a simple part to make and is basically the heart of the receiver. The last issue is compliance parts....there are none. That is not insurmountable and with enough interest triggers, hammers and sears could be made and along with a US made receiver that might bring the parts count into the acceptable range for 922R regs.
Please don't misunderstand me....I am not against this project by any means and I'd like a number of receivers myself. I looked into making them but talks with stamping companys was very discouraging. Welding thin sheetmetal is also not simple and jigs for brazing and spotwelding the castings are going to cost too. The bottom line here is that this is not nearly as simple as an AK or an FAL or most of the other kit to rifle firearms that have been done previously. The number of kits is nowhere close to the AK and others either. It may be done at some point so keep checking around and don't let my grumpy sounding posts discourage you.....


Frank

[mgfun]

I think that Pirate was thinking about these a few years ago. He is very busy right now, but you could let him know what you've got and see if he can get involved. He now has a manufacturing license and probably has good contacts in the bizness.

I think stampings for the small quantity of these in the country would be way too expensive.

Depending on whether you had front and rear stubs....What is someone would machine the sides and top out of plate and then you could jig it and weld the corners and the front and back? CNC is pretty straight forward and you might have to leave it a little thicker on the outside to keep it stable...but maybe. Perhaps machine the external bumps but leave the internal surface flat to lessen the cutting. Stuff like that.

Regards,
mgfun