The first thing I needed to do was remove the gas block from the old barrel. I have pressed components off of AK barrels before but from everything I've read, the Galil’s gas blocks can be very tough to remove. Many gunsmith’s are willing to do the work but it’s my understanding that quite a few gas blocks are broke in the process. I chose to use one inch aluminum plate as a jig backed up by steel press plates. I split the aluminum and then drilled an 11/16 hole through the center of the cut. I then drilled a larger hole for the gas tube end of the block to sit in. Keep in mind that the gas tube end of the block only passes throught this hole and no pressure is placed on it during the press. Heres what the parts looked like prior to pressing the block off.

You may notice that I have the ram directly on the muzzle. The old barrel is in poor condition for the last inch or two of the bore so I’m not too concerned about damage to the crown. I do think that this barrel could be cut down and re-crowned into something usable. So I took hold of the press handle and began to put pressure on the thing. Now, I've heard some popping and snapping from something being pressed before and I'll say this gas block was on tight. I don't doubt for one minute that these do break during this process. In the end I won. Heres a photo of the 1" alum. plate after the press. Check out the indentation the gas block left on it. I was'nt looking at the pressure gauge when the gas block began to move, but from looking at the plates, I think it was alot of pressure.

Notice the gas hole. It has two different hole sizes. One of them is quite large butt very shallow. The through hole is centered in the first but smaller.

Next up will be the receiver. I am using an ORF. I know, I’m well aware of the Gun Plummer review and I will be comparing the issues raised in the review to my receiver to see if things have been corrected as ORF has stated they have. My choice to use the ORF was based on pure economics. Parts kit + $350 ORF receiver = Galil for $1050ish. Parts kit + $800 IMI receiver = Galil for $1500ish. That’s if you can find an IMI and one for $800, which would be on the low side these days. Why pay $1500-$1700 for parts and build it when you are approaching the $2000 range for buying an original. Just my opinion.

Here is the left and right side view of the ORF (Ohio Rapid Fire) Galil receiver. I need to say that I don't know much about ORF as this is only the second time I've done business with them. I don't know that my receiver is just like the rest or not. The exterior is very well done.

The match up of the selector stop and the safety while in the fire position. There is a small gap between them. My safety stop is an IMI, but it was very bent up and abused. I have yet to get it fully straightened out. It is also just leaning against the receiver for the photo. I believe that I will be able to get rid of the gap for a perfect fit with a little more adjustment to the stop. We'll see, but I’m not too concerned about it.

Here's the left side of the receiver showing the right side safety hole and the markings. The receiver is set up for the semi auto safety on the left side. This makes since as this is a semi auto receiver. The bad part is that I don’t have the semi auto parts. I can use the full auto selector without having NFA issues but I would need to drill and ream the selector hole; thus the safe and fire markings would be reversed in that case. The good news is that I can operate the weapon without the left side set up until I decide which route to go on this.

A few photos of the interior. I feel that the machining is well done. The bolt will not go fully forward unless you push it hard. Relieving the tightness will be simple and shouldn’t take to long.

Feed ramp/bullet guide properly installed? I can’t answer this question for obvious reasons. I have contacted ORF to inquire about a bullet guide and rivet but have not received a reply yet. I expected one to come with the receiver, but no one ever said it would. The riveting wont be hard as long as I can get the part. I will get back to this one when it is resolved.

Last but not least is barrel timing. My old used barrel times at about the five o'clock position. I expected that and was not surprised. I think that expecting any and all barrels to time out perfect is not being reasonable,(IMHO), as I am not sure if IMI Galils were built using a quantified system or not. I know that I had the same issue with a milled receiver AK build and expected to adjust the headspace on this build as I did on that one. I will know and comment further on the timing and head spacing as I progress. I need that bullet guide first. So far I’m pleased with the receiver as long as I can get a bullet guide.

I did a bit of rivet work the other night and some fitting of a few parts. Standard rivets from

AK-Builder fit perfect. I also used his trigger rivet jig which is a great tool and work just as well on the Galil components as it has on AK’s. Here's are the tools prior to doing the work. My jig has had a hard life and has done a lot of work, so excuse its rough condition.

Here is everything set up in the press and ready to apply pressure. My jig is beginning to wear out so I use a bit of duct tape to insure that the rivets aren’t too deep in the jig divots. I should replace the jig and plan on doing so soon.

I fitted the pistol grip next. It really wasn’t a big deal but I had to lightly file the pistol grip mount opening in the receiver and the USA made grip needed a divot drilled in it to allow space for the rear trigger guard rivet. The dimensions of the left side safety look really good as they line up cleanly with the side of the grip.

I went ahead and put the magazine catch assembly together. I placed a ball bearing on each side of the through pin and squeezed everything in my shop vice. The ends of the pin spread out and the job was done. I will clean the pin ends up a bit prior to finishing.

I made a decision to up size the butt stock mount pin. The original holes were just a little off as mentioned earlier. This caused the mount to be a bit slanted. I clamped the receiver onto my mill/drill table and used a 15/64 drill to center the chuck in the original holes. I then used a 1/4 drill to enlarge the holes on each side of the receiver. I pushed the butt stock mount into the receiver and aligned it by matching the cut out on top with the cut out in the receiver.

The assembly was placed back on the table and clamped in place again. I also clamped the mount in place to ensure that it would not move out of position. I replace the 1/4 drill with a 1/4 mill and plunged through each side which gave me clean hole and good alignment. I used a new 1/4 roll pin that measured right at .257. The pin had to be cut to length. I drove the pin in and all was well.

You can't really notice the hole and pin size difference and I ended up with a straight stock. I have seven new orlite magazines and they all fit tightly in the magazine well as well as the magazine catch with no side to side movement. At the time I only have five very worn out steel magazines that I only paid $10 each for. They fit and lock in fine but do move side to side a little. I have five new steel magazines on the way and I will let you know how they fit. By the way, this is starting to look like a Galil.

The hammer and trigger pins would not pass through the holes in the receiver. The holes needed to be reamed. I used a 7mm and a 5mm reamer to clean out the holes. I already had the tools as they are the same ones you utilize when using ak-builder flats. They cleaned up the holes quickly.

Here is the fire control group. I plan on using a G2 hammer and disconnector. I had to cut down the G2 sleeve to fit it in between the Galil trigger. With the U.S. hammer, disconnect, piston, pistol grip and receiver my U.S. parts count would be five. From all that I have read that would be the required amount of U.S. parts for a Galil. If anyone believes differently let me know. The retaining wire is a modified Galil part. It works great.

I installed the group and it seems to work correctly. I need to get that bullet guide before I can go any further. I’m planning on doing some prep work on the barrel early next week. I’m glad I was able to retain the original trigger as it looks and feels good.

Here is a photo of the bullet guide that was sent to me by ORF. It looks as if a fine tipped cutting torch was used to remove it from its former home. The rivet hole ended up to large as a result. I dont beleive that the rivet would come anywhere close to filling all that spare open area. I used some copper as a backer and filled in the hole then redrilled it.

I put the guide into the receiver and checked the fit and locking rotation of the bolt. The small ramp on the left side of the guide was way to short and would not allow the bolt to rotate into the locking position. This ramp had to be lengthened a bit to allow the bolt to go into the proper locked position. This only took light filing but when I was done and had things working correctly I realized that the guide now looked like an AK47 guide. I dug into my spare parts box and found a guide that I salvaged from a Russian milled AK47. When placed side by side both are identical. The arrow on the left guide shows the ramp that needs alteration.

I put the Russian guide into the ORF receiver and all worked smoothly with proper rotation of the bolt. This causes me to wonder if the guide is correct. With the guide in place, I was able to work the carrier and bolt fully forward to check for fit. This is when I found another issue. I believe that the radius pictured below with the arrow pointing to it is incorrect. Notice how the radius is not the same as the corresponding one on the carrier.

This mismatched radius makes it impossible for the carrier to move fully forward. Here's the gap on the other side caused by the incorrect radius.

These gaps need to be removed so that the carrier comes to rest on the receiver other wise the chamber will take quite a beating from the combined weight of the carrier and bolt IMHO. I took photos of the Galil carrier mated to the receiver stub off the Russian milled AK47. The difference in the radius is clear.

I took care of the radius today problem today. A 5/16 end mill worked well. The carrier mates up to the receiver correctly now. I decided to use the bullet guide from the Russian AK47 as it was in like new shape. I used a three inch 1/2 inch bolt as the rivet smasher. I just modified the treaded end with a grider until the tip was in the right shape, then smashed away. I cleaned it up a little with a dremel after.

I used the two blocks of aluminum that I used for pressing off the gas block earlier and cut a path down both with a 3/4 ball tip mill. These will be used with my 20 ton press to hold the barrel until tight. I built this contraption for use as a receiver wrench.

I decided to torque to 150 ft/lbs then push one more good time. I marked the location of the extractor relief and also put marks on the barrel and receiver with a sharp tool. I wanted to see how far I was turning the barrel after it snugged up to the receiver and the marks would help me realign the barrel after cutting the extractor relief. The photo below shows the barrel installed after the relief was cut and prior to torquing. This would be like a barrel timing out to about the 10:30 position. I then turned it in to match up with the original marks.

I torqued the barrel into place and am confident that it’s on there plenty tight enough. My head space was really close. I only had to take a few swipes with a fine file and all was good. I consider myself lucky on this fact.

My rear handguard retainer had some welds on it that kept it from going into the correct place on the receiver so I had to grind them off. I measured for the front handguard retainer and cut it out next. I also had to make a cut out in my stock for the carrying handle bracket. A little pushing and pulling and I had the handguard in place.

These are the tools I’m going to use to install the gas block. That’s my press block that I used to remove it the first time and on the right is my over worked xebec trunnion block jig and a few pennies for padding.

This shows the placement of the pennies for the press. It is important to be sure that all three of the points on the trunnion block jig make good contact with their corresponding points on the trunnion. In the photo it looks as if the bottom contact point isn't making contact but when placed in the press it does.

I did take my barrel to a friend who has a lathe, and we removed a very light amount of metal from it where the gas block presses on. This made things go together smoothly. The gas block still needed a press on, but I could adjust the cant of it by holding the rifle in a vice and taping on the gas block with a padded mallet. I also used anti seize cream on both the gas block and barrel prior to pressing.

I drilled the "step" of the gas hole by hand by using a hand drill and the proper sized bit directly trough the gas block. I then removed the gas block. Here it is next to the original barrel.

I set up the barrel in my small drill press as my milling drilling machine was not able to handle such a steep angle. Using a lot of oil and taking my time I drilled out the gas hole. This through hole is only .070. I pressed the gas block back on, checked it for cant, then drilled the holes for the retaining pins.

I put all the parts back on the rifle and poof, I had a Galil. The action and trigger group is smooth, head space was checked again and it passed. Both Orlite and new steel IMI magazines feed ammunition cleanly into the chamber and extraction and ejection seems good. All of these checks were performed by hand. I may also post back here with some final thoughts on this build but this is enough for today. Finish on this will also need to wait. I'll see if it shoots well and if the ejector holds up before I get excited about looks.

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