AKs are best known throughout the world for their incredible reliability. That reliability is due in large part to the loose tolerances they are built with. Everything in the mechanism fits loose enough that they can be packed full of sand and mud and still work. Given that though, there are some places where tight tolerances must be maintained, and they are primarily in the parts that make up the complete receiver. Everything in our receiver is located off the magazine, and the magazine locates off the trigger guard. That means that installing the trigger guard is our first step, and everything else will locate off it. Because AKs are sheet metal, they were originally riveted together. The internet rages with "rivet VS screw" debates, and both work equally well. I think the rivets look better. Plus, I get to make more special tools for them, and that's half the fun.
To rivet the trigger guard on and make sure it's square, I needed another a jig. The jig holds the trigger guard and all five of the necessary rivets. Like the bending jig, they are available, but too expensive for a single use. Mine is an aluminum base with a steel top plate. Here you can see the jig with the dimples for the rivet heads:
Here's how the trigger guard and rivets sit in the jig:
After getting everything aligned and clamped down, I used a punch to smash over the rivets on the inside of the receiver:
With all five of the rivets smashed, we're done with the second step in our AK build and we have something that is starting to look like a gun.
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