Hawk's M14 Dummy Kits

Hawk,

I finally had time to get the Ambi kit installed in my Sage Mod 1.  It's no little piece of work nor for those with a faint heart, but the pay off is worth it.  I went with the button lock instead of the switch, personal decision based on the fact my rifle is a semi-auto and always will be, so the lock makes it more "realistic".

Next up was locating where to drill the holes, I used a small dab of grease on each side of the aluminum spacer I made to hold everything together while I adjusted it in the cutout with the barreled action in the chassis.

Once I got a good idea of where to put it I eyeballed the connector arm over the sear release and op rod to see how it'd line up, this took a few adjustments to look right.

I then squared up the lock to the chassis (since this is just a decoration, it may as well look good right?), and removed the barreled action very carefully.

After this I marked where the forward hole should go with a punch.  Then the real fun begins... I got out the #36 drill and cutting fluid and clamped up the chassis in my drill press.  I double checked that the drill was centered over the punch mark about a dozen times since I only had one shot at it.  I used lots of cutting fluid, cleaned the hole often and made short plunges each time so the holes didn't get gouged out by the chips coming out.  The first hole was the critical one, the second hole I just lined the bracket up over the first hole, squared it up and punched it.  The drilling procedure was the same as the first.

Then I cleaned up everything and got out the 6-32 end tap.  I dipped it in cutting fluid and began threading the holes.  It's a slow process, maybe three turns in and back it out to clean it off, dip in cutting fluid and repeat till it bottoms out.  The big thing here was patience and not trying to force the tap to go in.

Afterward, I blew out the holes, wiped up as much cutting fluid as possible, then removed most of the cotton from a cotton swab and threaded it into the two holes.  I did this several times with the last time dipping it in acetone to remove any oil or grease.

The reason I did this was so the connector lock hold the arm up as it should instead of resting on the chassis.  This also makes the arm sit parallel to the op rod channel which as stated before, it's a decoration and should look good.

Last step was function testing the rifle, I found the connector arm was catching the op rod enough to hold it dead even with the piston tail.

Not a major thing, but I preferred to have no doubt that the op rod was being stopped by the piston.  So I shifted the bracket forward about 1/64" which resolved everything (of course checking for square).

When I did this I also Loctited the screws and torqued them to 20 in-lbs.  The arm is still grabbed by the op rod, but just slightly as it fully travels forward.

Another thing to note, in the pic below, you'll see some silver around the connector shaft. There is a little in/out play the button lock, so I wrapped wire around the inside and soldered it. Now it has a little rotational movement but nearly no in/out movement. Just a personal thing to keep things tight on the rifle.

Note:  Additional installation information can be found in the standard installation instructions. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the standard instructions as well as the above instructions prior to beginning your installation.