Ok, one of my Kalashnikov rifles was imported in 2001 which means it had to comply with Klinton's AWB. The ears of the bayonet lug are ground off and of course a bayonet won't snap-lock into place. Instead of buying a new gas block, I figured that I could drill a 1/16 diameter hole through where the lugs should be and insert a 1/16 roll pin to serve as lugs.
But, the steel is very hard. It ate a HSS drill (no real surprise there). It ate a cobalt drill and a titanium nitride drill too (wow!). So, I bought some 1/16 carbide drills. I tested one by drilling a hole through glass... no problem. BUT... even the carbide drill won't cut the gas block steel.
WTF? Is this thing Kryptonite or what? I can't think of any harder drill material than carbide.
Anyone have any ideas? It's not terribly important... I just wanted to see if it would work. But the inability of CARBIDE to cut steel has me stumped and now I just "need to know" what's going on.
I know that I could probably get it red hot and kill the hardness, but I don't want to overheat the barrel and f- it up. I should probably just get a new gas block, but drilling and pinning a new piece on the barrel just seems like asking for alignment and gas leak trouble. I should probably just fuggetaboutit.
Any ideas?
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