I have decided to make this informative post to assist my customers who have purchased a one of a kind furniture set and want to install it perfectly without damaging their rifle or handguard, but have never done so and may be unsure about the best way to do it. The following method is the one used here in the Supanik workshop and has proven to give flawless results as all of my rifle builds will attest. Follow these instructions, be patient, buy the proper tools and all should go well.
The lower handguard pin currently comes in two styles depending on whether you have a CSA made vz.58 or a Century built vz-2008. The CSA vz.58 has a tapered pin and the Century vz-2008 has a roll-pin. There is a difference in how they are installed and removed.
The roll-pin of the vz-2008 is held tightly in the hole by spring tension and can be driven out in either direction with a punch. This is a rather simple and straight forward situation that does not need further explanation.
The CSA vz.58 handguard pin is tapered, in a tapered hole and is held in by compression and friction. Remove it by using a punch on the left hand side of the rifle, driving it out to the right. To install it, drive it in from the right side. The more domed end of the pin is the head and is the larger end, it must be on the right when finished.
To protect the finish of your rifle use brass punches in case they jump off the pin. When inserting a pin use a very large oversized brass punch. The pin does not go all the way in flush on a CSA, but the domed head protrudes slightly above the flat sides of the receiver, driven in to when the top outer edge of the pin is flush with the top of the hole.
I like to use a plastic and rubber headed small dead-blow hammer that uses replaceable heads or a small ball-peen hammer. Make the final blows to set the pin using the oversized brass punch so as not to mar the finish of the rifle. If an oversized brass punch is not available to you, cover the pin with a rag or a layer of thick cloth for the final blows.
If you inadvertently drove a tapered pin out the wrong direction, you have now enlarged the hole to the diameter of the pins head and the rest of the pin is now undersized and will not be tight. You can remedy this easily by replacing the tapered pin with a roll-pin.
You may need to chase out the hole with a drill bit matched to the size of your new roll pin if the new roll-pin is too big for the existing hole, but the roll-pin should be just a few thousanths of an inch larger than the hole so that it will compress as it is inserted. So is you do need to drill it, use a bit that is just slightly undersized from the roll-pin diameter.
If your tapered pin seems to fit snugly in place but walks out due to recoil when it is fired, it can often still be used by simply using an assembly grade thread-locker such as Locktite 222 purple. This is a strong enough bond to hold it in place, but can still be broken loose later in the normal manner without the use of heat or other means. It is the thread-locker with the lightest bond, but is more than enough for this application.
Other situations to be aware of! Other receivers such as the ORF produced ones can be extremely brittle in the pin hole area due to many of those receivers being over-hardened late in the production run. Extra care must be taken not to use too oversized of a roll-pin in this hole or any other impact to the pin hole area or it can crack or even worse, break that section of the receiver. The procedure is the same as for the vz-2008, but this particular rifle will be less forgiving and will require extra attention to detail in how this operation is performed.
Taking your time and having the proper tools will far outweigh the costs of being impatient, using brute force and with less than ideal tools that may result in damage.
How do you know if you have an ORF (Ohio Rapid Fire) receiver? The left side of the rear sight will be marked "SHE 69". This happens to also be the arsenal code for a CZUB (Czeska Zbrojovka Uhersky Brod) manufactured guns made in 1969, but since all of those are original non-transferable machine-guns, there is no chance that what you have is anything but an ORF made receiver. They were also later marked Assault Weapons of Ohio after the remaining inventory of ORF receivers were sold off after the untimely death of the owner of ORF, so regardless other markings, it is the same receiver.
Hopefully this post will be informative and help anybody attempting to replace their handguard do so without incident and will give them perfect results. If in doubt, you are always welcome to email me so that I can assist any way I can.
Regards,
Chris here at Supanik