Anyone built an AK on a EWBANKS AK reciever????

[SHARPSHOOTER]

what's the quality like on these?

[juanni]

I see some reviews over in the AK Files. The receivers seem to be good, but don't order from Joeken. Lots of folks over at the AK files will tell you why.

hope this helps ....juanni

[instr8]

You might find one at DPHarms.com. I only have used GT (AUSA) receivers and have had great success with them three times. I think I would try Eubanks before going OOW.

[ratas calientes]

Originally posted by instr8
. . . GT (AUSA) receivers and have had great success with them . . . .

Who is GT? Global Trades?

. . . . I think I would try Eubanks before going OOW.

Why?

[SHARPSHOOTER]

Ratas yes GT is global trades, but I am a bit hesitant to use an OOW reciever due to the fact the selector hole is off a bit. That is the reason I ask about the quality of the Ewbanks .

[instr8]

The Eubanks are supposed to be correct. and from what I hear, very well made. I might order one for myself. Plus they are $10 cheaper. I'm getting the GT's for $60 and I'm not really worried about the $10 but if they are good it's like buy 5 get 1 free.

I think I would probably stay away from the pre-drilled trunnion hole number, especially if your doing a romy kit.

[ratas calientes]

Originally posted by SHARPSHOOTER
Ratas yes GT is global trades, but I am a bit hesitant to use an OOW reciever due to the fact the selector hole is off a bit. That is the reason I ask about the quality of the Ewbanks .

Roger that. Thanks.

[Tomovich]

I'll let you guys know..........I just ordered a bunch of them. And right from Joeken too.

[Rooster]

I just built on threee of them with no problem.

[AZ Dave]

I would never spend a dime with You gotta be JOEKEN. Ken Ewbanks is half of the JoeKen outfit.

[Tomovich]

So what exactly is the story/problem with the Joeken guys? Why the bad rep I keep hearing references to?? I'm unfamiliar with it....... ??

[SHARPSHOOTER]

they have a bad habbit of not delivering what they sell.

[instr8]

"Ken Ewbanks is half of the JoeKen outfit?"



No kidding? I didn't know that.

[Aifwikir]

Scott at DPH Arms has the Eubanks receivers with pre-drilled trunion holes for $50.00. I got one 2 weeks ago and it has made a VERY nice Romanian AKM.





This was the easiest build I've done (for an AK).

DPH Arms

VERY nice quality and the trunion holes only need slight tweeking. It took me 7 hours to remove the old receiver parts and rivet this one together.


Aif

[derek huffman, azexarms]

Joe Ewbanks called me and offered to send me a free receiver for eval.

Out of the blue, I made no request.

I told him, explicitly, that I would be building a post-sample MG on it and it had better be "correct".

He assured me it was, and it would be en route.

A few days later (Winslow AZ is not far from Mesa) I received the receiver and tried to stick it on my "jig" for drilling the 3rd hole for the AK MG.

BZZT! The trigger/sear pin is .020 too low and it wouldn't fit on the jig.

I marked it as such and sent it back to JoeKen.

Perhaps I'll get another soon.

D.
AZEX

[Aifwikir]

Derek:
I haven't had any trouble with the sear on mine (but I'm not doing F/A). It actually has an excellent trigger pull for an AK. My brother liked it enough to make an offer for it (Ex-marine of the M-14 generation). I used a G2 FGC and it's smooth as silk and not even a hint of slap. Also the hammer doesn't hold the bolt to the rear like OOW's will. Lower hammer lockup I guess. But I built on a GEN 2 receiver.

For Semi-Auto it works very good.

This is just my opinion (I've only built 3 AK's).


Aif

[gunplumber]

Originally posted by derek huffman, azexarms
JA few days later (Winslow AZ is not far from Mesa) I received the receiver and tried to stick it on my "jig" for drilling the 3rd hole for the AK MG.BZZT! The trigger/sear pin is .020 too low and it wouldn't fit on the jig.
D.
AZEX

The scumsucking bottomfeeder from Joeken tried to interest me in the receivers (previously tried to sell me Hesse/Vulcan) - handed me one to examine, and I could tell immediately just by looking the trigger axle hole was too low - when I told him he rambled about them being the most accurate ever made blah blah blah. I asked if he wanted me to install a pin, right there, in front of everybody and he stormed off in a huff. If the arc of the hole contacts the bottom fold, then its wrong, and one doesn't need a micrometer to determine this .. . . The hole was lower than in the picture above. Given the legal issues with Winslow PD, the lawsuit by Century Arms, and their reputation for not delivering as advertised, it would be too bad if their receiver turned out to be the best one in the world, because I still wouldn't buy it.

[Adventurer_96]

They got me one of their AMD-65 receivers prior to my move pretty quickly. I'm not a 'smith but from the customer service standpoint they seemed to be interested in trying to do the right thing.

I know, bad stories from the past, but this was my experience. I still need to send the receiver out to be built, and I know they had problems in the past, but I was/am happy with the transaction.

[SHARPSHOOTER]

It is stuff like what Mark posted that just scares the hell out of me when the name JoeKen is mentioned.As my buddy RatMan would say when I was in Tikrit " Nothing good can come of this"

[gunplumber]

I think "problems" can be broken into two categories.

The first is problems with the product. In this case, every new company and product is going to have a beta testing phase where troops in the field may discover issues that for whatever reason were missed by the manufacturer. While we would all like a product to be perfect from day one, it isn't the case. Even new cars with thousands of hours of testing by engineers a whole lot smarter than I'll ever be end up with problems on the user end that were undetected in testing.

The second category is the honor, integrity, and sincerity of the manufacturer in dealing with the problem.

I'll use FSE as an example. I personally prototype tested many of the FSE products. Unfortunately, I also received production units that were poorl;y done. AN example would be an occasional hammer that didn't have the final cut on it for the sear-bent. Or triggers that lacked the final shelf cut. But when I caled Harold to bring the problem to his attention, he immediately sent out replacements. If I had a customer return a h/t/s set to me because it followed - EVEN IF I COULDN"T DUPLICATE THE ALLEGED MALFUNCTION - I immediately got a no hassel new set.

Compare that to the experiences that some people have had with Joken. If the problem is ethical - an issue with the honor and integrity of the company management, then how can it be fixed by revising the drawings?

Entre'prise is my personal experience example of the latter. I've built on many fine Entre'prise receivers. But I also have discovered imported parts they fraudulently marked as US made, and lie upon lie from the upper management of the comapny. How can this dishonesty be addressed by improving the PRODUCT? And that is why, even if some companies were to perfect the PRODUCT, I still wouldn't buy from that company.

I bought parts from vendors on this board that were unsatisfactory. But I'd buy again from them in a heartbeat because they handled my complaint with honor. And I'd pay more to buy the same product from a trusted source, as I would to buy it cheaper from a vendor I didn't trust. The price difference to me is "insurance" that I can quickly resolve any issues, should they arise.

[ftierson]

Originally posted by gunplumber
The scumsucking bottomfeeder from Joeken tried to interest me in the receivers (previously tried to sell me Hesse/Vulcan) - handed me one to examine, and I could tell immediately just by looking the trigger axle hole was too low - when I told him he rambled about them being the most accurate ever made blah blah blah. I asked if he wanted me to install a pin, right there, in front of everybody and he stormed off in a huff. If the arc of the hole contacts the bottom fold, then its wrong, and one doesn't need a micrometer to determine this .. . . The hole was lower than in the picture above. Given the legal issues with Winslow PD, the lawsuit by Century Arms, and their reputation for not delivering as advertised, it would be too bad if their receiver turned out to be the best one in the world, because I still wouldn't buy it.

Mark pretty much sums up my thoughts on this, too...

They've (JoeKen) never "taken" me for anything, but they've never delivered anything that I ordered from them either (and, in the first case, it took me months to have them credit my cc charge back to my card (which they, of course, had charged almost before I got off the phone with them when first ordering)).

Yeah, I know what you're thinking... "How stupid must ole ftierson be to order again after that experience?" Well, I'm usually willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt the first time. But not twice...

So, the answer to the question about stupidity is probably, "Pretty stupid..."

I have heard good comments about the Ewbanks AK receiver on AR15.com and on the AKfiles... However, I'm not a big fan of receivers with predrilled trunion holes. And I agree with instr8 about especially not using a predrilled receiver for the Romanian AIM kits (the middle rivet in the front trunion is almost always positioned higher than it "should" be. It looks like the predrilled holes in the Ewbanks receivers have the two upper rivet holes for the front trunion equally spaced below the top of the receiver. From my experience working on the Romanian guns, this guarantees some extra file work for the middle rivet. Drilling your own holes in an undrilled AUSA or OOW receiver makes much more sense. And, personally, if building a 7.62 gun, I'd pick the AUSA receiver because of the "problem" mentioned about the lower (too low) placement of the selector/safety lever hole in the OOW receiver.

But, even if, as Mark said, the Ewbanks receiver was perfect, I won't be buying any...

For what it's worth, that's what I think. Your mileage may vary...

Forrest

[ftierson]

By the way, I have a couple of further comments to make about these receivers...

I'm sitting here holding two sequentially numbered receivers as I type this, both SNs in the 00388x range. I have no idea when they were manufactured but we just had a customer order them in at the shop (received yesterday).

They are marked at the bottom front of the receiver:

Ewbank Mfg
Winslow, AZ
EMAKM
7.62x39

00(serial no.)

These markings are neatly stamped. But that's about all that's neat...

My assessment?

They're junk.

Both are rippled along the sides, especially near where the rails are spot welded to the sides. Both receivers are out of square and are twisted (radially torqued) from front to back... However, I must admit that the mag well openings and trigger openings in the bottom of the receiver are cleanly done.

I haven't checked any dimensions, so I can't speak to that.

If they were mine, I'd junk them. Our customer plans to build on them himself, which is "good" because we wouldn't waste our time with them...

If you're thinking of using one of these receivers, I'd certainly recommend that you hold the one that you're thinking of purchasing in your hot little hands before deciding. I certainly wouldn't order one sight unseen.

Forrest

[ftierson]

If I had read my previous post before just going ahead and posting the above, I would have mentioned that these two receivers just recieved do NOT have predrilled rivet holes for either the front or rear trunion. So my comment above regarding the problems with predrilled holes does not apply to these current receivers...

Forrest

[Tomovich]

I've been holding off commenting until my two builds were completed. Joeken never did anything bad to me and I have no "dog in this fight". I'm just a consumer. Because they were available "right now" I bought two of their pre-drilled receivers, also sequentially numbered. I don't think I will buy anymore. I think I'll be using Global Trades next. The Romanians are all finished now and work just fine and look gorgeous and I'm proud of them, etc., etc. But, here's my list of what I had to do to get them to WORK.............

1) On BOTH the front trunions ended up set back a bit too far (predrilled) so that a magazine would not insert withought moving (machining) the mag opening back about .045 to .050" and "adjusting" the mag catch correspondingly. I also had to remove the lip of the receiver that was sticking out past the trunion up front. That felt "sucky" doing that!

2) that meant the top cover needed to be shortened up front by about the same.

3) The top rails were rolled over so far that they wouldn't allow the bolt carrier to move/slide. I had to remove material from the bottoms of the rails with a carbide dremel cutter.

4) The ejector protruded so far it would not allow let the bolt to pass.

5) The holes in the front (not the rear) did have to be elongated a bit to match the trunion's but it wasn't that bad.

6) Both of the axis pin holes would not allow the pins to be inserted. I to "zap" them with a carbide cutter to remove a few thousandths.

7) I also had to do some creative rail "adjusting" to get the rear trunion to go in all the way.

Other than those things they worked out fine. I detected no obvious warpage and again, the AK's turned out just fine. They are honestly nice rifles. But again, I'll be trying the Global Trades next. Too many "issues" in my opinion.

[BubbaJJ]

I don't understand, Isn't GT selling the Ewbanks recievers? I bought five of the Ewbanks and they are look fine. If you think your going to pick up an aftermarket american reciever and throw one together on a post communist european parts kit without having to do some fitting, your nuts. Ewbanks never did anything bad to me so, as was mentioned above, I don't have a dog in this fight. Looking at some of the factory assemble AKs I have in my collection, those receivers don't look so hot when inspected up close either. There freeking AKs for heaven's sake, why we acting like they are AR's, FALs or HK 91s?

[ftierson]

I'm happy that you're satisfied with the Ewbank receivers... I'm certainly not trying to step on anyone's toes if they're happy with the way that their Ewbank receivers have worked out for them.

I've built a number of rifles now on both OOW (ITM) 5.45mm receivers and AUSA (Global Trades) 1mm 7.62mm receivers and, compared to them, these two Ewbank receivers I've just mentioned look like they were beaten out in a tribal blacksmith shop. I won't be using them...

I should also mention that we (at the shop) assembled a couple of Polish underfolder kits on Vulcan receivers (the receivers were predrilled and precut for the trunion rivets and the underfolder stock) this past weekend. My previous opinion of the Vulcan receivers was not very high (based mostly on comments that I've heard over the net). The customer having the kits built supplied the Vulcan receivers. I have to say that I was quite pleasantly surprised by how easy the Vulcan receivers were to use and how easily everything went together (even with the predrilled trunion rivet holes, which I'm not a fan of...). A minimum amount of file work on a couple of the holes was all that was required. The receivers also looked square and straight and quite nice. If I was planning to build another underfolder, I might think of using one.

For what it's worth...

Forrest

[Dontblink]

I have bought 2 receivers and 2 AKM kits from GT in the past and they bent over backwards for me.
One of the Polish underfolder kits I got had a hairline crack right at the tip where the gas piston screwed into the bolt carrier.
This was one of the like new kits they had 1 1/2 to 2 years ago, and I sent the part back for replacement.
When they got the part and saw the crack they called me and asked if I would like a new parts kit so I could keep all the SN# the same on my kit. I said no just send the new part.
One of my receivers had a slight tweak just enough that the bolt would drag a tad.It was very hard to see even if you knew it was there. I tried to file it and bend it back but it never was right. I think when they wielded the rails on,it tweaked it.
I sent it back and they replaced it and had it back to me the same week. GT paid shipping both ways each time.
I have had wonderful service from (Global Trades) in the past and it would be hard for me to buy any AK stuff from anyone else

There receivers are topnotch and fully heat treated not just the holes and rails like the Vulcan are or were. I do here really good things about the Ewbank receivers and most ppl seem to like them allot. I would also like to try a build on one from the pics they look very nice, but I would never buy anything from Joeken to many horror stories..

Hope this helps Tracy