FAL Reviews - MiscFAL Tutorial: FNC Handguards on FAL

FAL Tutorial: FNC Handguards on FAL

(updated 04-12-2020)
Introduction
FNC handguards look cool and are comfortable, but they won’t fit an FAL. Not without some clever alterations. Yeah, it’s been done before. My goal was to come up with a minimally invasive way. I think I found it. Solder escutcheons on handguards. Fabricate spacer ring, modify carry handle nut to Indian style. FS-2000 flash hider (’cause I have several). I first experimented with a second standard handguard ring. As I didn’t want to pull the barrel, this would mean a split ring. It did work, and cosmetics were ok, but I wanted to see if I could make the transition cleaner with a scratch-built adapter. I’m still ambivalent. A split original is a lot easier and not particularly expensive. I would like to see what you came up with. I used an aluminum spacer sectioned from a fake silencer. I couldn’t hand-fit it until I cut the clearance on the spacer, to get over the barrel at the gas block. But once I cut the clearance, it was springy enough that I could no longer chuck it in the lathe to trim further.
What I think might work better (the aluminum ring was a pain) would be the DSA-style split ring, where the top 2/3 of one support is slid into the bottom 2/3 of a second support. This could then be in front of the old ring. so it is contained, rather than behind the old ring.
But fabricating the ring was what I did – it has to be near perfect before slitting it to fit over the barrel, as once slit, it has too much flex to hold tightly in the lathe without compressing. It’s not that pulling the barrel is out of the question, I just wanted to find a set of components that could be dropped in with no tools. Now if only I can find a crate of a hundred nice FNC handguards for dirt cheap . . . ..
Modified the handguard screw head to a shallower and more rounded profile.

I fabricated a sleeve for the right side and a threaded insert for the left and soldered them in place.

with the handguard ring moved forward, it lost the anti-rotational value of the flats on the barrel and the gas tube support. So I sleeved the gas tube support to once again engage the top of the handguard ring.

I experimented with extending the short StG gas tube, but decided it wasn’t necessary, as the piston is fully covered by the handguards.

Finished!

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