VZ-58: Front Sight Adjustment Tool

The front sight on the VZ-58 is adjustable for both elevation and windage.Much like an AR-15, it takes a special tool to screw the front post up or down. A tool that I didn’t have. True to form I gave it some thought and decided to try and fabricate my own.

The shape of the front sight post, allows you to grip on either side and turn it up or down as long as you have the proper tool. Windage adjustments are done by drifting the post left or right.
The thickness of the front site is .071, but the protective ears on the sight makes it hard to adjust with conventional tools

Being the resourceful cheapskate that I am, I just looked around the shop too see what material might be recycled for this purpose.

This is what I came up with. I’ve used bolts as stock before, they work well enough in a pinch.

I cut the heads off using a dremel cut off wheel and then faced off the cut on the lathe. This is probably more fancy then it needed to be, but I enjoy using the lathe, so I find any excuse I can to use it.

Drilling the clearance hole for the sight. We want the tool to contact the flats on the site post. The stock stick out is long in the picture but I corrected it before I did the actual drilling.

I admit, I did all of this from the seat of my pants and didn’t really plan it out. I think this was a simple enough of a project that Solidworks modeling and formal plans weren’t really needed. I drilled in about 3/4in, and then ground a slit in with the cut off tool. Using a needle file, I filed the slit large enough to fit over the post.

Pretty basic tools, and with a bit of patience we had ourselves a tool that looked like it might work.

I eyeballed the fit and finish, but the length of the slit is about 3/8’s of an inch and a little over 0.70 wide. The fit isn’t perfect but it should be fine for a tool we’ll only be using once or twice.

The finished slit, and the relief hole.
The actual fit on the front sight post. It isn’t perfect but it should work.

Now for the interesting part. I am far from the point where I can call myself a welder. I dabble, but I enjoy it. We cut the head off the second bolt, and ground out the tool head to fit the 1/4 bolt. In theory a good fit here should make my welding experience a little easier. As with many ideas, it might have been good on paper, but I’m not sure it really made much of a difference.

I didn’t have a good way of filing in a good V-Groove to hold the handle during welding. I tried but it didn’t turn out to be anything more than a cute little notch.
I thought maybe the nut would be useful to help fill out the weld some, but that turned out to be another idea that was likely completely useless.

Being an someone who is below amature when it comes to welding, I am happy how this turned out. I used the TIG welder to tack the two parts together, and then added a little mild steel filler on both sides to complete the weld. The bolts were zinc coated and I removed the zinc in some spots but I likely used too much heat and the Zinc all but evaporated from the handle and a good portion of the tool itself. Corrosion resistance isn’t really needed in this tool anyway.

You know those sexy instagram welds you see on the internet. This isn’t one of them, but it does appear to be functional.

This is the finished product, after welding both sides, dunking it in water to cool it off, and taking a wire brush to it.

Here is the glamour shot. All cleaned up after some time with a wire brush, the tool works great.

It took all of two seconds to verify if the tool worked. It did, with no problems. The time it took me to make this was about an hour. I didn’t even bother to look to see what the tool could be had for online, but I assume it would be $10 or $20 dollars. Of course it would look far more professional, and you’d be able to show it to you friends without them snickering at your welds.

These are tools that I have a hard time spending money on as they are very limited use tools. Once the front iron sight on this rifle are set, I’m not going to adjust them again. The rear sight is adjustable for elevation, so unless something comes loose there is no need to touch them. Thus this little piece of handiwork will end up in the back of my gunsmithing tool box, and I will forget what I ever made it for.