Posted on 03/12/2019 10:41:26 AM PDT by w1n1
Many AR fans love building their own platform and one of the big thing to get if you like drilling the lower yourself, is getting an 80% lower receiver.
80% AR-15 Lower Receivers is a piece that have not yet reached a stage of manufacture to be considered a firearm. The term “80%” is an industry slang and not endorsed/used by the ATF.
Did you Know?
When you get your 80% lower, there isn’t any serial number on it. So once you’ve finish drilling your lower, do you need to put a serial number? No, you don’t have to but doing so helps in case you get your lower stolen. In short you don’t need to have an FFL for having the 80% lower.
As long as you meet these criteria that the ATF looks at:
-Can legally own a firearm in your state/county/city (not a felon, etc…)
-Manufacturing only for personal use
-Configuration is legal in your state/county/city (National Firearms Act rules apply for short barreled rifles, automatics, etc…)
Comes in Silver?
Most 80% lowers are sold as raw aluminum, which is why the color. If you get the lower with anodized coating and after completing it. All the cuts will expose the aluminum underneath. Tis, why most savy AR builders just go with the raw aluminum. Once you’re done machining it, you can complete it with anodized or use a coating like Alumahyde or spray paint it. Read the rest of 80% lower.
I have done about 10 AR’s, a couple of AK’s, a few 1911’s and a Glock 30. It’s fun
I spend too much time on hi-fi forums. I thought this would be about the AR turntable.
Wow, I read this headline and rifles is so NOT what came to my mind.
I have finished a couple AR lowers using the 80% Arms first gen jig. I am absolutely astounded at how easy it was, and except for a minor cosmetic mistake on my first one, they are great.
https://www.80percentarms.com/
I wouldn’t even try.
Back around 1985 I bought a black powder pistol kit. It was for a generic Kentucky Pistol. I made a mess out of it.
I worked with a guy who was pretty good at stuff like that. Sold it to him for $25. A week later he showed it to me. It was a work of art. I could not believe it was the same gun.
Try the Polymer 80 lower kit - possibly not as durable as a mil-spec aluminum piece in the long term, but it *will* work - and not look like a mess.
You’re not alone, FRiend. DMTA.
(Dirty Minds Think Alike.)
I have done 3.
The first one with a drill press, the next two with a Bridgeport Mill I bought about two years ago.
All were black coated and had no scratching or machine marks. If you know what your doing, its not hard.
My recommendations.
1. For drilling the trigger holes, once the part with the jig is lined up on the drill press, remove the top jig half. Keeping it on just traps the chips between the jig and the lower, scratching it around the holes.
2. Get a fine file and remove the sharp edges from the jig. If you don’t, they’ll leave lines on the lower when clamped tightly in the vise.
> do you need to put a serial number? No, you don’t have to
In some states you do.
Milling hardened aluminum will a drill is bad news!
Do you even need the 80%s now, with your Bridgeport?
A lot less milling, I understand, but I guess you could work from a blank at this point?
Complete stripped lowers are cheaper but you can’t put a price on the satisfaction that comes from knowing you’ve contributed both to the skyrocketing number of ghost guns and to the occurrence of conniption fits among hoplophobes.
My 80% Glock took me 20 min to etch with a modeling knife and 20 min to assemble the rest of the parts - say 20 more min to polish them before assembly.
Best gun I ever shot. Built 5 of them. This stuff is rock solid
It is called getting a storage unit or good friends to keep them out of state
This is a Haas VF-4 medium mill. If you want to turn out perfect receivers this what you want. It can cost close to $100,000 fully tricked out. It is programmable and you can carry instructions on a USB stick that can turn a 0% receiver (basically a block of 6061 T6 aluminum) into a finished receiver in about 30 minutes. Years ago a machine shop could rent you time on their machine that was already programmed and you could bolt the receiver in and push a button. They would leave the metal intact at the bottom of the fire control pocket for you to drill out yourself (on their drill press). Then the BATFE changed the regulations to where you could only build on your machine on your premises.
Here are the 3 stages of building a receiver.
Top: 80%
Center: finished raw aluminum.
Bottom: 100% anodized aluminum.
These were made on a Haas. In my opinion the hardest part of finishing a receiver is the anodizing. It is possible to do it at home with dangerous chemicals but I have never seen one with a nice even finish. There are commercial shops who can anodize it for you. These were done commercially.
Here is a bunch of receivers we finished on a Haas and were commercially anodized.
Here is my own rifle that I built. I would put it up against any commercially mass produced AR.
I would be very careful taking this advice.
All you need is for ATF to change the rules AGAIN and suddenly you become a firearm manufacture without a license manufacturing firearms without a serial number.
ATF has shot and killed people for less than this.
Someone recommend a drill press.
yup.
wonder what group of states, if any, will ultimately stand up to the tyrannical fed gov.
citizenship test and enforceable oath will be needed for refugees from CA, NY and other places.
Drill press won’t help you on an aluminum lower.
Almost any drill press will do the job on a polymer.
All the you-tube videos show a drill press being used.
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