Continuing the discussion from 2nd Competition! The Participation Trophy Giveaway!:
Palmetto should host instructional videos for the hobbyist who like to build various types of guns. Youtube might be removing them any day now with the direction they are banning people.
Did a P80 to see what it was like to do the process. It is not a bad process if you follow directions and go slow. I had good results it went together good. Will see how it holds up.
Iāve done many. With the right jig and equip they turn out great.
Certainly simple and worth the time.
Thatās why Rumble has become so popularā¦ I guess thatās one good thing to come from that.
I had an issue with the trigger going off again if I slowly tried to resetā¦ bent the cruciform and itās been 100%.
I did a P80 single stack build, I am having some problems with trigger reset I am working through.
I am wondering if it is tolerance through aftermarket parts.
5/8/2021
Iām completing my first P80 G19 build now. Not a hard process so far. I like what Iām doing but I do have one questionā¦ there are so many videos displaying so many ways to remove the inner channel where the guide rod sits. What is the best way to remove that excess material?
there is a video showing using a round file. it might take longer, I wish I would have done that as when I was using the jig the end mill grabbed and ruined the entire frame.
that was it for me.
I have done a couple, still end up doing things in the wrong order while watching YouTube videosā¦ I have seen a few comments out there thinking it would be great if Palmetto would put some out thereā¦ Also, so glad there are always a couple extra springs and detent includedā¦ I have no clue where they go after they shoot off.
Bought my first ever AR 15 and decided i wanted to build my first one, went with a pistol kit. I thought i could build a house how difficult could a gun be? Well its not hard at all haha. put it together in like 45 mins and i love it
I just built my first AR pistol using an 80% lowerā¦my milling experience is pathetic, but everything went together fairly well and it looks pretty good. Either way, I am proud of it, and now I have the 300 blk pistol Iāve been wanting!
Agreed. Iām about to start my first AR build and am using some of the instructional videos to shorten the learning curve.
I should add to my previous post, every Anderson 80 lower Iāve milled has been significantly out of tolerance in a few dimensions. Regardless as to what brand upper I put on their 80 lowers, the sides are significantly mis-aligned, and the lower sits slightly over to one side in reference to the upper. Internally, the trigger area has less material left on one side of the receiver than the other. This is likely an incorrect measurement in their machining of the gap between the takedown pin tabs, which are the primary attachment point to an 80% jig.
Further, the buffer tube reinforcement area has a gap between it and any upper attached. Likely due to improper takedown pin hole measurements in the forward/aft dimension.
This isnāt an Anderson bash, and I keep buying their other products. But hopefully this helps others avoid the issues Iāve run across. They may have fixed this issue by now, but this is my experience with Anderson 80 lowers specifically. Any other brand has fit perfectly.
I have a lower I built and I love it!
I recently purchased an 80% lower and jig, planning to machine as soon as I obtain a drill press. Anyone comment on the ATF website about the new proposed policy regarding 80% lowers? This policy would potentially redefine firearm to include 80% lower. While law-abiding freedom-loving Americans are at work producing and providing for their families certain tax-dollar funded communists in government are hard at work writing long-winded āpoliciesā that threaten our essential liberties. Certain individuals want to know the exact number of firearms in existence and exactly who owns them. It is an attempt at government overreach and another example of sacrificing essential liberties to the tyrannical insatiable false god of safety and security.
Iām glad we have more time so I can get a few more before the rules kick in.
When I read the summary, it would seem they want to classify upper receivers as firearms too, since they want the definition to say a firearm receiver/frame is āany housing capable of holding components of a fire control group including but not limited toā¦ bolt carrier groupā and must be marked by a licensee.
Iāve done several aluminum 80% jobs. I have allowed friends to use my jigs on their stuff. Of the ~10 or so, 2 were botched paper weights.
First jig was a cheap no-name brand. They told me to drill the trigger pins first. All the way through, from one side.
This resulted in the very thin drill bit flexing and a curved hole through the receiver. Once the pocket was milled, I had a not-square hammer pin.
Lesson: donāt drill the trigger pins until after the pocket is milled and donāt drill all the way through from one side.
Second jig to replace the cheap no-name was an 80% arms Gen 1 easy jig with a router plate.
Worked WAY better, and instructions had the steps in the right order: mill the pocket then drill the pin holes from each side.
What I donāt Like is that the mill has to touch the jig and can eat into it, even if its just the smooth shaft of the mill bit. The 2nd paper weighted lower happened when a buddy was being too aggressive with the router and the bit pulled itself out of the collet and kept going deeper and deeper. He also wasnāt aware of the difference in feel of a cut vs going over an area already cutā¦ he ended up tearing through the bottom of the lower in a jagged hole.
Lesson learned: go slow and easy and pay attention to the feel so you know if youāre cutting deeper or not.
Another buddy ended up with his pocket slightly off-center, and the pins sat funny and didnāt properly sit on the spring detents. Upon testing, he was getting double taps. The trigger was acting as a binary trigger. Couple times it would fire twice while holding down, then a 3rd on releasing the trigger. We saw that the pin had migrated and was sitting crooked in the receiver. The pin was re-set properly on the spring detents so it wouldnāt walk; problem fixed and trigger worked safely as designed.
Lesson learned: pay attention to keeping the receiver centered on the jig.
Just bought a gen 3 easy jig. Way nicer than the Gen 1. The mill never touches the jig; the jig assembles with self-centering hardware and the receiver cannot be mounted off-center; and lastly, their speed mill replaces the collet with a direct thread adapter so the mill cannot pull itself out from aggressive feed rates.
If you can swing it, go with the 80% arms easy jig Gen 3