And so it begins!

[Tanis143]

I just purchased my first AR after 30+ years of not carrying an M16 and I'm reaquainting myself with the bugger. I've watched some youtubes on building them. Larry Potterfield has a good series on the tools required and the application of them. I had a Springfield M1A for years but tough times had me selling it in the late 80's. I never thought about an AR for myself until Pelosi started spouting gun control.

So spill on the AR, what brand or what internals if it was a custom build. Give us the gun porn man! And I missed firing my m16, though the AR I currently have is way over gassed and has 0 padding on the stock so after about 60 rounds my shoulder starts to complain. Hence the reason I'm doing this build (with an adjustable gas block). But yeah, the smell of the rounds, the feel of shooting it, brings back memories and is just fun to shoot.

 

[kirk1978]

Well I pulled a stupid last night and tried to put the pivot pin in without any tools, and yeah it happened. Finger slipped and detent went flying. Thankfully it was on carpet and I heard it hit behind me, so I was able to find it with a flashlight. So, gonna order that tool lol. I just had to try once, to see how hard it was. Lesson learned.

I use the blade of my pocket knife to hold this pivot pin detent down. Ive seen where a lot of folks use a razor blade.

 

[Tanis143]

I use the blade of my pocket knife to hold this pivot pin detent down. Ive seen where a lot of folks use a razor blade.

My problem is I have very little feeling in the fingertips of my thumb and pointer finger on both hands. That's the consequence of having the braiding of coax poke into both fingers while doing fittings over 14 years. I was trying to push down the detent and use my smallest knife to hold it down but couldn't feel it slipping until it was too late. So yeah, gonna order a tool instead.

 

[RKM]

I use a feeler gauge.

 

[Glock 40]

There are guys that show how to make tools out of nylon bolts and such on youtube. You can do it with screwdriver or lots of other stuff. I was just amazed at how simple the Real Avid tool is. Its literally 30 seconds and your done. If you haven't picked up an oops kit off Ebay I would suggest it they are cheap and have the basic springs and detents that you can loose or have issues with along the way. Good cheap insurance.

 

[Tanis143]

Made some progress today. Got the mag catch, bolt catch, Echo trigger and grip installed. Waiting on my take down tool to arrive to do the pivot pin. Haven't started on the upper yet, still have to get a few things. And yes, the bolt catch roll pin is not completely flush, I think I hammered once too hard and it spread out some. Might try to ping it in a bit more when I got to install the buffer/stock. But, this is my first attempt at building and so far I've a)Not broken anything and b) not lost a spring going across the garage. So so far so good. That pin set I got has a tool for putting in the pin for the trigger guard that made it a piece of cake. Went in without having to hammer at all.

 

[kirk1978]

We are 9 pages into this thread....your gonna have to pick up the pace!!

 

[Tanis143]

We are 9 pages into this thread....your gonna have to pick up the pace!!

Scream at my wallet, it keeps telling me its taping out and I keep calling it a wimp but it doesn't help.

 

[kirk1978]

Scream at my wallet, it keeps telling me its taping out and I keep calling it a wimp but it doesn't help.

Haha we all have this problem.

 

[Glock 40]

Scream at my wallet, it keeps telling me its taping out and I keep calling it a wimp but it doesn't help.

You spent enough on the trigger to build the rest of the gun for most guys. I ordered a barreled PSA upper with free float about a week and half ago. It shows its shipping today. I traded for a PSA BCG and charging handle so I should be set. I did order some JP springs to lighten this trigger up. They will be in tomorrow or next day. If I don't like it I will probably put a Rise in it. I decided this gun was going to be all PSA other than the magpul plastic. So hopefully it will be ready to go Friday or Monday. Nothing special on mine since I wasn't really planning on buying it. I just couldn't pass up that lower since it was available locally.