Augh! My ghost gun died! Waaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

[UR20Z]

Things was going *SO* well...

I've finished milling out 2 of the 3 80% AR15 lowers I got a week or so back, specifically as a "Fuck you, Joe and Kamala and Beto and Pelosi and Feinstein and any other politician who doesn't like it" concept. Love the idea of owning a rifle that "they" hate, but can't do a damned thing about since they don't have any idea it exists. (And before anybody starts screaming, yes, this is TOTALLY legal to do - With the exception of residents of either two or three states - mine ain't one of them - any American who wants to and isn't prohibited from owning a gun (convicted felons, mainly, though there are a couple other classes of folks who'd also be on the list) can do it without so much as a "mother may I?") So I bought 3 blanks, the jig and tooling needed, and once everything arrived, set to work on the task of turning aluminum "paperweights" into genuine "Ghost Guns" - so-called because they involve no government paperwork, and carry no serial numbers. (Although I *COULD*, should I be stupid enough to want to, put a serial number on them, doing so is something that's "recommended but optional", and won't be happening to mine - They're *INTENDED* to offend the sensibilities of "The Government", and very few things do that as well as a gun with no serial number.)

First one ended up just shy of perfect - some minor "chatter" marks from the last pass of the end mill on the floor, a couple of scratches here and there - your basic purely cosmetic defects that will have no effect on performance or longevity - just not as "pretty" as I'd hoped to have things turn out. Second one was MUCH better - Only one tool mark of any consequence - looks like the drill wandered slightly, leaving a tiny groove in one corner of the pocket that's too deep for the end mill to remove without throwing things out of spec. Like the tool marks on the first one, it's a cosmetic blemish that'll never be noticeable to anybody but me or somebody doing a VERY close inspection, and won't have any effect on the life or operation of the rifle.

Armed with the experience of the first two, went to work on the third this morning - Decided that with what I learned from the first pair, I could skip a step. A step which, on the other two, involved spending a bit more than an hour each drilling out a honeycomb-like pattern of 46 individual 1/8 inch holes an inch and a quarter deep to remove material that would otherwise need to be cut out with the end mill, thereby extending the useful life of the single highest precision and most expensive tool used in the process. Instead of drilling out all 46, careful stacking and tracing of the template plates let me figure out that I only REALLY need to drill out two of those 46 holes - because both of them are used as landmarks/pilot holes for bigger holes that get drilled in a later step. The other 44 get "eaten away" as part of two other steps in the process, both of which use good stout template plates for the actual placement of the holes. That part went fine, and knocked over an hour of not particularly difficult, but definitely tedious, work off the project. Got everything of the "rough-it-in" stages completed, including the two "bigger holes" that the two 1/8 inch holes locate, and couldn't tell that the "46 holes" step had been skipped - the result was identical in every way I could see to what I ended up with when I did do all 46 holes on the other two. So I started the finish work with the end mill. All was going well, and was, in fact, nearly done, when something went "CLACK", and the end mill simply *VANISHED*. ACK! Where'd it go!?!?!?!? Did it break off in the chuck? Teleport to the dark side of the moon? Evaporate into thin air? WTF happened???

Got to looking, and it had come out of the chuck... Oh, no... This ain't good at all. Did it break? Nope, can't feel any jagged stump - feels like the chuck is empty, in fact - WTF is going on? Go hunting, and find it on the floor. Looked it over - not broken. Looks perfectly fine, except that it's not where it should be... What the hell???

Long story short(er), apparently I didn't crank the chuck down tight enough, and so far as I can figure, a flute on the end mill caught one of the high spots it was supposed to be trimming away, and transformed from a cutter into a screw, twisting itself into the floor of the receiver, and ripping itself out of the chuck as it bit in, in the process, making a hole that it then fell through onto the floor under the drill press. In an instant, my beautiful third lower transformed from a perfectly milled (at least up to that point) receiver into a piece of unsalvageable junk. When the end mill made its escape, it ripped a hole in a location that's critical to proper function - No way to fix it. So now, this receiver is back to being what it started life as: an aluminum paperweight. Bummer... MAJOR bummer.

<sigh> Amazing how an instant of "not quite careful enough" can turn half a day's work into a piece of junk...

Oh well... As Meat Loaf said, "Two Outta Three Ain't Bad". And Joe, Kamala, Beto, Pelosi, and all the rest can STILL go fuck themselves!

 

[Pillar]

After Biden wins he better leave the 2nd alone. (Or, in my fantasy world, remove the 1994 background check bill, the GCA of 1968 and the NFA of 1934. I know, crazy daydream.)

 

[K9Duke697]

After Biden wins he better leave the 2nd alone. (Or, in my fantasy world, remove the 1994 background check bill, the GCA of 1968 and the NFA of 1934. I know, crazy daydream.)

If we could just get the Hearing Protection Act passed and repeal the Hughes Amendment we'd have made tremendous strides in restoring the 2nd.

 

[azknottysex]

Things was going *SO* well...

I've finished milling out 2 of the 3 80% AR15 lowers I got a week or so back, specifically as a "Fuck you, Joe and Kamala and Beto and Pelosi and Feinstein and any other politician who doesn't like it" concept. Love the idea of owning a rifle that "they" hate, but can't do a damned thing about since they don't have any idea it exists. (And before anybody starts screaming, yes, this is TOTALLY legal to do - With the exception of residents of either two or three states - mine ain't one of them - any American who wants to and isn't prohibited from owning a gun (convicted felons, mainly, though there are a couple other classes of folks who'd also be on the list) can do it without so much as a "mother may I?") So I bought 3 blanks, the jig and tooling needed, and once everything arrived, set to work on the task of turning aluminum "paperweights" into genuine "Ghost Guns" - so-called because they involve no government paperwork, and carry no serial numbers. (Although I *COULD*, should I be stupid enough to want to, put a serial number on them, doing so is something that's "recommended but optional", and won't be happening to mine - They're *INTENDED* to offend the sensibilities of "The Government", and very few things do that as well as a gun with no serial number.)

First one ended up just shy of perfect - some minor "chatter" marks from the last pass of the end mill on the floor, a couple of scratches here and there - your basic purely cosmetic defects that will have no effect on performance or longevity - just not as "pretty" as I'd hoped to have things turn out. Second one was MUCH better - Only one tool mark of any consequence - looks like the drill wandered slightly, leaving a tiny groove in one corner of the pocket that's too deep for the end mill to remove without throwing things out of spec. Like the tool marks on the first one, it's a cosmetic blemish that'll never be noticeable to anybody but me or somebody doing a VERY close inspection, and won't have any effect on the life or operation of the rifle.

Armed with the experience of the first two, went to work on the third this morning - Decided that with what I learned from the first pair, I could skip a step. A step which, on the other two, involved spending a bit more than an hour each drilling out a honeycomb-like pattern of 46 individual 1/8 inch holes an inch and a quarter deep to remove material that would otherwise need to be cut out with the end mill, thereby extending the useful life of the single highest precision and most expensive tool used in the process. Instead of drilling out all 46, careful stacking and tracing of the template plates let me figure out that I only REALLY need to drill out two of those 46 holes - because both of them are used as landmarks/pilot holes for bigger holes that get drilled in a later step. The other 44 get "eaten away" as part of two other steps in the process, both of which use good stout template plates for the actual placement of the holes. That part went fine, and knocked over an hour of not particularly difficult, but definitely tedious, work off the project. Got everything of the "rough-it-in" stages completed, including the two "bigger holes" that the two 1/8 inch holes locate, and couldn't tell that the "46 holes" step had been skipped - the result was identical in every way I could see to what I ended up with when I did do all 46 holes on the other two. So I started the finish work with the end mill. All was going well, and was, in fact, nearly done, when something went "CLACK", and the end mill simply *VANISHED*. ACK! Where'd it go!?!?!?!? Did it break off in the chuck? Teleport to the dark side of the moon? Evaporate into thin air? WTF happened???

Got to looking, and it had come out of the chuck... Oh, no... This ain't good at all. Did it break? Nope, can't feel any jagged stump - feels like the chuck is empty, in fact - WTF is going on? Go hunting, and find it on the floor. Looked it over - not broken. Looks perfectly fine, except that it's not where it should be... What the hell???

Long story short(er), apparently I didn't crank the chuck down tight enough, and so far as I can figure, a flute on the end mill caught one of the high spots it was supposed to be trimming away, and transformed from a cutter into a screw, twisting itself into the floor of the receiver, and ripping itself out of the chuck as it bit in, in the process, making a hole that it then fell through onto the floor under the drill press. In an instant, my beautiful third lower transformed from a perfectly milled (at least up to that point) receiver into a piece of unsalvageable junk. When the end mill made its escape, it ripped a hole in a location that's critical to proper function - No way to fix it. So now, this receiver is back to being what it started life as: an aluminum paperweight. Bummer... MAJOR bummer.

<sigh> Amazing how an instant of "not quite careful enough" can turn half a day's work into a piece of junk...

Oh well... As Meat Loaf said, "Two Outta Three Ain't Bad". And Joe, Kamala, Beto, Pelosi, and all the rest can STILL go fuck themselves!

im considering on trying to put together an ar platform, would you suggest piecing it together or just buying a complete out right?

 

[azknottysex]

Ceratac.com they are legit and worth it

right on, i will check them out.

 

[UR20Z]

im considering on trying to put together an ar platform, would you suggest piecing it together or just buying a complete out right?

Short form: If you're new to the platform, I'd say get one ready-to-go.


The longer version:
It's TOTALLY up to you - It honestly isn't all that hard to assemble a lower, especially if you start with what's called a "stripped lower" (A lower receiver with *NONE* of the parts needed to make it actually do something besides sit there being an inert chunk of metal (or plastic - you can get polymer lowers for ARs now) rather than an 80%. The "down" of that is you have to go through all the government pain-in-the-ass, including the NICS check, and form 4473, and having to go through (and pay the fees) for an FFL to do the deal, since the finished stripped lower is what's considered to be "The Gun" for legal purposes. With an 80%, you skip the paperwork, FFL transfer fees, and the rest of the government crap, but you have the extra headache of doing the milling work needed, which, while not particularly difficult if you've got some mechanical ability, is NOT a trivial process unless you spend a couple grand on a unit sold under the name "ghost gunner" - which turns the process into "put the blank in the box, push a button, and go have lunch". The payoff is the blanks can be shipped straight to you and it's an "off the books" gun once you're finished. Once you've got at least a stripped lower in-hand, whther you start with an 80%, or a stripped lower, you're holding the "basic starter set" for the "LEGOs for big kids" that is an AR-platform rifle. So long as your lower is mil-spec (the vast majority are, but there are exceptions) you can, quite literally, snap on pieces and parts to match your wildest ideas. An upper is a bit more finicky - there's some fiddly stuff that you *ABSOLUTELY MUST* get just right, or you can literally be putting your life on the line every time you pull the trigger on a live round. (as in the all-too-real possibility that instead of sending a bullet downrange, the gun explodes and spews shrapnel in every direction - unusual in the AR platform, but not impossible if you fuck up the headspacing or other critical bits)

As far as which one to go for - Lotsa luck finding *ANYTHING* in "ready-to-shoot" form right now. Everybody and his dog seems to be backordered halfway to doomsday. It took me at least 2 months of searching to find someplace that would admit to having 80% lowers in stock AT ALL, never mind for anything that even smelled like a realistic price - Pre-covid, an 80% could be had for 30-50 bucks for a plain-jane mil-spec forged lower. Billet lowers (which usually do, but might or might not, match mil-spec, and thus be, or not be, compatible with "everything else you can hang off an AR") were a bit more, but not outrageous. Right now, it's rare to find ANYTHING for under a hundred bucks, and I've seen some so-called "Gucci" 80% lowers going for as much as $180. Which is utterly fucking NUTS. I mean, come on - it's a hunk of aluminum, fercrissake! And you still have to mill it out to make it into something more than a paperweight! Stripped lowers (The ones that come with a serial number and require paperwork and an FFL) are even worse - I haven't seen one available for sale anywhere I've looked in the last 3 months - everyplace is saying the same thing: Out of Stock or Backordered. The market is absolutely insane right now.

Personally, I've got a pair of complete uppers (to make so-called "M4geries" - an AR that looks like an M4) on order through Palmetto State Armory for the two lowers I've just finished building out. Not top shelf, but not bottom of the barrel, either, and they set me back about 800 with the shipping and taxes for the pair.

*IF* you can find someone that'll admit to having one for sale at a decent price point, I'd really suggest that a first-time buyer go for a finished, ready-to-go rifle with a 16 inch or longer barrel. And don't be tempted into going for one of the so-called "AR pistols" - Those are *VERY SERIOUSLY* "up in the air", legally speaking right now - The ATF may just be waiting for the results of the election before puling the pin on declaring them SBRs or AOWs. Which will turn the folks who own them into felons overnight.

Also be aware that *YOU **WILL** **NOT** SAVE MONEY* starting with an 80% lower - You're looking at the price of the lower itself, PLUS a jig (variable pricing depending on which one, and who you source it from) PLUS the tooling (The end-mills alone are going to set you back ROUGHLY 80 bucks) and if you don't already have one, a drill press, milling machine, or the right brand of router if you go with one of the router jigs. Then you're talking about your time to actually do the milling - I've gotten it down to about 2-3 hours after doing 2, and destroyed the third by making a TINY mistake that turned out to have huge consequences - my first one took about 6 hours spread over 3 days). Now go out and find a lower parts kit, buffer tube, spring, buffer, end plate, and castle nut, as well as a stock (I spent a hundred bucks each the other day on 2 sets of buffer-stuff-plus-stock, and deliberately DID NOT go for the high-end versions - you can EASILY double that amount if you want to go after the "fancy", "big name" versions) and you've got yourself a "completed lower" that you can (assuming it's mil-spec) slap a "barreled upper" onto, stuff a magazine into, and actually shoot your first round. That barreled upper is probably going to set you back a *MINIMUM* of $350 (On top of the $500+ you'll have sunk into the 80% lower itself, parts kit, buffer/stock kit, jig, tooling, and drill/mill/router to get your lower built-out to the point where it can have an upper put on it) and could go well past $1500, depending on where you source it and how fancy you buy.

 

[azknottysex]

Short form: If you're new to the platform, I'd say get one ready-to-go.


The longer version:
It's TOTALLY up to you - It honestly isn't all that hard to assemble a lower, especially if you start with what's called a "stripped lower" (A lower receiver with *NONE* of the parts needed to make it actually do something besides sit there being an inert chunk of metal (or plastic - you can get polymer lowers for ARs now) rather than an 80%. The "down" of that is you have to go through all the government pain-in-the-ass, including the NICS check, and form 4473, and having to go through (and pay the fees) for an FFL to do the deal, since the finished stripped lower is what's considered to be "The Gun" for legal purposes. With an 80%, you skip the paperwork, FFL transfer fees, and the rest of the government crap, but you have the extra headache of doing the milling work needed, which, while not particularly difficult if you've got some mechanical ability, is NOT a trivial process unless you spend a couple grand on a unit sold under the name "ghost gunner" - which turns the process into "put the blank in the box, push a button, and go have lunch". The payoff is the blanks can be shipped straight to you and it's an "off the books" gun once you're finished. Once you've got at least a stripped lower in-hand, whther you start with an 80%, or a stripped lower, you're holding the "basic starter set" for the "LEGOs for big kids" that is an AR-platform rifle. So long as your lower is mil-spec (the vast majority are, but there are exceptions) you can, quite literally, snap on pieces and parts to match your wildest ideas. An upper is a bit more finicky - there's some fiddly stuff that you *ABSOLUTELY MUST* get just right, or you can literally be putting your life on the line every time you pull the trigger on a live round. (as in the all-too-real possibility that instead of sending a bullet downrange, the gun explodes and spews shrapnel in every direction - unusual in the AR platform, but not impossible if you fuck up the headspacing or other critical bits)

As far as which one to go for - Lotsa luck finding *ANYTHING* in "ready-to-shoot" form right now. Everybody and his dog seems to be backordered halfway to doomsday. It took me at least 2 months of searching to find someplace that would admit to having 80% lowers in stock AT ALL, never mind for anything that even smelled like a realistic price - Pre-covid, an 80% could be had for 30-50 bucks for a plain-jane mil-spec forged lower. Billet lowers (which usually do, but might or might not, match mil-spec, and thus be, or not be, compatible with "everything else you can hang off an AR") were a bit more, but not outrageous. Right now, it's rare to find ANYTHING for under a hundred bucks, and I've seen some so-called "Gucci" 80% lowers going for as much as $180. Which is utterly fucking NUTS. I mean, come on - it's a hunk of aluminum, fercrissake! And you still have to mill it out to make it into something more than a paperweight! Stripped lowers (The ones that come with a serial number and require paperwork and an FFL) are even worse - I haven't seen one available for sale anywhere I've looked in the last 3 months - everyplace is saying the same thing: Out of Stock or Backordered. The market is absolutely insane right now.

Personally, I've got a pair of complete uppers (to make so-called "M4geries" - an AR that looks like an M4) on order through Palmetto State Armory for the two lowers I've just finished building out. Not top shelf, but not bottom of the barrel, either, and they set me back about 800 with the shipping and taxes for the pair.

*IF* you can find someone that'll admit to having one for sale at a decent price point, I'd really suggest that a first-time buyer go for a finished, ready-to-go rifle with a 16 inch or longer barrel. And don't be tempted into going for one of the so-called "AR pistols" - Those are *VERY SERIOUSLY* "up in the air", legally speaking right now - The ATF may just be waiting for the results of the election before puling the pin on declaring them SBRs or AOWs. Which will turn the folks who own them into felons overnight.

Also be aware that *YOU **WILL** **NOT** SAVE MONEY* starting with an 80% lower - You're looking at the price of the lower itself, PLUS a jig (variable pricing depending on which one, and who you source it from) PLUS the tooling (The end-mills alone are going to set you back ROUGHLY 80 bucks) and if you don't already have one, a drill press, milling machine, or the right brand of router if you go with one of the router jigs. Then you're talking about your time to actually do the milling - I've gotten it down to about 2-3 hours after doing 2, and destroyed the third by making a TINY mistake that turned out to have huge consequences - my first one took about 6 hours spread over 3 days). Now go out and find a lower parts kit, buffer tube, spring, buffer, end plate, and castle nut, as well as a stock (I spent a hundred bucks each the other day on 2 sets of buffer-stuff-plus-stock, and deliberately DID NOT go for the high-end versions - you can EASILY double that amount if you want to go after the "fancy", "big name" versions) and you've got yourself a "completed lower" that you can (assuming it's mil-spec) slap a "barreled upper" onto, stuff a magazine into, and actually shoot your first round. That barreled upper is probably going to set you back a *MINIMUM* of $350 (On top of the $500+ you'll have sunk into the 80% lower itself, parts kit, buffer/stock kit, jig, tooling, and drill/mill/router to get your lower built-out to the point where it can have an upper put on it) and could go well past $1500, depending on where you source it and how fancy you buy.

one of the things i have heard about is problems with parts not fitting like they should or at least very well when you put one together by yourself. i would like to do my own but this is one of the things that concerns me.

 

[azknottysex]

After Biden wins he better leave the 2nd alone. (Or, in my fantasy world, remove the 1994 background check bill, the GCA of 1968 and the NFA of 1934. I know, crazy daydream.)

he has already said he will mess with our 2nd amendment, not to mention harris has repeatedly said how she wants to erase the 2nd amendment all together.

 

[Pillar]

he has already said he will mess with our 2nd amendment, not to mention harris has repeatedly said how she wants to erase the 2nd amendment all together.

And if they try, I'll have to become a swing voter. ?

Hopefully they'll have the same results Obama did and just end up leaving it alone instead.

 

[Pillar]

If we could just get the Hearing Protection Act passed and repeal the Hughes Amendment we'd have made tremendous strides in restoring the 2nd.

My god, that would be LONG overdue. Ever shoot a gun without your ears on? Even outdoors it's still loud as f*#&!

 

[Pillar]

Ceratac.com they are legit and worth it

I was really considering buying from Ceretac until they raised the prices, they *used* to have dirt cheap prices for what you got.

 

[UR20Z]

one of the things i have heard about is problems with parts not fitting like they should or at least very well when you put one together by yourself. i would like to do my own but this is one of the things that concerns me.

I've personally built out 5 lowers, starting from either "ready to go" stripped lowers, or 80% lowers that I've milled out myself. So far, I've had exactly ONE piece out of all of them that didn't fit - it was an oversized takedown pin, and wouldn't fit into the pre-drilled hole of a stripped lower. When checked against other lowers, it became clear that the problem was the pin itself, not the lowers - When I mic-ed it, I found it was 47 thousandths (0.0047") oversized, and thus wouldn't fit into the hole where it belonged. Some careful filing and sanding brought it back to where it was supposed to be, and it then went in like it should.

So long as you're using mil-spec parts, which is the vast majority of them out there, you should have little or no problem with "stuff that doesn't fit" or "stuff that fits poorly". With the occasional oddball that slips through the cracks, like that takedown pin I spoke of, if you've seen one sample of an AR15 lower part, you've seen all of them. Normally, the variation from one to the next is going to be so small as to be meaningless.

Lowers, particularly if you start with a stripped lower, really aren't that difficult to assemble - There are a few "tricky bits", but generally, it's not a question of "can't make it fit" so much as "I need one hand to hold the lower, another to fit the hinge-pin detent spring into the hole where it belongs then press it into place and keep it from going "sproing" and launching itself into orbit, another hand to pick up and install the teensy-tiny detent pin that goes on top of the spring, and a fourth hand to install (while continuing to hold the lower AND the detent AND the spring) the hinge pin that the spring and detent slot into to keep it from falling out and I've got to try to do this with something like half a millimeter of space to maneuver my fat fingers (holding the hinge pin) through and aw, shit I must've shifted cause I just heard the detent pin bounce off the ceiling somewhere over there, and I wonder where the spring landed? Must not have been holding my mouth the right way..."

There are methods and tools to get around the "hard to do" parts, but being the stubborn bastard I am, I managed to invent a trick or two of my own for the process. After 5 build-outs, I've now gotten it more or less down to a science - I can take a lower parts kit in a bag, a stripped lower, and a buffer/stock kit from you, and hand you back a lower that's ready to have an upper snapped on in about 35 minutes. Others can do it even quicker.

 

[azknottysex]

I've personally built out 5 lowers, starting from either "ready to go" stripped lowers, or 80% lowers that I've milled out myself. So far, I've had exactly ONE piece out of all of them that didn't fit - it was an oversized takedown pin, and wouldn't fit into the pre-drilled hole of a stripped lower. When checked against other lowers, it became clear that the problem was the pin itself, not the lowers - When I mic-ed it, I found it was 47 thousandths (0.0047") oversized, and thus wouldn't fit into the hole where it belonged. Some careful filing and sanding brought it back to where it was supposed to be, and it then went in like it should.

So long as you're using mil-spec parts, which is the vast majority of them out there, you should have little or no problem with "stuff that doesn't fit" or "stuff that fits poorly". With the occasional oddball that slips through the cracks, like that takedown pin I spoke of, if you've seen one sample of an AR15 lower part, you've seen all of them. Normally, the variation from one to the next is going to be so small as to be meaningless.

Lowers, particularly if you start with a stripped lower, really aren't that difficult to assemble - There are a few "tricky bits", but generally, it's not a question of "can't make it fit" so much as "I need one hand to hold the lower, another to fit the hinge-pin detent spring into the hole where it belongs then press it into place and keep it from going "sproing" and launching itself into orbit, another hand to pick up and install the teensy-tiny detent pin that goes on top of the spring, and a fourth hand to install (while continuing to hold the lower AND the detent AND the spring) the hinge pin that the spring and detent slot into to keep it from falling out and I've got to try to do this with something like half a millimeter of space to maneuver my fat fingers (holding the hinge pin) through and aw, shit I must've shifted cause I just heard the detent pin bounce off the ceiling somewhere over there, and I wonder where the spring landed? Must not have been holding my mouth the right way..."

There are methods and tools to get around the "hard to do" parts, but being the stubborn bastard I am, I managed to invent a trick or two of my own for the process. After 5 build-outs, I've now gotten it more or less down to a science - I can take a lower parts kit in a bag, a stripped lower, and a buffer/stock kit from you, and hand you back a lower that's ready to have an upper snapped on in about 35 minutes. Others can do it even quicker.

right on thanks for the insight, almost makes you wish we had and extra hand or two but if that was the case, we wound never leave the house......lol.

 

[Bitchslayer]

Things was going *SO* well...

I've finished milling out 2 of the 3 80% AR15 lowers I got a week or so back, specifically as a "Fuck you, Joe and Kamala and Beto and Pelosi and Feinstein and any other politician who doesn't like it" concept. Love the idea of owning a rifle that "they" hate, but can't do a damned thing about since they don't have any idea it exists. (And before anybody starts screaming, yes, this is TOTALLY legal to do - With the exception of residents of either two or three states - mine ain't one of them - any American who wants to and isn't prohibited from owning a gun (convicted felons, mainly, though there are a couple other classes of folks who'd also be on the list) can do it without so much as a "mother may I?") So I bought 3 blanks, the jig and tooling needed, and once everything arrived, set to work on the task of turning aluminum "paperweights" into genuine "Ghost Guns" - so-called because they involve no government paperwork, and carry no serial numbers. (Although I *COULD*, should I be stupid enough to want to, put a serial number on them, doing so is something that's "recommended but optional", and won't be happening to mine - They're *INTENDED* to offend the sensibilities of "The Government", and very few things do that as well as a gun with no serial number.)

First one ended up just shy of perfect - some minor "chatter" marks from the last pass of the end mill on the floor, a couple of scratches here and there - your basic purely cosmetic defects that will have no effect on performance or longevity - just not as "pretty" as I'd hoped to have things turn out. Second one was MUCH better - Only one tool mark of any consequence - looks like the drill wandered slightly, leaving a tiny groove in one corner of the pocket that's too deep for the end mill to remove without throwing things out of spec. Like the tool marks on the first one, it's a cosmetic blemish that'll never be noticeable to anybody but me or somebody doing a VERY close inspection, and won't have any effect on the life or operation of the rifle.

Armed with the experience of the first two, went to work on the third this morning - Decided that with what I learned from the first pair, I could skip a step. A step which, on the other two, involved spending a bit more than an hour each drilling out a honeycomb-like pattern of 46 individual 1/8 inch holes an inch and a quarter deep to remove material that would otherwise need to be cut out with the end mill, thereby extending the useful life of the single highest precision and most expensive tool used in the process. Instead of drilling out all 46, careful stacking and tracing of the template plates let me figure out that I only REALLY need to drill out two of those 46 holes - because both of them are used as landmarks/pilot holes for bigger holes that get drilled in a later step. The other 44 get "eaten away" as part of two other steps in the process, both of which use good stout template plates for the actual placement of the holes. That part went fine, and knocked over an hour of not particularly difficult, but definitely tedious, work off the project. Got everything of the "rough-it-in" stages completed, including the two "bigger holes" that the two 1/8 inch holes locate, and couldn't tell that the "46 holes" step had been skipped - the result was identical in every way I could see to what I ended up with when I did do all 46 holes on the other two. So I started the finish work with the end mill. All was going well, and was, in fact, nearly done, when something went "CLACK", and the end mill simply *VANISHED*. ACK! Where'd it go!?!?!?!? Did it break off in the chuck? Teleport to the dark side of the moon? Evaporate into thin air? WTF happened???

Got to looking, and it had come out of the chuck... Oh, no... This ain't good at all. Did it break? Nope, can't feel any jagged stump - feels like the chuck is empty, in fact - WTF is going on? Go hunting, and find it on the floor. Looked it over - not broken. Looks perfectly fine, except that it's not where it should be... What the hell???

Long story short(er), apparently I didn't crank the chuck down tight enough, and so far as I can figure, a flute on the end mill caught one of the high spots it was supposed to be trimming away, and transformed from a cutter into a screw, twisting itself into the floor of the receiver, and ripping itself out of the chuck as it bit in, in the process, making a hole that it then fell through onto the floor under the drill press. In an instant, my beautiful third lower transformed from a perfectly milled (at least up to that point) receiver into a piece of unsalvageable junk. When the end mill made its escape, it ripped a hole in a location that's critical to proper function - No way to fix it. So now, this receiver is back to being what it started life as: an aluminum paperweight. Bummer... MAJOR bummer.

<sigh> Amazing how an instant of "not quite careful enough" can turn half a day's work into a piece of junk...

Oh well... As Meat Loaf said, "Two Outta Three Ain't Bad". And Joe, Kamala, Beto, Pelosi, and all the rest can STILL go fuck themselves!

Nice to see a fellow zoo who also owns a ghost gunner. I have the gen 3

 

[thatguy5]

My first lower reciever, I used popsicle sticks, hammer, 1/8" punch, electrical tape, and I think a 4 in one screwgie? Second lower...had all the neato Brownels tools, even that detent spring tool? Yup, that fucker took off like a miniature Saturn 5. I heard it hit the ceiling and wall....no luck finding it though. I have two new lowers, just waiting for funds. Got them local, a mom and pop place had them each $49.99 OTD tax included. That new online 4473 is fucking weird, though. I DO like the allure of an 80% lower. I am the kinda guy that likes tinkering with that shit. Too bad the BATFECES is allowed to change the rules as it wishes. One of those lowers WAS going to be a pistol build.

 

[Bitchslayer]

I'm assuming this wasn't your video but I have to share a screen shot because If you notice the upper right hand flag...

 

[UR20Z]

Nice to see a fellow zoo who also owns a ghost gunner. I have the gen 3

Erm... You seem to have mis-read the fact that while I *AM*, in a sense, a "Ghost Gunner" - it's axiomatic, since I have indeed created two of them - I neither own nor operate a "Ghost Gunner" machine. I'm working with a Harbor Freight grade drill press and a Broken Arms (brokenarmory.com if you care to go look at it) jig and tooling kit on blanks I got through Daytona Arms. Actually, it'd be more accurate for me to say I *WAS* doing that, since with the destruction of the third of three that I bought in the terrible milling accident related above, I've run out of blanks. Unless and until I get some more. But that'd just be overkill, methinks... How many of 'em can I shoot at once, after all?

And a wave to any ATF, etc folk who might possibly be looking on: Yep, I'm perfectly legal and I'm fully aware of the regs. Nothing to see here - You're dismissed.