Lonely and looking for an AR15 friend :)

Hey guys (and gals),

Looking for someone experienced in AR15 builds....

I recently got bitten by the gun bug and picked up a nice handgun (another on order). But, I also caught the AR15 build bug and spent 3 weeks reading the crap out of the internet, and watching every damn review possible on YouTube. I started ordering parts for a build and have about 80% of it in so far.

I've test fit most of what I've received and everything works as expected. Sadly, I'm still waiting on my barrel and that has my panties in a wad. This build is actually mostly for my wife, so I'm shooting for relatively light.

I started trolling the AR forums looking to see how the 'looking for a mentor' post would go over. I decided I really didn't want to have to get on board with yet another forum if I didn't have to, so thought I'd ask if there's anybody here that would take me under their wings. The legos for adults analogy is pretty good for the AR platform. I don't really have any true concerns that I can't get it all assembled correctly, but at the same time I'm not opposed to running some questions by those more experienced than I. It is a firearm after all.

I sort of went piecemeal for parts, putting together quality stuff that so far is looking pretty good. I've bought from:

• V Seven for the upper/lower & buffer tube and other odd bits
• BSF 223 Wylde for the barrel
• Daniel Defense for the Stock and grip
• Geissele buffer/spring
• Radian for the charging handle
• Midwest Industries for the hand guard
• Rise Armament for the drop in trigger
• Sharps Rifle Company for the BCG
• Superlative Arms adjustable gas block
• A few others for some other odd and ends

Anybody interested in fielding some questions I may have? I expect the rest of my parts in the next 10 days. At that point I'll be pretty antsy to start putting parts together with grease and Loctite.

 

sure, it's not super hard to put on together. Are you building the lower from scratch ?

 

Get a Geissele trigger. The barrel will make a big difference in weight. A 20” bull barrel will be heavy. A 16” light, will be much lighter.

I got a set of head space gauges. You may want a gun smith check it out before you fire it.

 

I looked at Geissele triggers, and a bunch of others lol. In the end I didn’t go with them but chose another.

I have a 16” carbon fiber barrel, I forget the weight. I’m not going for ultralight. I actually want it to have a little heft. But I’m hoping to tune the recoil with the adjustable gas block.

I’ll look into having a gunsmith go over it before first firing. That’s a good idea. Any idea in cost for that? Anybody have a good recommendation on the FW side if DFW? Preferably grapevine Southlake etc.

eta. Upper/lower is a matched set from Seven. 100%

 

This may be a stupid statement.......I thought one of the reasons ar builds were so easy is because the barrel did all the hard work and you didn't have to worry about head spacing. I am completely uneducated and just starting so go ahead and teach me

 

DFW shooting sports on Bedford-Eu(se)less Rd has been my go-to. Always full of grizzled old codgers doling out advice. To be honest though I havent attempted an AR platform yet. I'm tempted by it too.

 

not stupid at all. You are correct. if everything is within normal tolerances you shouldn't need to worry about it

 

It’s dangerous to your pocketbook. Buying piecemeal you don’t realize how much you add up. It’s truly legos for adults.

For my next build, I started a spreadsheet and am buying virtually first. I don’t think I want to add up what I’ve spent so far for my wife’s.

 

Exactly why I havent started yet. I made that mistake with a drone build four years ago. Everyone said at the time "you can be flying with a $200 build, easy." Somehow that turned into a thousand dollar drone that sits on my shelf now.

Ive done mild tinkering with my firearms here and there, but everything has kinda sat untouched in my safe this year. It looks like a lot of fun.

 

it depends. A lot of "name brands" charge so much for their receivers when you can get a Poverty Pony for under $60 when it ain't on sale. Palmetto State Armory and Aim Surplus have good deals on affordable and quality parts.
But using a spreadsheet isn't a bad idea, I used one on my last AR15 build when I decided to make a lightweight cheap Frankengun. The Parts Weight Database really helped me there. My newest AR is right at 5lbs with iron sights and no polymer receivers. I did repurpose a lower but even with that, total cost was under $800 including what I had in the lower. I started buying the parts at the beginning of the year.

AR15 Parts_Materials_Weight_Configuration Size(s) - Google Sheets

 

Oops, totally texted my wife on here. Lol

 

If you're building the lower, I have a pretty good PDF file that another member on another forum made that helped me build my first lower. If interested pm me your email address and i'll see if I can find in it my email archives to forward to you. It's pretty fool proof and was all I used to build my first lower long ago.

 

Awesome, appreciate that. PM incoming soon.

I may or may not have ordered a jig, a new hand held router, and a 'rectangular shaped hunk of metal' recently.

 

Appreciate the reference. Not too far from me so I may check it out.

Just got my vise in from Amazon today, so going to set the barrel tonight. All that’s left now is a charging handle that I’m waiting on... oh, and a new magazine release because my ocd is triggered from the finish on the kit version. That’s the last piece that doesn’t match my upper/lower. Still needs some mags too, probably ought to order them.

 

Anybody have an idea on how far the gas tube should extend into the upper receiver? Is that an 'about this far' kind of thing, or is there a spec with low tolerance? My barrel doesn't have a natural stop for the gas block, but it does have a metal section that lines up pretty well with the length of the tube. Centering the block on the 'dimple', puts it a little offset on the metal section. Mine mounts with compression screws rather than a set screw. I should have paid more attention to where the ports were, so probably need to take it back off and look at it more closely before putting it back on.

 

NO idea. Sorry. I just finished my 1st 80 Lower build today, but I bought the upper fully assembled already.

 

No worries, I’ll hit up Encyclopedia Brittanica; aka Google. Got 3 mags in today. Just need a charging handle and I’m all done. Waiting on that too.

 

typically gas blocks will line up over the gas port when you have the block shoved all the way to the shoulder of the journal. As long as you have the right length gas tube, you shouldn't have a problem with enough tube in the receiver. Use halfway decent parts, and you won't have any problems with the build.

 

In theory if you use quality parts you should not have headspace issues. However it can happen. I have a guy I have taken uppers to just to check headspacing after builds or swapping a barrel and he charged me like $5 to drop go/no go gauges in it real quick.

This 100%. When I worked at a gun shop 90% of the people who had issues with ARs either abused them (several thousand rounds without cleaning/oiling) or used parts that the manufacturer didn't take enough pride to bother putting their name/logo on. Most of the time it was a cheap barrel with gas port too small. Looks like you've chosen some quality parts though so hopefully you won't have any issues.

It looks like BSF lists gas system length based on their barrel length on their website. Check that out and it will tell you what gas tube length you need.

Random advice in no particular order:
- Get a 1/4" clevis pin for pivot pin detent and spring installation, a cheap vise block, and a decent set of roll pin punches before you start building. Don't go cheap on armorer's wrench, it will only cause headaches. The right tools are well worth the $.
- Lightly grease your barrel nut threads before torquing. I know this is counterintuitive but if you ever decide to remove the barrel for any reason you will be glad you did. Torque is min 35 ft lb, then until gas tube can be lined up. Not to exceed 80 ft lb but to be honest I usually start adding shims at about 50 ft lb.
- Bolt catch pin can be taped onto the end of the correct size roll pin punch until started. I typically use electrical tape with a few wraps and only about 1/8" of the tape on the pin and rest on the punch. This will save you from wishing you have 3 hands.
- Also a good idea to ream the safety spring and detent hole with a 1/8" drill bit BY HAND before installing detent and spring. Sometimes burrs wind up getting caught there.
- Make sure your grip screw hole is threaded all the way through before installing your trigger. I've done builds for friends with cheap lowers that were not threaded deep enough for the full length of the grip screw bolt.

Edit: And wear eye pro when you're building. You WILL launch at least one detent and/or spring and it'd be best if it wasn't your eye that catches it.

Edit edit: Also you're a lucky bastard to be able to scrape up enough parts to do a build right now.

 

Appreciate the advice. It never hurts to be open to learning when new to something.

gas block: https://suparms.com/collections/adj...eed-off-clamp-on-melonited?variant=6376703365

barrel in 16”: https://www.bsfbarrels.com/product-page/223-wylde

receivers: https://www.vsevenweaponsystems.com/v-seven-ar-15-matched-receiver-set/

gas tube in mid: https://www.vsevenweaponsystems.com/v7-extreme-environment-gas-tube/

I tend to go overboard a little with new stuff. I bought the full Avid armorers kit just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Already had a quality torque wrench so that’s doubled. If you notice on the bsf barrels, they don’t have a journal or normal stop for the gas block. Centered on the stainless was my first guess. But the impression for the detention didn’t center up on the block, so I moved it back a bit farther. Still not perfectly centered. I think what I need to do is take it back off and inspect where the gas port is on the barrel with respect to the detention impression, and where the internals on the gas block are. That shouldn’t be too much trouble. I did notice that the clearance between the guard and the gas block was essentially zero. I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing or not.