Has anybody Milled their own receivers?

[BlondeGuy]

Has anyone here bought the tools to mill your own receivers? I am consider doing this.

[Dorkface]

Ive only finished 80% ar lowers. with a good jig and a drill press it wasnt a big deal. You get a very good understanding of how they work. I have a friend that has done 0% lowers and uppers but he has a mill lol

[BlondeGuy]

I was thinking about doing 80% and perhaps sell them to try to profit off this craze. Who has the best jigs?

[Echo17]

Very good idea! Pirate mentality at its best, subvert, overcome, profit, prosper :)

[dgaspar]

Milling your own receivers, including 80% lowers, is legal for your own personal use. If you are intending to make them for sale, you will likely be considered to be a manufacturer.

[Housertl]

Milling your own receivers, including 80% lowers, is legal for your own personal use. If you are intending to make them for sale, you will likely be considered to be a manufacturer.

Depends, are you milling a block of metal into an 80% or are you milling an 80% into a receiver? 80% lowers are just paperweights. If you want to do this, google CNC gunsmithing, that forum has a lot of info....

[dgaspar]

Depends, are you milling a block of metal into an 80% or are you milling an 80% into a receiver? 80% lowers are just paperweights. If you want to do this, google CNC gunsmithing, that forum has a lot of info....

Good point. I was assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that he was turning 80% lowers into functioning lowers.

[BlondeGuy]

80s into functioning. As a manufacturer I would need to produce and sale enough to cover the cost of licenses and insurance.

An AWB may not effect the avaliabilty of receivers, so I may see about making Mags

[BlondeGuy]

Another idea to get around being a Manufacturer is to sell a person the Blank (80 %) then rent them the use of the jig to make their own.

If they are at a distance I may be able to run the jig under their supervision via Skype or FaceTime.

I know that's a fine line, but that's what pirates do.

Custom engraving would be nice too

[Housertl]

Things to consider...

If you want to manufacture, you need to obtain a Class 7 FFL from the BATFE, costs about $500 for either 3 or 5 years, if I recall correctly. Then, because you are a manufacturer of ITAR controlled products, you would need to register with, and pay your ITAR fees to, the US State department, whether you intend to export them or not. Those fees run about $1200-$1500 per year. Then you need the mill...you could do this by hand, but that is more time consuming, you want to crank these puppies out...you will need a CNC mill. You can get a good manual mill, and then use that to make the pieces that you will use to turn it into a CNC, that is usually the most cost effective way, but it will still run you into the $5k-$7k range.

An alternative would be to use an inexpensive CAD program like Alibre to design your product, and then use a good 3D printer, such as the Makerbot 2.0, to print polymer lowers. You would most likely want to work in nylon 6/6, the basic compound for glock lowers. I'm not sure if there are any printers that can work with that yet, that are not cost prohibitive for most (around $30k...the Makerbot 2.0 uses some kind of bioplastic and only runs around $2500; they are working on one that will print in ABS, but I don't know if it will work for nylon 6/6)

The other question is, since you asked if anyone has ever made their own lower, I assume you haven't. Do you have any machining experience? I ask because part of the CNC process is programming the CAM unit to make the cuts on your work material...you have to tell the computer how fast to spin the bit, etc...all of that is based off of your machining experience.

[BlondeGuy]

Houserti

Excellent reply. You have answered so much. I figured it would be cost prohibited unless I could produce in bulk, but I do like the idea of the 3-D printer.

I have a company that manufacture fitness equipment and understand the cost of tooling up to manufacture something.

Thanks again for the info.

[chad newton]

You can make as many as you want, they are an unfinished piece of metal. The only thing your gov will want is tax money. But I wouldn't worry about it unless you are selling boatloads.

[chad newton]

Btw, if you are taking orders, put me down for two rpd and if you feel skilled enough make me a couple pkm receivers. I pay in cash.:)

[Crusader8207]

Things to consider...

If you want to manufacture, you need to obtain a Class 7 FFL from the BATFE, costs about $500 for either 3 or 5 years, if I recall correctly. Then, because you are a manufacturer of ITAR controlled products, you would need to register with, and pay your ITAR fees to, the US State department, whether you intend to export them or not. Those fees run about $1200-$1500 per year. Then you need the mill...you could do this by hand, but that is more time consuming, you want to crank these puppies out...you will need a CNC mill. You can get a good manual mill, and then use that to make the pieces that you will use to turn it into a CNC, that is usually the most cost effective way, but it will still run you into the $5k-$7k range.

An alternative would be to use an inexpensive CAD program like Alibre to design your product, and then use a good 3D printer, such as the Makerbot 2.0, to print polymer lowers. You would most likely want to work in nylon 6/6, the basic compound for glock lowers. I'm not sure if there are any printers that can work with that yet, that are not cost prohibitive for most (around $30k...the Makerbot 2.0 uses some kind of bioplastic and only runs around $2500; they are working on one that will print in ABS, but I don't know if it will work for nylon 6/6)

The other question is, since you asked if anyone has ever made their own lower, I assume you haven't. Do you have any machining experience? I ask because part of the CNC process is programming the CAM unit to make the cuts on your work material...you have to tell the computer how fast to spin the bit, etc...all of that is based off of your machining experience.

ITAR is $2500 a year. Just an FYI

[Sam Mayes]

Has anyone here bought the tools to mill your own receivers? I am consider doing this.

I just got a cnc machine a month ago. Will be giving it a go

[gdalton]

Guys my business is reverse engineering and fabrication of plastic components and I can tell you they have machines that work in ABS and glass filled nylon so a lower with good strength is not out of the question. Now if you could come up with an 80% plastic lower that could be finished with simple tools then you may have something. Hell if you want shoot me a pm and we can talk about it.

[chad newton]

You should try to come up with your own rifle. That way you can come up with a design that works around the synthetics. You never know, you could be the next browning.

[barnetmill]

Things to consider...

If you want to manufacture, you need to obtain a Class 7 FFL from the BATFE, costs about $500 for either 3 or 5 years, if I recall correctly. Then, because you are a manufacturer of ITAR controlled products, you would need to register with, and pay your ITAR fees to, the US State department, whether you intend to export them or not. Those fees run about $1200-$1500 per year. Then you need the mill...you could do this by hand, but that is more time consuming, you want to crank these puppies out...you will need a CNC mill. You can get a good manual mill, and then use that to make the pieces that you will use to turn it into a CNC, that is usually the most cost effective way, but it will still run you into the $5k-$7k range.

An alternative would be to use an inexpensive CAD program like Alibre to design your product, and then use a good 3D printer, such as the Makerbot 2.0, to print polymer lowers. You would most likely want to work in nylon 6/6, the basic compound for glock lowers. I'm not sure if there are any printers that can work with that yet, that are not cost prohibitive for most (around $30k...the Makerbot 2.0 uses some kind of bioplastic and only runs around $2500; they are working on one that will print in ABS, but I don't know if it will work for nylon 6/6)

The other question is, since you asked if anyone has ever made their own lower, I assume you haven't. Do you have any machining experience? I ask because part of the CNC process is programming the CAM unit to make the cuts on your work material...you have to tell the computer how fast to spin the bit, etc...all of that is based off of your machining experience.
I once watched couple of machinists set up a CAD program to make an adjustable trigger unit they were designing. It was not a simple operation. For example if you are going to make a pin hole near an edge of the stock material, you should do that prior to final milling of that edge. Every operation has to be planned in context to the whole project. You really need to have a lot of experience prior to setting something like that up. Making something like a mauser 98 from what I was told would be beyound the capacity of many machine shops. Ruger and many others prefer to cast their receivers and then machine. Maybe not as strong as starting from a forged billet, but their guns seem to work. After all machining is done there is still the heat treating requirement for some parts. The easiest guns to make are submachine guns. Would not take a lot to make something like a stengun that is really simple. Some guns that are cheap like the M3 .45 submachine gun I think would be harder since you probably need to able to stamp out the receivers. I am obviously not a machinist but I appreciate the training and innate ability that it takes to be a very good at it.