Doing a trunion swap and buying parts kits to convert a 556 is just plain foolish when genuine 553s are available for $3k. Look at all the 552 parts that are up for sale on gunbroker and never sell. You won't likely be able to sell off the parts you don't need for any substantial money. If you go down the clone path, you will have almost $3k (possibly more) tied up in your host and the parts kit. Then you need gunsmithing and refinishing. And heaven forbid you want/need to sell it one day, it will sit until eternity unless you sell it at a major loss.

Not to peanut gallery what JoshNC said, because he is very correct in his assessment (especially about the 552 parts... that stuff tends to rot on shelves as it is by and large incompatible with standard US 556 platforms), but sometimes you just want to craft something for yourself.

If I can take anything away from my own little journey making my clone it is that when this is all said and done my rifle will be uniquely mine, it will have nearly all the exact parts that I wanted it to have and it will look almost exactly the way I wanted it to look. Plus it is in the process of becoming at title 2 weapon and it is engraved with my LLC info, so the thought of selling it is the furthest thing from my mind. To me NFA stuff is like art in a museum... it is in my "permanent collection". I never go into a project like this thinking of selling... to me it is like restoring a muscle car. You are never in a million years going to get out of it what you put into it, but what you put into it is uniquely yours.

I realize that attaining a perfect clone is not possible for the amount of money I had budgeted. I also realize now that buying one of the real Swiss 553 pistols would have required me to swap parts to get where I wanted to go anyway (I don't like those new aluminum lowers for instance)... plus I would still have had to make it 922r compliant which would mean I'd still be having to swap even more parts out to achieve what I wanted. So even going that route I would still have had to made compromises on the concept of "a perfect clone".

As it stands right now once my form 1 comes back and the barrel is cut down, if I was to remove my Aurora sights and put on a matching height MFI front flip sight (which I'm thinking of buying just to see how it looks / feels)  the only things that would not look totally "correct" on my clone will be:

- slightly different paint coloration (upper receiver and gas block are a matte black as opposed to the semigloss of the lower)
- slightly taller / different pattern top rail without the rear sling loops
- slightly different flip up sights (rear popsicle is the taller US model and the front flip blade would look too long) OR the Aurora sights (which someone could put on a real SG 553 Picatinney if they wanted)
- slightly longer barrel length
- different handguard cap (DDLES conforming model rather than the thinner SAN type)
- different but very convincing clone rotex flash hider
- the actual markings on the receiver (their location and what they say)

But many of those things are more or less niggling in my mind... you would need to have a close examination of the rifle to discover those inconsistencies. And someone without first hand experience knowing what a real SG 553 SOW Commando Picatinney Rail Black Semiauto Export model looks exactly like would probably be convinced. If you laid my eventual complete clone rifle next to a real one on a table it would basically be a "what's the diff" seek and find puzzle. Hold both of them up from ten feet away and the viewer might be hard pressed to know which is which.

And in the end that is my goal... perfection would cost so much money at this point that I don't think I want to attempt it. "Close enough that you have to study it to see the differences" is a good enough place for me. Especially for a shooter... I plan on using this thing, not putting it up on a wall and admiring it like a Picasso.

As soon as my handguards come back from my friend's dad's shop I will get some more pictures posted, as at that point the only thing missing from my build will be the barrel cutdown. I'm still thinking late April for when my eform form 1 will be approved, then it has to go to ADCO so perhaps mid to late May for a wrap up target.

Building a 553/2 clone is kinda like restoring a Muscle Car...its all about the journey.  I sold my 69 SS Camaro for less than half of what I had in it in 1998 but that doesn't mean I didn't have one hell of a fun time driving it or restoring it....I owned it for just shy of 13 yrs too.

I just got the photos from my friend's dad of my fabbed handguards.



From across the room they look good but when you really study them you see that the five air vent holes are crooked and their spacing is off. And the length is too long, but I'll just have to borrow a sander and bring them down to fit.

All in all I suppose I "got what I paid for" (which was nothing)... now I wonder if I shouldn't buy ANOTHER set of SG550 handguards and have someone else try again. I like to think I'm not a perfectionist in all this, but yeeeesh do my eyes just go straight to the crooked holes.

I have a lead on a 552 Kit if you want to go in on it.  I only need a few parts and the HGs aren't one.

If I decide to order another set I'll most likely go through Rolf at Gunfactory again for another brand new set. But until I get my set back in my hands and see just how much the holes set off my OCD I may just live with them.

Bummer.  Didn't he use the MFI holes as a stencil? Just do it yourself.  Shouldn't  be too hard. Gotta but another 550 HG though.
 

I'm not sure exactly what he did. I assume he used his drill press but it looks like he eyeballed it rather than properly measuring and drilling. I showed the pictures to my friend (who's dad was doing the work) and even he had a collar-pulling eeeeeuuuuuuggggghhhh reaction to them. My friend is going over to his dad's house this week to look over the handguards and see if he can't off-center overbore them a little to try to even out the pattern. Failing that I will need to order another set from Rolf and try again.

I trust my friend more than his dad at this point, so we shall see how things shake out.

Well, the handguards are officially not salvageable to my required level of quality... so putting in another order with Rolf for another set. This time my friend said he will do the drilling and cutting instead of his father. And now that he has seen what I'm looking for I have much more faith in the second time around.

Just too bad I had to lose one set of handguards.

Sorry to hear that. Sell the set you have to salvage some costs.

I'm not sure who would buy a set of handguards that is in such a rough state. They were cut too long and drilled drunkenly crooked. I don't consider myself a perfectionist, but when you see them in person they put the term "cattywumpus" to shame. With a lot of work they would be functional, but that work would require overboring the air holes quite a bit and using a belt sander or something to take down the length (they are something weird like 1/6th of an inch too long... too long to just sand to fit by hand.

I realize I could sell them for chicken scratch, but they are almost worth more to me as war trophies than the pittance I'd get for them.

Any chance the holes could be, for lack of a better term, bondo'd over and filled?

I have no idea.

I think the best "fix" is to overbore the holes until they have a more uniform pattern. My issue with that is that the holes would be way too big then. Sure they would be more even and uniform, but they'd be HUGE.

I already have an email in to Rolf to buy another set of handguards and try again. The handguards are only like $165 so it's not like I lost a shit ton on this set. I'm sure there are folks who think $165 IS a shit ton though.

Your right, its not a shit ton compared to the project but that still SUCKs.

I take it Rolf is overseas?   I need to find a stock as  my 55X lower came w/o one.

Yeah in the long run $165 is a drop in the bucket compared to what I've already spent... plus it is not like EVERYONE has a 553 clone. I bet I'm the only one in my city that has one, or at least one of a very small single digit quantity. I equate all of this to restoring an old car... shit is going to cost money and parts are going to be hard to find. Its the rules of the game.

As for Rolf he is one of the guys at gunfactory.ch in Switzerland. They speak english, take paypal, have a pretty wide selection of factory new SAN parts and ship fast to the US. If you look on their site they do indeed have several different SAN stocks... just remember a joke I read somewhere, that all this SAN stuff is one part out of stock forever and one part stupidly expensive.

I couldn't agree more.  The stock is over $400USd....WOW!!

Took 9 months and finally got my Stamp ... so here is my 552 Replica ....   Maybe someday I'll have some spare cash for a steel lower ... but for now i'm sticking with the 551-A1 lower.




 

Is that a Sig USA front sight or an MFI?

 

FH too ?   I need both the finish mine.  BTW, nice job!

yes .. MFI FH ....

 

Second verse same as the first, my second set of SG550 handguards are inbound. This time around I plan to be there when the cutting and drilling happens so if this set gets fucked up it is partially on me. Not much motion on the project outside of that, waiting for the eform 1 to come back and watching the "3 months" thread has me thinking it will be May before I see an approval.

I got a quote from colorado gun sales for a blemished black front SAN hooded sight with flip up night sight and decided to just keep my Aurora front.

An interesting fun fact: The Aurora front sight that I have is one of the ones with the removable front post. This front post has AR15 front sight threads on it. I looked into putting in a tritium front sight post but there is not enough room to align the trijicon front sight post with the hole and thread it in (the night sight post being a blade sight rather than a post, as you turn the blade it hits the side of the hole in the top of the sight hood and won't turn any further preventing you front installing it). I post style night sight might work like one of the meprolight sights but I'm not a fan of them.

So, anyone know of a "big dot" style AR front sight post that is a POST and not a blade? Doesn't necessarily need to be a night sight as I'm looking into getting a tub of neon green glow in the dark paint so I can get the Aurora rear sight dots properly "illuminated" and if there is a post style big dot sight with just a big white dot I figure that can be hit with the glow paint as well for a poor man's tritium.

http://www.amazon.com/Sightlink-AR-15-Fiber-Optic-Military/dp/B003I6OU5Y

Thanks for the link, but that is another blade sight. Every AR front dot sight I find is a blade sight, which means it won't fit in the Aurora. The problem is how the Aurora sight mounts its front sight post... it is not centered in the sight and is instead drastically offset towards one end. This is done to get around the cross bolt Sigs use. The problem is that the sight is completely misaligned with the hole in the top of the hood. It looks something like this from above: (-   )

It's because of that offset that blade sights won't work, as when you begin to screw in the sight the blade turns and hits the side of the hood hole and won't turn any further.

I'm sure that someone with tools and patience would cut down the thread height on the AR blade sight as well as cut off the roundel so it will sit lower... but again ask me to do either of those things and I'll be missing fingers and the final product will look like stool. And I don't want to damage the Aurora front sight... thees things are rare enough, we don't need me ham-fisting one. I think I'm probably going to just hunt down a real SAN black front sight with the flip up tritium... time to break out the wallet again.

Oh I forgot to post about this earlier but I bought one of the MFI flip up front sights just to see how it looked. The sight itself is nice but the cross bolt and locking nut they provide is airsoft grade light anodized aluminum junk. I put the sight on and adjusted the cross bolt with an allen wrench to get the windage right and the darn thing started flaking apart at both ends. The metal is waaaaaaay too soft to be used on a real gun.

Ugh. Glad I'm not the only one (MFI).

I wanna love Em, but UGH.  

Maybe call XS?

MFI strikes me as a place with great ideas trying to fill a niche that needs to be filled, but their builders / suppliers are either cheap chinese airsoft people or they are cheaping out far too much trying to hit a certain market price point.

Then again the Sig clone market is probably the size of the North American English Wicket Bat Sniffer's Rotary Club.

My Front Flip up MFI sight seems fine ... but my rear MFI sight already fell apart and is destined for the trash heap.  Thats why I ended up with the Sig Diopter in the back.

Arcs...

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/04/02/xs-sights-releases-c-s-a-t-sight-upgrade-troy-flip-up-battle-sights/

I looked them up and they appear to be just regular bladed front sight posts, they have the roundel and the long threaded bolt just like their other offerings. I don't know what makes them so special for the Troy sights. Perhaps it is just the way the Troy sights look in those photos that make the front post look different...

I ended up going with MFI front site and ordered the one w/o the windage bolt;reused the 556 one..

My friend is working on my handguards right now. He says he has Monday off and will most likely finish them out then, so next week I should have updated build pics (fingers crossed).

Now if the eforms system will get its head out of its ass and approve my form 1 I can get this ball across the goal line.

I got my newly fabbed handguards last night and THANK GOD my friend did a really bang up job on them. Unlike his dad he seems to have really hit it out of the park and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. He brought over his sander and we custom fit the handguards to the length of my clone, so they fit like a glove and lock up really solid. The holes look nice and clean and the screw holes for the rail kit are in the perfect spots. I only have the bottom rail installed as I think that is all I'll be using... the side rails are kind of meh and anything I'd put on them would stick out way too far for my tastes.

The comparison to the MFI handguards is night and day... these feel so much more solid and the tactile feel of the nylon in your hands is worlds above the cheap PVC plastic of the MFI set.





All that remains is for my eForm 1 to come back and the upper to be sent off to ADCO for the barrel shortening. I have every other part on it that I want. So the next update will be in a while once the cut down is performed, and that will be the final article.

I agree, much better.

the handguards look tits

your project is really coming together , this has been a great thread to follow.  there's quite a few of us who have been through what your doing.  i went through the same progression of handguards almost.  mine started off with the fishgill handguards , then i tried a set of mfi's.  quickly changed them out for cut down SAN handguards and a ddles cap.  then went with a sig rail in the end   i've been contemplating pulling mine out lately and attacking it with some more krylon , maybe try a kryptek pattern on it.  hope you get your F1 back soon and get it completed as i've been looking forward to pics of the completed project

Form 1 APPROVED.

Stripping down and packing up the upper to ship to ADCO tomorrow morning.

The final leg of the journey is in sight.

Very nice sir. Exactly how I envisioned my 556 SBR/553 clone build going. Except I've been too cheap to spring for a 55X lower and try to keep convincing myself that a 556 lower with AR mags is "better". Eventually I will lose that argument with myself.

The only thing you could do that you haven't already done is get welded on Swiss SIG sights, but that comes with a lot of risks and serious irreversible work. The Aurora sights provide a "close enough" safe option here and still retain the rail for mounting optics.

Which muzzle device are you going with, and what thread pitch? 1/2x28 with an MFI 552 clone flash hider, or did you get a real 553 flash hider that needs M14 LH threads?

I did the MFI flash hider first, but then went with an AAC Brakeout for the suppressor mount. The MFI looked right, but the ability to run a silencer won out.

I have a M&M clone of the SAN B&T Rotex flash hider in 1/2x28. I had an MFI flash hider but it didn't look "right" for a 553 build. I'm most likely never going to mount a can on this guy as his barrel length will be under the 10.5" minimum both of my rifle can manufacturers warranty supports.

Ive been contemplating a sig 55x series and now this thread popping back up on me isn't helping...drool.

looks great!

Upper receiver is back from ADCO. Barrel cutdown looks sweet.

Reassembling tonight, will test it out tomorrow afternoon.

Pics of the finished product to follow.

cool cant wait.

Potatocam pictures of the finished product:









I'll be testing it out today for function then fine tuning the sights. I removed the forward rail until I can find a suitable vertical grip. I was looking for one of the B&T lever mount stubby grips but they appear to have dried up in the states. If anyone knows where I can find one let me know.

And since she is finally done I decided to infill the markings using a as close of a gray to the Sig SAN marking color as I could find. It really makes the roll marks pop and gives it a more authentic look. Sure it isn't 100% accurate, but it really ties the room together.

And I didn't notice it as much when the barrel was still long but the clone Rotex flash hider has a tuning fork ttttiiiiiiiinnngggg noise that seems to dwell longer than my AAC blackout mounts. And in my usual habit I'm thinking of getting another MFI 552 flash hider and having it refinished darker black to see how it fits. My initial complaint about my first MFI flash hider was that it was too gray... to light of a color and it clashed with all the black. I like my clone Rotex flash hider but now that the barrel is cut it just feels really long comparatively speaking. I'm not planning on suppressing this SBR (as the barrel is 9.5", too short for the warranty on both of my rifle cans) so my goal is first accuracy and second length.

I really, really hate you now...............j/k....that is a very nice rifle

That's a sexy little bitch!

she turned out nice , i kinda like the rotex flash hider

Just got back from the range. Happy to report it runs well. It doesn't throw the brass five miles away like it used to, but it is still kicking them out pretty well. And it is LOUD. Like, shake your eyeballs loud. I've been running all my 5.56 SBRs suppressed for so long I forgot how punchy these things can be. My friend who owns the range helped me re-time the flash hider using a set of washers from an AAC mount, so now it has the proper timing.

While it was being worked on at the counter it drew a few gawkers. Nobody knew what it was but everyone was interested in it.

Awesome!  Yours has been an inspiration for me.  I cant wait till my stamp gets here.  I wish you were half as good a photographer as you are a rifle builder.

I blame Apple and my inability to hold anything still. I'm glad I'm not a neurosurgeon.