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Posted: 8/15/2010 12:28:23 AM EDT
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I've dabbled into the thought of making a few of my own lower receivers, not only for the satisfaction of making one, but also price in the long run/experience it would give me.
What is the process of creating one of the lowers, there are plenty of building blocks such as spikes tactical's unfinished lowers.. I'm guessing i would have to either, 1. find a mill/cnc machine and all the goodies involved. upwards of 10k.... 2. find someone who already has one IE. local business machine shop.... 3. Go through BATF to get it registered...but shouldn't be to hard if i'm only going to make a handful and not sell them correct? How does the mill/cnc work, Could I use one of my DPMS or spike lowers as the *COPY* for all the milling and create my own logo/serial numbers? Or are CNC machines not able to do this? I know my grandpa had a wood machine that was literally like a copy machine...but that was wood. I'm kinda green in this whole area and looking for some info/advice.. |
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I believe what you're wanting to find is a duplicator, which are all mostly dinosaurs now. There's blueprints readily available for a lower, no other info is needed. I do not know the legalities of having a few lowers made by another shop, then having you try to go through the registration process with the BATF. The machine shop would be manufacturing them, they would be the one who would need to go through all that. Personal use is a different story, but nobody else can have a hand in making it. As far as just buying a CNC and spitting out a few lowers, that's not going to happen. CNC's need programming, tooling, (most of them need) 3 phase power, and a whole lot of other things. CNC's are also not Xerox machines. It takes a lot of time, experience, and knowledge to get the parts out of it that you want. Anyone can stand there and push the cycle start button, but it takes much more to get that cycle start button to do what you want. It won't be cheap to go to a shop and have them made. There's a lot of setups required for a receiver, and the companies that build thousands of them a week have the programming and tooling all sorted out. Your local machine shop won't have that. You can find a lower fairly easily for less than $100. As an average around here, most job-shop machine shops charge $60/hour and up. To put it another way, I have a shop and CNC with all the goodies to go with it and I don't think it's worth machining one since they are so cheap. If you wanted to get all the shop stuff because you really want to learn it, and just build a lower for fun, I would say go for it and have a good time. But to buy all that stuff to make a few, also without prior machining knowledge, is not something I would do. Hopefully, I didn't come across as sounding harsh. That's just a big jump to make. 
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As stated above, tracer mills are pretty much nonexistent now.
Here's a sample of G/M code for a Fanuc based CNC mill control. My post processor is shit and I haven't spend enough time with it to get it fixed. T237 M6 G0 G90 X1.6946 Y-.0819 S6000 M3 G43 H0 Z.25 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.3332 Y.0181 F66. G3 X.8717 Y-.2432 R.375 G1 X.6313 Y-1.1118 G3 X.8926 Y-1.5732 R.375 G1 X1.254 Y-1.6733 G0 Z.25 X1.6657 Y-.0739 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.3043 Y.0261 F66. G3 X.8428 Y-.2352 R.375 G1 X.6023 Y-1.1038 G3 X.8637 Y-1.5652 R.375 G1 X1.2251 Y-1.6653 G0 Z.25 X1.4541 Y-.9496 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.0927 Y-.8498 F66. G3 X.6314 Y-1.1114 R.375 G2 X0. Y-1.592 R.655 G3 X-.375 Y-1.967 R.375 |
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Quoted:
As stated above, tracer mills are pretty much nonexistent now. Here's a sample of G/M code for a Fanuc based CNC mill control. My post processor is shit and I haven't spend enough time with it to get it fixed. T237 M6 G0 G90 X1.6946 Y-.0819 S6000 M3 G43 H0 Z.25 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.3332 Y.0181 F66. G3 X.8717 Y-.2432 R.375 G1 X.6313 Y-1.1118 G3 X.8926 Y-1.5732 R.375 G1 X1.254 Y-1.6733 G0 Z.25 X1.6657 Y-.0739 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.3043 Y.0261 F66. G3 X.8428 Y-.2352 R.375 G1 X.6023 Y-1.1038 G3 X.8637 Y-1.5652 R.375 G1 X1.2251 Y-1.6653 G0 Z.25 X1.4541 Y-.9496 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.0927 Y-.8498 F66. G3 X.6314 Y-1.1114 R.375 G2 X0. Y-1.592 R.655 G3 X-.375 Y-1.967 R.375 And that is just three little pockets. It would be funny to copy/paste a 3D form program from a big part. 
That actually might waste enough bandwidth to get someone a little mad. |
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It is possible to machine an AR lower on a relatively cheap, small CNC mill very slowly. For example, check out this site:http://www.warpedairsmithing.com/arblog ./main.asp You can make one completely on a manual machine, also. I think one of the mods here did all the work to complete an 80% lower with a die grinder and a drill press. Possibly DK-Proff? |
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As stated above, tracer mills are pretty much nonexistent now. Here's a sample of G/M code for a Fanuc based CNC mill control. My post processor is shit and I haven't spend enough time with it to get it fixed. T237 M6 G0 G90 X1.6946 Y-.0819 S6000 M3 G43 H0 Z.25 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.3332 Y.0181 F66. G3 X.8717 Y-.2432 R.375 G1 X.6313 Y-1.1118 G3 X.8926 Y-1.5732 R.375 G1 X1.254 Y-1.6733 G0 Z.25 X1.6657 Y-.0739 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.3043 Y.0261 F66. G3 X.8428 Y-.2352 R.375 G1 X.6023 Y-1.1038 G3 X.8637 Y-1.5652 R.375 G1 X1.2251 Y-1.6653 G0 Z.25 X1.4541 Y-.9496 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.0927 Y-.8498 F66. G3 X.6314 Y-1.1114 R.375 G2 X0. Y-1.592 R.655 G3 X-.375 Y-1.967 R.375 And that is just three little pockets. It would be funny to copy/paste a 3D form program from a big part.
That actually might waste enough bandwidth to get someone a little mad. Actually, it's code for profiling an AR endplate with sling loop. 
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As stated above, tracer mills are pretty much nonexistent now. Here's a sample of G/M code for a Fanuc based CNC mill control. My post processor is shit and I haven't spend enough time with it to get it fixed. T237 M6 G0 G90 X1.6946 Y-.0819 S6000 M3 G43 H0 Z.25 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.3332 Y.0181 F66. G3 X.8717 Y-.2432 R.375 G1 X.6313 Y-1.1118 G3 X.8926 Y-1.5732 R.375 G1 X1.254 Y-1.6733 G0 Z.25 X1.6657 Y-.0739 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.3043 Y.0261 F66. G3 X.8428 Y-.2352 R.375 G1 X.6023 Y-1.1038 G3 X.8637 Y-1.5652 R.375 G1 X1.2251 Y-1.6653 G0 Z.25 X1.4541 Y-.9496 Z.1 G1 Z-.0375 F10. X1.0927 Y-.8498 F66. G3 X.6314 Y-1.1114 R.375 G2 X0. Y-1.592 R.655 G3 X-.375 Y-1.967 R.375 And that is just three little pockets. It would be funny to copy/paste a 3D form program from a big part.
That actually might waste enough bandwidth to get someone a little mad. Actually, it's code for profiling an AR endplate with sling loop. Cool. I just looked for z axis moves, figured your settings were pocket depths. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Quoted:
As stated above, tracer mills are pretty much nonexistent now. Here's a sample of G/M code for a Fanuc based CNC mill control. My post processor is shit and I haven't spend enough time with it to get it fixed. T237 M6 snip 
It's not a legitimate number for any machine I've run, although I have seen some machines with tool chains that large. I have run machines with 120 tool capacity though. As I said, I need to work on the post and renumber a bunch of tools. |
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If YOU make any, doesn't matter if manual/cnc/whatever. Doesn't matter who owns the machinery as long as YOU do the work. In this case, there would be no requirement to "register" anything with the BATFE.
You cannot make them with "intent to sell" That does NOT mean they can never be sold, they are property that can be disposed of as you wish. Just don't let the Gov. get the idea that you are "engaged in the business" of making for sale. ATF "strongly recommends" that homemade guns be clearly marked to help in their recovery if lost or stolen. Check their website for exact details on this. Having anyone else do the work for you is not legal. Any shop owner with 2 brain cells with throw you out of his place RFN! Don in Ohio |
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