View Full Version : Engrave SBR.....who?
Orion Arms wants $65 + $14 shipping + 6.75% sales tax + 4 weeks.
Any other alternatives I should investigate before biting this particular bullet?
Orion Arms wants $65 + $14 shipping + 6.75% sales tax + 4 weeks.
Any other alternatives I should investigate before biting this particular bullet?
I vote for Orion. They did great work for me,and it only took half the time they said.
I vote Orion. Had them do one in Feb. for me, turnaround was less than 2 weeks...
Ident Marking, just east of Dallas: http://www.identmarking.com/index.html
Charged me $45 for laser engraving trust name, town and state on my lower, but I don't know what their current rate is. Great guys.
There was a poster here recently who had a word misspelled on his receiver engraved by Ident. Jason (one of the Ident head dudes) promised to make it right up to and including replacing the receiver (Noveske) and refunding the $200 BATF Form 1 tax. The poster opted to allow Jason the opportunity to cosmetically fix it (which included shipping it back on Ident's dime), but I don't think he's gotten it back from Ident yet.
Things happen that shouldn't, but it's nice to know you'll be taken care of if they do.
I used Harford Engraving Services but for the life of me I can't remember how much it was. Turnaround was pretty quick even though I wasn't in a hurry.
http://www.harengser.com/firearms-engraving.htm
ETA: I went back and checked, it was 65.00 including shipping. I needed the caliber engraved as well so that added to the cost.
For those that used Ident, will they engrave in the trigger guard area? Do the lowers have to be completely stripped? Really don't want to have to take it all down.
chavez_e_chavez
07-27-10, 18:52
what are you having engraved and what is it gonna say??
My mistake, AR15 lower and name/city/state
what are you having engraved and what is it gonna say??
Name, city, state using the usual abbreviations, as per BATF.
Harford requires a stripped lower if you want trigger guard area engraving. I don't know about others or other locations. If you send your lower and it's not stripped they'll do it but charge you.
For those that used Ident, will they engrave in the trigger guard area? Do the lowers have to be completely stripped? Really don't want to have to take it all down.
Yes they will engrave in the trigger area, but they would feel better if the lower was stripped. Jason was willing to try it for me, but he didn't seem too confident with the FCG still in the lower. I took that as a hint. You don't want to get half-way through to find out that the trigger is in the way. If you want your engraving in this area I suggest just stripping the lower.
I had mine done on the right side of the lower (pic below). I feel it is very unobtrusive and it is a small as it can legally be. Few people will notice it without it having been pointed out to them. All I had to do was remove my SOPMOD. The RE stayed in place.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/kry226/P1010022-1.jpg
[QUOTE=kry226;718218]Yes they will engrave in the trigger area, but they would feel better if the lower was stripped. Jason was willing to try it for me, but he didn't seem too confident with the FCG still in the lower. I took that as a hint. You don't want to get half-way through to find out that the trigger is in the way. If you want your engraving in this area I suggest just stripping the lower.
I had mine done on the right side of the lower (pic below). I feel it is very unobtrusive and it is a small as it can legally be. Few people will notice it without it having been pointed out to them. All I had to do was remove my SOPMOD. The RE stayed in place.
QUOTE]
That looks good! I don't mind taking most everything out of the lower ie.. fire control group and mag release, what I am trying to avoid is taking the bolt release and trigger guard roll pin out. That is the area that I could see making an "oops" on my part by either srcatching the receiver or breaking an ear off.
[QUOTE=kry226;718218]Yes they will engrave in the trigger area, but they would feel better if the lower was stripped. Jason was willing to try it for me, but he didn't seem too confident with the FCG still in the lower. I took that as a hint. You don't want to get half-way through to find out that the trigger is in the way. If you want your engraving in this area I suggest just stripping the lower.
I had mine done on the right side of the lower (pic below). I feel it is very unobtrusive and it is a small as it can legally be. Few people will notice it without it having been pointed out to them. All I had to do was remove my SOPMOD. The RE stayed in place.
QUOTE]
That looks good! I don't mind taking most everything out of the lower ie.. fire control group and mag release, what I am trying to avoid is taking the bolt release and trigger guard roll pin out. That is the area that I could see making an "oops" on my part by either srcatching the receiver or breaking an ear off.
Thanks. I won't even pretend to know anything about engraving, but I am sold on doing it with a laser. It's hard to imagine a mechanical engraver matching the precision of the laser.
I think the best thing you could do is just give whomever you choose to engrave your receiver a call and see what they say. You just never know. Based on seeing Ident's set up, I really don't see how the mag release or trigger guard (once it's out of the way) would preclude them from engraving in the trigger well.
+1 for Ident
Top-notch work, fast turn around, great customer service, fair price
I found a local trophy shop that has a laser engraver and use them now instead of sending it off. It's so nice not to have to worry about a shipper losing your expensive component. I believe my SCAR CQC SBR cost me $25-$30 bucks to be engraved and I picked it up the same day. Ask around at your local shops as it may be a better alternative to shipping it all over the place.
Stephen
You could also buy a factory SBR if you wanted to avoid the engraving steps. That is what I did. I am waiting on my second. A local engraved would be a good option if they could engrave to the correct depth ATF requires.
I ended up having the lower engraved by Ident Marking. Their prices were more reasonable, shipping was more reasonable, and they finished it and had it back to me in 3 weeks. They engraved it inside the trigger well and re-blackened it. Very, Very nice work.
Polymerhead
09-07-10, 19:41
I found a local trophy shop that has a laser engraver and use them now instead of sending it off. It's so nice not to have to worry about a shipper losing your expensive component. I believe my SCAR CQC SBR cost me $25-$30 bucks to be engraved and I picked it up the same day. Ask around at your local shops as it may be a better alternative to shipping it all over the place.
Stephen
I had a trophy shop do mine and it looked great, but it definitely wasn't to the legal depth. As far as I know, few trophy shops have deep-laser engraving machines needed to etch to legal depth. I sent mine to Orion and they did it right. Turnaround was around a month at the time. Any future engraving will be through Orion for me.
I worried about having dual info on my gun for a while, but since the first try wasn't legal depth I assume it's not legal ID so I don't really worry about it. I'm currently trying to figure out how to blacken the laser marking.
I ended up having the lower engraved by Ident Marking. Their prices were more reasonable, shipping was more reasonable, and they finished it and had it back to me in 3 weeks. They engraved it inside the trigger well and re-blackened it. Very, Very nice work.
FWIW, when I had Orion engrave my lower I had it back in 6 days (2 of which were the weekend) when they had 3 to 4 weeks on their website.
FWIW, when I had Orion engrave my lower I had it back in 6 days (2 of which were the weekend) when they had 3 to 4 weeks on their website.
Orion was $20 higher on the engraving ($45 vs $65 for trigger well), higher on the shipping (even though I live about 2 hours from them), and I'd have had to pay sales tax. Ident Marking was worth the wait considering I can't build the thing until ATF has its way with me anyway.
I will always send my engraving work to Ident. There awesome people. When I had my sbr done I wanted it to match the factory text so it looked oem. They did a few test samples and emailed me pictures and matched it perfectly. Turn around was great and there just super awesome people to deal with.
OhioFinance
09-08-10, 16:50
Orion does some pretty fantastic work. They worked with the Gun Garage to fill in the existing logo's on my M&P lower, fill in the selector markings, fill the "M&P" logo on the right side mag well then engrave my Trust logo and new "bullet style" selector markings. The whole thing was then recoated and looks amazing. Keep in mind this was a standard M&P 15T lower they filled in the stock info and then engraved.
Never doubted Orion's skill for a moment. For a simple NFA engraving though, no reason not to save the money.
If I go Orion, I know I'll be sorely tempted to do something awesome looking with it. Need to decide if a redi-mod will live on that lower for me to choose how detailed to get.
OhioFinance
09-08-10, 18:57
If I was doing just the basics, then I think you're right save the cash. One thing to remember, once you SBR that lower and engrave it, you are going to have it for life so you might as well do it up...or at least that is how I convinced myself :)
For those that used Ident, will they engrave in the trigger guard area? Do the lowers have to be completely stripped? Really don't want to have to take it all down.
You will have to remove the buffer tube if you want them to engrave the front of the mag well. Engraving the sides of the receiver, and I suppose the top and bottom, don't require it to be removed. No other disassembly is required.
I was just quoted $40 + $12 sh each for engraving the big flat parts of two lowers with my LLC info.
I used them once before and the work was perfect.
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