First Milled 80% Lower

[Chunky_Lover]

I have built an ak47 before which was way more involved then this simple aluminum lower
But I wanted to make a ar pistol and here its a hassle to get one, but no problem making one from an 80% lower
I have a polymer coming and once that was finished I would order an aluminum one
but I happened to go to a store locally and saw they had them pretty cheap so picked it up

Only used my HF drill press, Small vise and the correct drill bits
I did find my cheap drill press does move some so its not going to be super precise
but its only the inside no one ever see's that

Only took 3 hrs and that was going very slow since I never done this before












Was pretty easy, and test fitted together great wanted to make sure the trigger and holes were correct before painting
Ended up powdercoating it since I can do that at home matte black, well after it baked I see its glossy
must of had glossy in the gun




glossy chipping off on the roll pin areas, but little touch up paint will fix that
if it chips too much I will blast it and probably use a real gun paint once I research all thats needed
I wasnt planning on doing an aluminum lower for a while so I sort of jumped ahead

[Chunky_Lover]

well come to find out I did have matte black powder in the gun
what happened was even though the oven was to temp, the aluminum must be so thick the normal 20 min bake time wasnt enough
Because matte does turn glossy during baking but usually around the 7 min mark
That explains why it chips so easy

Now I need to decide to strip it all apart, strip the paint and redo the matte but let it bake much longer
Because the upper is a nice matte color and thats why I originally wanted a matter powdercoat
Plus ive never had problems with my powdercoat chipping like it did on this, but thats because it wasnt fully cured



Anyways here it is assembled with the crappy powdercoat finish





hopefully next weekend I can test it

[Chunky_Lover]

redid the powdercoating
let it bake almost 3 times as long
finish is much stronger now during reassembly nothing chipped or scratched
I did leave in the bolt release lever and trigger guard as I didnt want to fight out the roll pins
but everything else was taken back off


Still wanst as flat as it usually dries but maybe I needed more heat for this application
I usually do small parts and never ran into this issue
Almost looks like a satin color, but matches the carry handle and buffer tube color
so I like it, but time will tell how durable it is on a weapon




here are some close up shots of the powder coat

[gsxr-fan]

Awesome job dude!

[Leaveammoforme]

In the most friendliest way I can say it; I can tell you only spent 3 hours on a drill press with your lower. But, if it works who cares.

You beat up your jig mill plate pretty good. Next time make a small pocket in center of area to be removed. Lower your end mill into pocket with depth adjusted to where the shank, or smooth part, of end mill will contact guide but flutes will contact lower. Work your way out to sides from your slot. Did the Ares instructions have you drill with your end mill? The way the floor of lower is jeweled it appears so. Next time drill it shallow and finish up last few thousandths using drill press like mill.

Yet again, if it works who cares though. Welcome to the forum.

[Chunky_Lover]

actuallly the top of the jig got a little scarred because my mill bit was only 1/4 inch longer then the maxium depth but that was my fault I didnt know how long of a bit to get
and my store only had 2 mill bit options
bottom cut and something else, I got the bottom cut but it looked exactly like the other one
not sure if I used the right one

no instructions with the jig, and I figure im sure I could get replacement parts for it when they get too damaged I could probably do 5 more with it before it gets too tore up

the sides marks on the jig was actually from first using a drill bit being too close

next time I will know I can stay away from the edges until final mill, where I had held everything in my hand and forced it against the drill to get the smooth sides similar to the router way