Thank you, John Thomas, Retro Arms Works

[Formergrunt94]

John Thomas recently did a few pin and welds for me, and he asked if I would leave a review for him, so here it is.

Mods, I apologize if this is the wrong forum, but I figure more would see it here.

I used him based on numerous reviews and photographs of completed work, and in my opinion, it would be very hard to praise his work enough. His welds on an a2x flash hider were so good, I had to use a flashlight to find them. I'm almost afraid that no one would believe me if I told them they were looking at a hole that had been welded over.

His communication is so fast, that I now understand others who have stated he must not sleep.

And he had received my package, done the work, re-boxed it for return, and dropped it off for shipment BEFORE I received the notification of delivery!!

So now, I add my voice to those who say for retro gunsmithing, look no further than John Thomas and Retro Arms Works.

[sinister]

The first job I sent John was an A2 birdcage and spacer shim pin-and-weld on my son's 14.5-inch SOCOM-barreled M4.

He literally had it two hours before I had return tracking in my e-mail, and the work was perfect.

[Formergrunt94]

There is a comedian who jokes about how fast Americans want things. "Forget Amazon prime, give me amazon now, give me amazon before!!"

John Thomas is Amazon Before, lol.

[Hammer_Man]

He’s done excellent work for me.

[17K]

Top notch. He did some barrel work for me last year. Good, fast, not cheap. Worth it.

[alx01]

Not to negate experiences of other people, but I was not happy with a job he did for me. I can not recommend his services based on my personal experience.

[kyjd75]

Not to negate experiences of other people, but I was not happy with a job he did for me. I can not recommend his services based on my personal experience.

I have no dispute with your experience, but I will say that I have sent John Thomas several rifles for things as simple as pin and welds to cutting barrels and opening ports. His work for me has always been exemplary. However no one is perfect and I have no doubt that occasional slip-ups can occur. My history with JT would make me think he would cure any problems that might materialize on one of his jobs.

[alx01]

I have no dispute with your experience, but I will say that I have sent John Thomas several rifles for things as simple as pin and welds to cutting barrels and opening ports. His work for me has always been exemplary. However no one is perfect and I have no doubt that occasional slip-ups can occur. My history with JT would make me think he would cure any problems that might materialize on one of his jobs.

Reviews like yours are exactly who I chose his services.

Out of two things which I needed his services for, he messed both:
- he ruined (in my opinion) a KAC muzzle device and possibly a barrel with an ugly pin&weld job. I'm talking about drilling a 1/4" hole in a muzzle device and then grinding down that area concave. No way for me to know if barrel is damaged without a disassembly, but I suspect it probably was.
- he used a regular front sight taper pin (which is 0.85" in length or something like that) on a low profile gas block that required a 1/2" pin. That made taper pin stuck out approximately 0.2" on each end - making it contact a low profile handguard under the recoil. I had to cut pin on both ends using a dremel. And it was a pain since FSP pins are hardened.

I understand mistakes happen, it's a matter of doing a job with "whatever... it'll do" attitude instead of doing it right and/or admitting a mistake to a customer. I still can't comprehend how in clear conscience he would send such crap back to a paying customer.

Before you ask:
- I did not ask him for a refund.
- I did not ask him to fix it. If he didn't do a good job doing it a first time on brand new components (and didn't care about it), how can I trust him to fix it?

Turnaround time and communication was good, if that means anything in this case.

[El Vaquero]

Not to negate experiences of other people, but I was not happy with a job he did for me. I can not recommend his services based on my personal experience.

I will echo your experience. The P&W job looked great, except he didn’t properly shim the flash hider and it went on crooked. Something not obvious until you almost get a baffle strike in your suppressor. Moral of the story: Always double check with an alignment rod no matter who does the work.

I too contacted him with pictures and his attitude was also very whatever. He offered no apology or offer to fix it or remedy it. Only offered a refund. And likewise, with that attitude I was not about to ask him to fix it. I accepted the refund and sent it to someone else to fix.

[Korgs130]

I’ve had VERY positive interaction with and results from John and his services. He’s done p & w in addition some custom clone work on a couple of occasions. Everything looked great with quick service and good communication.