Carbon fiber bolt together lower???

[joezx10r]

Im thinking of going carbon fiber with a bolt together lower like one I did in stainless a while back. I need another AR for the old lady to shoot but this one will be a dedicated .22 (shes complaning about how heavy it is.) So heres my question how hard is this stuff to machine and how strong is it really. Do you think it would work well as a bolt together? Im thinking of carbon for both the lower and the tube for a custom stock. Ive never worked any carbon fiber so I have no idea about the stuff. Thoughts??

[moleman]

It would look hella cool! There was a carbon fiber ar out a while back and they make jets out of the stuff so it must be ok. I'll bet you could mock up the gun and maybe even test fire it before glueing it all together (or what ever fancy name they call it). If you're doing a dedicated 22 you don't have to worry too much about the buffer tube diameters or length as the 22lr versions use their own recoil system. That would open up a whole bunch of custom stock options for you. Maybe you could even make a galil type folding stock for it. If you're doing your own barrel how about one of the alumilite 22lr barrels for the 10/22? Its basically an aluminum barrel with a steel liner. They also make a tenion (ms?) barrel thats aluminum on the outside and has an air space around the liner on the inside. I don't think that would work well to remachine into an ar15/22 barrel. One of my back burner projects is a 17hmr upper for an ar15 and I'll be using a 10/17 mag barrel for it. I have the bolt done except for an extractor. I just need to make a bushing for the 17hmr bull barrel so I can bolt it onto the upper. I've been toying with a delayed blowback idea for it also.

[dutigaf]

yeah that would be cool.... but expensive.

the synthetic lower imm using on my dedicated 22LR AR is fantastic and the total weight of the gun is ..... almost not there...

my 9 & 12 year olds love this thing this way and with the collapsible stock it makes the LOP no issue either.

you should check them out..

s

[TRX]

I'd consider molding it instead of machining it. You could pull plaster molds off a master, fill the cavities with mat or chop, and feed the resin in under pressure.

Pick a good resin, and the carbon is just reinforcement. For that matter, you could experiment with fiberglass or kevlar while sorting the bugs out of the process.

[Lunyfringe]

I agree with TRX- carbon fiber, or any composite for that matter is stronger molded than when sheets are bolted together..

you could make plaster molds of the interior cavities , then vacuum bag it, as external dimensions are not as critical- but you may want to incorporate bushings at the pins to attach the upper, and perhaps the hammer pin.. and the buffer tube...

you get the carbon fiber or Kevlar as a cloth weave- build it up around the molds, add resin & hardener, put it in the vacuum bag & pull a vacuum on it.. which distributes the resin throughout the cloth..

[jreifsch80]

I like your idea maybe instead of bushings you could have reinforcement plates where the take down pin holes are or even some sort of molded in "rear trunnion" for the buffer tube mount and rear pin going through it and your carbon fiber. Just ideas

[joezx10r]

Well my plan was to order some carbon flat sheet and tube to make the side plates and stock tube with it and use the extra middle blocks, grip mount block and buffer mounts that I have from the first build. Price from mcmastercarr is about $50 for the sheets and tube. I would have to make a custom stock but I was wanting to anyway. Id like to make a hand guard from carbon tube too but have yet to find any as mcmastercarr doent have it above 1.10 dia.

[joezx10r]

[D-R]

Joe, looks great, please keep us updated as this comes along.