you know with all the BS going down , and some vendors going $$$ nutz on ar lowers, i think it is time we brought up the roll your own sheet metal lower --from days gone by.
i think the sheet metal lower may be doable--has any one tried it?
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The Armalite AR180, the original design, used a stamped steel upper & lower.
Also remember seeing someone (home builder) make an AR years ago that had three or four pieces of machined steel for the mag well & stock area but the sides were just flat steel pieces.
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Why not a fresh sheet of design paper here and build a clone AR lower like an AK using .223 AK mags, AK FCG pieces, but an AR upper ??? Front trunion is just the hinge section and the rear trunion adapts the AR buttstock/recoil system. The lower uses AK trigger guard and mag catch and rivits to tie it all together.
hell i was thinking a piece of steel tubing about the right size sort of flattened a little then cut out and weld in a mag block section and weld in a buffer tube. then cut out the part where the upper goes and add in a few supports and attachment points--LOL
there is probably a thousand ways to do this
those guys paying $175 for those 80% tp me that is just nutz-- hell we'll bring back the wooden AR-lower if things get that bad--LOL!
damn i hate i flunked wood work in school--LOL!
buy there are other ways to come up with a lower for a home build and the parts shortages/gouging should not hurt us builders as much as the mall-ninjas cause if they even have to turn a nut--they call a guru first--LOL
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The Armalite AR180, the original design, used a stamped steel upper & lower.
Also remember seeing someone (home builder) make an AR years ago that had three or four pieces of machined steel for the mag well & stock area but the sides were just flat steel pieces.
Coils you absolutely just read my mind!!!!! I have an original Sterling AR180 in my collection if anybody has the software or the drafting skills, I would be more that willing to provide all the actual dimensions to see if we could reverse engineer this puppy. It is basically a square tube build. About the gun itself, it is great! Let me tell you up front when I first got this rifle I shot the living crap out of it. IT NEVER FAILED ONCE. It is an excellent, simple design that probably would have worked much better in Viet Nam than the original M16.
Let me know if anyone is up to the task, I think it could use a few modifications like modifying the mag catch / release to work with the standard unmodified AR15 magazine, of which one solution would be to move the mag/catch release to the left side of the mag well, (if you have ever seen the magazine for the rifle, it takes a standard AR mag with one little modification a small slot cut on the right side that serves as the hold for the mag catch).... Anyway it could be a very neat project.
will6970
yes over at homebuilder along time ago thats where I knew or know of coils
the lower receiver was made like the old M-1 carbine lowers these were steel plated brazed to gether and then drilled out
the build who did this was inovative he took a old concept and adapted it, for the rear he turned the plates side ways I am trying to remember if he brazed or bolted it together
it can be done it has been done
all one would have to do is band saw the outside profile, file and/or sand down the finish, leave out the internal plates for the fcg and mag well then braze it together, guess you could do the upper reciever as a tube with a rail tacked on top
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Times like this I wish I was not so paranoid in my younger days. Yes, it can be done, I have done it.
Look at an AR Lower, imagine cutting it into three sections:
Trigger Group section, Magwell group Section, and Center support section.
Trigger Group Section: Obviously, this contains the FCG, provides a place at the rear to attach a sort of rear trunnion, which the buffer tube attaches to, and in the front, it attaches to the Center support section.
Center Support Section: This is the tricky one, it contains the mag release, and the Bolt Hold Open. The Trigger group section mates directly to the Center Support Section, and the Mag Well section lays over the top of the Trigger Group Section.
Mag Well Section: Obviously, This is the section that both holds the magazine, and the front pivot pin section. The rear of this section should overlay the front of the Trigger Group Section.
Once the needed machining is done to the Center Section, the three sections can be joined either by spot welding, or by drilling and riveting.
The trigger group section should have a slight rail fold on the top, just like an AK for stiffness.
The Rear pivot pin goes through the rear trunnion, which has a channel drilled from the top, then milled out to allow the upper receiver rear hole to rest inside. Ends up working just like a normal AR.
The front Pivot is milled out from bar stock, or bent and folded depending on how you want to retain the pin. If you are OK using c-clips to retain it, then just bend it out of sheet steel.
That is about it. I made two of these back in the late '90s. I had intended to make another that was modified to accept AK-74 mags, but just never got around to it.
I was surprised at just how forgiving it is to work with steel in this way. I used an Olympic Arms lower as a guide, measured a hundred times, and then cut.
Now, I did this the hard way. I wanted to make an AR class lower, that would cosmetically be equivalent to an standard AR. The lower ended up weighing almost 2 lbs. OUCH!
Take a lesson from the AR-180 design: Keep it simple, and do not care about the cosmetics.
Here is a link to pics that will help illustrate what I am talking about:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
You can all see that IF we were to create a lower receiver template, and SOMEONE created the stamping dies, it would be fairly simple to press these out, dimple them for the holes that need to be drilled, and sell them for a decent profit. Even if it was just a straight walled lower, it would not be difficult to produce the spacers and longer pins for the hammer, and trigger. The hardest part would be the selector, but it could be solved by adding a right side selector lever and screwing them together.....Just a thought.
Regards,
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stamped steel ar-15 lowers?
Coils you read my mind!
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