It is very important to make sure you have the trigger guard pin extensions on your lower receiver properly support when you drive in the trigger guard pin. Don’t ask me how I learned I did not have it well enough supported.
11 thoughts on “AR-15 Lower Assembling Advice”
Comments are closed.
Ouch. I hate roll pins in general with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. The AR trigger guard has done nothing to endear them to me, though fortunately I haven’t managed to break a receiver yet.
A question occurs to me: assuming the worst, what do you do with the lower? I wouldn’t want to use it, but I wouldn’t exactly throw away a serialized part either.
I figure it’s not a high stress part, which means I put the pin on, and epoxy. Short of that, I would just keep it as a monument to my stupidity.
Get a friend with a TIG to fix it up for you. A little work with a dremel and some refinishing and you’ll never be able to tell.
Also, when driving in the pin that holds the bolt catch, it’s good to place tape on the receiver under and behind the pin. That way, if the punch slips off the pin, or the hammer strikes the receiver, you won’t mar up the finish.
Drat it all, I thought you said “AR-15 Lower Assembing DEvice” and got really excited. The single most useful thing (other than using tape so as not to scuff the finish) I’ve learned is to use punches to “hold the spot” while you tap in pins from the other side. It beats the heck out of the punches, but those are a lot cheaper than most AR parts.
A MAGPUL MIAD grip using the frontstrap with the attached triggerguard can be used as a relatively easy fix. Either epoxy the broken extension back on or the cut the other one off, whichever floats your boat. Friend of mine did the exact same thing and thats how we fixed his….
An easy trick to get the trigger guard pin in without breaking the lower iso lube the pin up and squeeze it in with a pair of pliers. Tape up the teeth of the pliers with electrical tape so it doesn’t scratch up the finish. This is how I did mine.
MAGPUL also makes a great trigger guard that uses screws instead of the roll pins. I put one on my new AR and it’s the Bee’s knees.
Going further on MattH’s point, use Vice Grips specifically (or an analog) and then you can slowly turn the adjusment screw to drive the pin into place after using clamping motion to start the pin into the hole. This is how I do both the trigger guard and bolt release roll pins.
I know it involves more tools to find a home for, but even the smallest arbor press makes this job simple. Punches are ok for driving pins out but if it’s possible press them in.
My $0.02.
Don’t use a hammer!
use a pair of pliers wrapped in tape to ‘squeeze’ it in..