Building my first AR15

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thoeppner

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Hello all,

I would like to undertake building my own AR-15, I have seen various parts kits and stripped uppers / lowers out there and would like to know if it’s possible or feasible to keep the majority of the components made by one manufacturer. (Troy, VLTOR, DD etc. it really doesn’t matter who as long as I can keep them the same)

I should add that by “build” I mean assemble (stripped lower / upper and non-attached barrel.)

If anyone is familiar with one or two retailers that could help me out that would be fantastic, I realise that there are some critical components I will need vice blocks torque wrenches and so on.

Any help would be great guys (other than the traditional go to Google).


thoeppner
 
I've pieced together 3 ar's now and one thing I'll throw in is that out will prob end up costing a lot more to build it piece by piece than if you just buy a factory rifle. Not to say it's not uber fun to do. Just so you are aware, especially if you are not looking for deals on the EE

If you want to piece it together I would go with quality parts ie DD from Wolverine. Pretty much a one stop shop there.
 
It should be possible to source everything from one manufacturer, but might take some time as not everything might be in stock at the same time. I'm in the process of an SBR mk18 build and am using 5-6 different online retailers to get all the pieces together. I was able to get my upper done with Daniel Defense components except for the charging handle (my choice) and muzzle device. DD does not sell a stripped lower or at least I haven't found one yet so I'm looking at other options. I know that Colt is the right part but I'm not making an exact clone. If I wanted to keep it all DD parts then the rest of the lower parts from DD are available in pieces or as a complete lower for $600 from Wolverine but that isn't as much fun. It will have been cheaper to buy a ready made one but I'm a tinkerer and love to build (and it also allows me to manage the budget over time). The only thing left for me to find is the right lower then I'm almost set to finish DD mk18 build.

I don't know if the other manufacturers sell all of their components individually and if they're all available from Canada easily.

Good luck! Building (assembling) ARs are a lot of fun.
 
Rickster66 said:
It should be possible to source everything from one manufacturer, but might take some time as not everything might be in stock at the same time. I'm in the process of an SBR mk18 build and am using 5-6 different online retailers to get all the pieces together. I was able to get my upper done with Daniel Defense components except for the charging handle (my choice) and muzzle device. DD does not sell a stripped lower or at least I haven't found one yet so I'm looking at other options. I know that Colt is the right part but I'm not making an exact clone. If I wanted to keep it all DD parts then the rest of the lower parts from DD are available in pieces or as a complete lower for $600 from Wolverine but that isn't as much fun. It will have been cheaper to buy a ready made one but I'm a tinkerer and love to build (and it also allows me to manage the budget over time). The only thing left for me to find is the right lower then I'm almost set to finish DD mk18 build.

I don't know if the other manufacturers sell all of their components individually and if they're all available from Canada easily.

Good luck! Building (assembling) ARs are a lot of fun.
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This is very helpful thank you.
 
TheM4chef said:
I've pieced together 3 ar's now and one thing I'll throw in is that out will prob end up costing a lot more to build it piece by piece than if you just buy a factory rifle. Not to say it's not uber fun to do. Just so you are aware, especially if you are not looking for deals on the EE

If you want to piece it together I would go with quality parts ie DD from Wolverine. Pretty much a one stop shop there.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the information, judging from what I have seen it looks like it will cost a fair bit more to assemble it myself but as your say it looks uber fun.
 
buy 2 nice AR's

take them both totally apart and mix and match the parts.

Now you have experienced the joy of building an AR... AND you have 2 rifles for the same price you would have had if you built one after sourcing and shipping individual parts.

No joke...
 
bobbynewmark said:
buy 2 nice AR's

take them both totally apart and mix and match the parts.

Now you have experienced the joy of building an AR... AND you have 2 rifles for the same price you would have had if you built one after sourcing and shipping individual parts.

No joke...
Click to expand...

Best advice in the thread. I did a "build" a few years ago looking back it was a waste of cash i could have spent on ammo.
 
I recently completed an AR build for which I started collecting parts prior to recent drop in AR prices. Given current prices, buy a DD or other quality rifle, shoot it and swap out what you don't like. Selling the take-off parts will help keep the costs down. This will be way cheaper than buying separate parts...even if you look for deals on the EE.

If you really want, you can disassemble the rifle and put it back together again for fun. There really isn't much to putting an AR together. The only special tools needed are an upper vice block and an AR armorers wrench and a barrel nut wrench that fits the barrel nut for your rifle/handguard. Specific handguards sometimes have uniques barrel nuts to which the handguard is attached.
 
I built this one, almost all of the parts are made by NEA and sourced from site sponsor SFRC. Ryan and Marcie are terrific people to deal with. As others have said, it's more costly to build than to buy a fully assembled rifle but it was fun to build.
IMGP6433_zpsfed24985.jpg
 
Thanks for all the replies, a bit to consider.

It sure looks and sounds like purchasing new and completely stripping one is the cost effective way to go about it. However I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the act of sourcing…
 
thoeppner said:
Thanks for all the replies, a bit to consider.

It sure looks and sounds like purchasing new and completely stripping one is the cost effective way to go about it. However I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the act of sourcing…
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The drawback to sourcing from Canadian vendors is that no one vendor will have everything you want. You'll probably end up having to order your parts from 3 or more vendors and pay shipping fees for each which could be better spent on ammo or other parts. :p
 
Trinimon said:
The drawback to sourcing from Canadian vendors is that no one vendor will have everything you want. You'll probably end up having to order your parts from 3 or more vendors and pay shipping fees for each which could be better spent on ammo or other parts. :p
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Bingo!
Shipping costs make it a pain to build nothing worse then having to order from 5 different people or If you need 3 parts from a vendor but 1 of those parts is out of stock. Dont forget things like a torque wrench, upper/lower blocks my advice buy what you want closest to what you want to build then change out things like hand guards/quadrails stocks and grips.
 
skoal said:
Bingo!
Shipping costs make it a pain to build nothing worse then having to order from 5 different people or If you need 3 parts from a vendor but 1 of those parts is out of stock. Dont forget things like a torque wrench, upper/lower blocks my advice buy what you want closest to what you want to build then change out things like hand guards/quadrails stocks and grips.
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have the vise blocks and torque wrench hell I even have brass punches, just going to decide shortly on sourcing all of it out or like the previous posters have mentioned buying new and striping it completely down.

Out of curiously does anyone know here to find a DD stripped lower?
 
thoeppner said:
Thank you for the information, judging from what I have seen it looks like it will cost a fair bit more to assemble it myself but as your say it looks uber fun.
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it depends on what your building and if your buying stuff when it goes on sale....saying it cost more to build is an inaccurate statement lol. as for shipping yea it depends on where your buying from....for my build....SFRC has every single part i need and shipping only costs me $12.00. My ar will probably run be in the end...500-600 max
 
areader said:
it depends on what your building and if your buying stuff when it goes on sale....saying it cost more to build is an inaccurate statement lol. as for shipping yea it depends on where your buying from....for my build....SFRC has every single part i need and shipping only costs me $12.00. My ar will probably run be in the end...500-600 max
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Sadly some of my habits in the past have been not been waiting for sales… I mean if it’s on sale when I want it that’s a bonus lol. Dumb I know but being new to firearms in general I have a lot of firsts times to experience 

NEA however seems to have components priced similar to the cost of a complete rifle.
 
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