tucson308

Thank you, I will be there tomorrow!

Buy the Mcmaster plug. They are intended for this application and will work every bit as well as the $8 plug...Told you that you could get $7 each.

I'm just assuming it would be that one. You will see that each plug will cover a range of sizes.I will check mine tonite and let you know for sure, unless someone else can check theirs for you.

I'm looking to trade some AR15 mags, USGI SS, Magpul with dust cover,or Pro mag for some DPMS style .308 mags. All of the mags I have are 30 round and brand new. Let me know if you want to deal!

I will be firing the first round Saturday morning through the prototype bolt. It is all ready to go and fits great, but I do see two minor changes I will make for the production parts. One of the hole sizes could be smaller and the gas ring seat diameter could be larger . These are very minor things and won't affect performance...More to follow next week.

Go to Mcmaster-Carr website and check out the "Round Finishing Plugs for Tubing" you can only buy a 100 piece pack, but the pack is only $7.00. you could sell the extras for $7.00 each considering the market. As long as you put AR in the discription people will pony up for them, It will also allow you 2-3 weeks to ship them, Ha Ha... You may be able to find them at your local hardware store, or a local industrial supply warehouse, if you have one. the other option is to put in the intended parts just for looks, but you will spend $40 plus for it.

$225 for just the bolt...Have no plans as of now to do a RR bolt. It depends on the want for one and I will need to reverse engineer one of them as well. Do you know the differences of the two?

oops, That should say the $225 ish range .

The first bolt came out of heat treat this morning. I'm not going to NiB coat the bolt until after I test the current design. I altered some of the lug areas for more strength and a better lockup, but need to do some extensive testing starting this weekend. If all goes well I will have the bolts available for sale in the $325 ish range in about two weeks.

No, Not for you. Just trying to set the record straight. Hope I did not offend anybody. I wrote the post while making dinner and did not preview, but I was not trying to be a "Douche nozzle".

Sounds like your looking for nobtanium. A "small machine shop" is just as capable as the people that work there.. 158 is not the only steel to use. 9310 is just as capable and maybe better based on its chrome percentage you could also use S-7, or many other choices. I deal with material structures, have been a mechanical engineer for 25 years and manage the tooling operations for 4 plants 3 in the U.S. and one in MX. That make over the top prescision tooling for the electrical, medical and dental industries,Just to state my qualifications. .308 bolts are not known for breaking, but could wear out. 9310 is both a great shock and wear steel. "poop there not use to"? come on, is this stuff going to take you into orbit? these are very basic parts to machine and could be done by a weekend warrior with the correct equipment. chroming specific areas was diffacult in 1936, but even the run of the mill chroming operation could chrome these parts, or coat them with whatever you would like. As far as getting 158, 9310 or tool steel. See my post above. Call a local tool steel supplier. every moderate size city will have one, or more. I will show you some blowups of some bolts from reputable companies that look like they were machined with a chainsaw, but to the naked eye they look great. They do not have these things made by some special shop who gets nobtanium, and have discovered the holy grail. It is not that complicated. on another post here in 308 there is a pic of a bolt that I had made in one of out tooling shops after I reversed engineered it. You will see the ultimate in locking lug machining. Run of the mill shops, won't be able to do that type of machining because it was done on a $195K Agie Progress EDM machine. EDM is over kill for this application, but if you want A++++ better that perfect and have one at your disposal, why not use it? Hope this helps!!!

Douche nozzles ? I like that. I will add this to my library! I completely agree with DrDover. We all have bad days at work, but bottom line is you have to be respectful to the ones that feed you. From a suppliers perspective it is easy to say screw those "douche nozzles" given the current market. The smart business man will run his business knowing he has to do whatever it takes in whatever times to be respectful at all times to the "people that feed him". The "douche nozzle" business man lives for the moment and does not realize, or think far enough ahead to see when things go back to normal he could be cut off. I for one will be one of those people. I will not tolerate a supplier being rude, or disrespectful to me for whatever reason. They go on the "don't buy from them ever again list".

It will work great. We use it in many forming, coining and some cut operations where, CPM, Carbide, or other steels fail due to the inability to handle the shock.. I'm talking about parts that are smaller and have a lot less support than an .308 AR bolt and run for weeks, or even years at 50,000 cycles per day with a minimum of 60,000 PSI without failure. You sacrifice some in the way of wear properties, but if the part fails before you get to that point, Who cares. You will want a RC of 55-57 when finished. You will need the ability to heat the material to 1250 degrees then soak for 45 minutes at that temp and then raise to its final temp of 1725-1750 degrees for 1 hour, followed by a temper cycle, or two at 500 degrees is best in order to heat treat the S-7. Do NOT heat, treat it with a torch, it will get hard and may hold up, but you will not know what you are dealing with. Unless you can follow the above process with your wife's turkey thermometer and the Harley mechanics torch from down the street, you are best to take it to a heat treater, or look for a tool and die shop that is local and ask them to heat treat it.

I will do the bolt carrier eventually...4140, 9310 and Carpenter 157. S-7 is also a great choice, but would be difficult for the average guy to obtain without overpaying too much. 4140 is the weakest of the bunch for this application, but is used more than all the others combined in the firearm industry. It's low cost to strength makes it very attractive to manufacturers.If you are making just a few parts the savings is not that big per part, but if you look at the big picture it will equate to thousands of dollars in the long run. Yes, manufacturers look down to the nearest penny when comparing cost if they are making high volume runs. I commonly am looking at ways of saving .1 of a cent at the company I work for. We deal with large contracts to as much as 100,000,000 PPY and tenths of a sent equal big $$$ in the end. China is one of the biggest scrutinize-rs of cost down to the point of choosing an inferior material to make a product. We all make fun of "Chinese junk", but in a lot of cases if they used a better material to manufacture there part it would be equal to the competing American part. This should also be a red flag to you when comparing something that cost's so much less than the U.S. made unit. I would not use 4140, or 4150 unless it was an last resort for an AR15 7.62 X 39 or 6.5 Grendel bolt, but would be just fine for the .223/5.56 and .308 bolt. The .308 bolt is especially strong, inherently due to the size of the .308 bolt to a regular AR15 bolt. I would be confident with a .308 bolt made of 4140, or 4150. The other three will be stronger and have better wear properties, but 4140 is adequate for it's call of duty in this situation. The case head diameter of the 7.62 and the Grendel make the lug area weaker than all others and thus creates the failure that you hear about with the AR15 bolt's. I built my first Grendel with a 7.62 standard AR bolt and it broke in under 400 rounds. I since then replaced it with a 9310 unit and have had 2000 rounds put through her with no issues. The .223/5.56 case head is much smaller and does not weaken the lug area as much as the 7.62 or Grendel does. Many manufacturers still use the 4140 or 4150 (has a little more chrome in it) for there .223/5.56 specific bolts. Carpenter will be very hard to obtain as it is proprietary to Carpenter and is only made by them and will cost the home guy some big $$$ to obtain even if you could find a 1" dia piece. This leaves you with 9310 and my favorite. It is super tough, strong and everybody, well most everybody has it. It is a bit more pricey than 4140, or 4150 but not too bad if you shop a little. Avoid Mcmaster, or MSC for buying raw material. they charge a premium for all there raw materials, but they will have them in stock. I purchase mine from the same outfit that supplies our tooling steel(Arizona Tool Steel), but a local tool steel supplier will, or can have it for you in little time.

This is the only DPMS style .308 bolt print on the net, I think. I may be sacrificed to some god for posting it . I also have CAD Files for a small fee. A big thanx to Robocop for supplying the bolt to reverse engineer. 6514_.pdf

Yay, field trip! We will not be able to see our XRF & XRD (machines to analyze material compositions) since they are at our Connecticut facility, but all others are open for viewing. Got a really trippy one for you to see. A continues .008 wire (EDM) cutting a helical, tapered gear with a round hole through the center at the top that transitions to a rectangular opening at the bottom without any visible transition lines.

95Z5V, No receiver was cut apart for this test. Both receivers were shaved and polished where the hand guard screws on...It would be a crime to hurt a perfectly good AR. I was going to put your fact out there, but I did not verify it so I left it out. Thanks for doing it for me!

Everyone, please stop and think about what you are paying for here. It is a bunch of springs most of which can be bought for $1 or less and with the trigger /hammer spring set are all under $15, pins $15 or less for all, pistol grip $7.50, stock hammer, trigger and safety for under $35.I bought 3 RRA/NM trigger groups for $340 at the Tucson gun show. I've seen these selling for $250 each. Bolts and carriers are being sold by the troy ounce and will soon be considered a precious metal. All my prices are conservative and you can buy these parts individually, on line, from many suppliers, or at local gun shows. One of which is Anderson MFG. No, I don't know them am not associated with them in any way, shape, or form, but they have A+ quality parts for what I would consider is below the average. There upper and lower will fit as tight, or tighter than any out there and two weeks ago I bought 3 upper receivers they had on the shelf for the same price as always ($75) I see one piece going for that price rite now. Yes, they are out of stock now, but they will have more in short time. Before you say that they are of not the same quality - again, I can back up my statement. I took cross sections of Anderson and one from one of the big suppliers and did a materials analysis. The forged aluminum grain structure was the same on both and the alloy composition was identical. The difference was the price. upper and lower from Anderson $155 for the pair. The other companies was $315 for the pair. Both receiver pairs fit great, but as you can see the cost was substantially different. I've done several builds with them and the guns are rock solid. Fulton is another supplier who has many parts in stock and also sells good quality part's for pre panic prices It is a shame that we are all in this together, but some are screwing you over "BIG TIME"Some prices have went up, but for the most part the main vendors are selling to the guys who jack the parts up to outrages prices for the same price as 1, 6 or 12 months ago. I personally will remember the ones doing it and NEVER buy from them again. Don't give me the supply and demand BS. there is plenty of parts out there if you look. I can understand a slight markup in these times, but paying $50+ for a Magpul mag is crazy. I buy wholesale for myself and personally know what the current prices are for most parts. Magpul is still selling to there vendors for the same price as before all this panic took place. Bottom line 500% markup for these and a lot of other parts. Yes, there will be guy's pissed off about what I said, but I'm using facts and want to help my fellow brothers that are of the same cause as myself. If you are pissed and are one with the HUGELY inflated prices, please let me know so I can put you on the "never buy from again list". you are the vendors that deserve to go out of business. You are taking advantage of a bunch of people who make, or break you and you are screwing them for your own personal gain! why are places like Andersdon, Brownells, Fulton and many more have the same pricing g as a month ago before all this started. Cause they and all others are paying the same prices. They are already making a lot more money because there inventory is bought out quickly, but for some, they want more, BOOOO!!!! You can stop the greed, by not paying these crazy prices and if you do your homework you can find every part you need for normal pricing (pre bend you over a barrel era). Buy your springs and pins from the above mentioned companys and by a good trigger group(RRA 2 stage NM), ambi safety and up graded pistol grip for $175 or less. Yes, RRA trigger groups are out there. Send a message to the companies taking advantage by not purchasing from them now, or ever. Suffering is a great teacher! For all the other vendors and that would be 80%, or more, that have not taken advantage of this situation, Great job and keep doing what you are doing!

How long did it take for your barrel to ship? I ordered mine on Dec 28th. I ordered the carrier 2 days before that and like I said "It came today". You will like that carrier you bought!!!

Just got my DPMS style, .308 carrier from Fulton Armory. It is an A+ part. Bores and outside are smooth and a great chrome finish. Dimensions are rite on. They have more in stock, but they shut down there website, again, to catch up on orders. They will be up and running in a few days. Fulton has done this shut down two times since Christmas. Hopefully my 22", .308 AR barrel gets shipped during this "catch up period". They also have AR15 carriers as of yesterday. This place must be huge, they always seem to have almost everything and for the most part they have good pricing. There Criterion barrels are awesome and very reasonably priced ($200-$300) depending on options. I've built 5 AR"s with there barrels and everyone will shoot under 1 MOA out to 300. I have not done any serious shooting with them past 300, yet, but everything points too good groupings way beyond 300 with good quality ammo. Now I will have to machine a bolt. Luckily a super nice guy on this site is loaning me his bolt to reverse engineer it. Ordered some 9310 today and will be making several. Yes, Shot peen and MPI tested as well and went out for a quote on Nickel Boron plating. My normal job involves manufacturing of various precious metal, electrical contacts as well as medical parts. We have millions of parts plated with silver, gold and other plating every year, so our plater said he will see if he can just fit it in and not worry about it as far as a formal quote. GS

Robocop1051 - Thank you for the reply...Are you offering to sell your extra bolt? I'm thinking that is to good to be true, but being able to get my hands on one to reverse engineer is the next best thing. I sent you a PM.

Hey guys, I'm an Mechanical engineer for a large, electrical stamping manufacturer and am the manager for all design & tooling operations. My point? I'm looking for a blue print of the LR.308 bolt and I'm going to make some of these myself, or have one of the tool makers make them after hours. I have the Fulton carrier, but like everyone is saying "there are no bolts to be found" If I even had a worn out one I could reverse engineer it, but the closest I've come to a .308 bolt is a photo. I would also be willing to make some extras for interested parties. I would guestimate the price to be around $60-80. But I first need a print. tucson308