PaddyMac

Aero M5E1 upper, 18", SS fluted, rifle gas - pretty psyched

No MAR 4" polymer barrel vise blocks

Quick update - After working the trigger group thru over 100 cycles things have improved. Parts must be mating at this point. Enough for me to start looking for an upper.

I run a Rigid. You just need to pay attention to the adjustment to keep it tight.

The foot switch is brilliant! Yes. Its almost ill concieved.

When googling my problems yesterday I ran into the Rise Armament trigger on a trigger comparison video with all of the big names. Price and performance blew everyone away. Haven't looked at LaRue yet but I never see them getting a bad rap.With you saying 100 times better than mil spec, I'm sold. No Problem. Albroswift says the screws are tough and can handle an impact driver. I'd use them until I buggered 1 or 2 and swap them out. But he's been through several builds so I'd expect that's way down the road. 😂😁😂 Pretty scary chit I know!! Your only talking about 1/32 into a pilot hole. Easy to get cocked and not notice. I rock the router back and forth to make sure I'm there and then try and hold on to the router with both hands when I hit the "go" button. Always a "pucker" moment. My router has a slow "soft start" cycle (2-3 seconds) until it hits full song (25,000 RPM or so). Even so...if you're not ready there's not enough time to turn things off before the damage begins. Sorry to hear.

Waiting on the Anaconda... Shot one years back. What a machine.

Give me another 1 or 2 builds. I've got a few stacked up both 15 and 308. They will happen in short order. Chat with Albroswift. He's done several successful builds with the 5D. I like the Easy Jig set up with less fasteners and hex keys. 5D uses tons of fasters that are Phillips 🤨 But... 5D has 1.5in side plates and the Easy Jig is 1/2 in. I'll let you know on the next 308 build.

OK... What I really wanted to do was stick the lower back in the jig and check tolerances but I said fawk it. I disassembled the TCG several times and basically changed the spring orientation a bit to ride in the trigger saddles / cutouts better. This is bullpoopy machining techniques because it looks cocked and like ass. I'm a perfectionist to a point, at least with firearms. Albroswift was correct on his assumptions but this POS still looks whacked. Anyway - after 4 removals and re-installs the SOB cocks, has trigger reset and passes function checks! Woot! I have one more CMMG lower parts kit but didn't break it out to see if its different. I cleaned up the safety holes and now it functions nicely. I have a feeling that my jig is like a chick and I need to learn what this bitch wants. One thing I know for sure - if you use this jig make your second pass 1 notch lower than what it calls for. This will lower the floor of the well and give you a few thous of breathing room in the trigger area. Initial thoughts... The Easy Jig Gen 2 may not be the best for .308's. I have another lower from a different place and I'm gonna run through it next. If its tight and requires all bolts to be synched simultaneously I'm stopping. Shite ain't right. If it bolts up nice and square - cool beans As for the CMMG lower kit. Not impressed. Piss poor machining you can see with the naked eye and a fingernail. Lot's o jack for a box of ass. The Anderson AR15 lower kit was nice. Match grade - NO. But the CMMG kit is the ultimate lawyer, government trigger. 8-9 lbs at least (I will measure), feels like you are dragging it on concrete for 100 yards. When it breaks it scares the fawk out of you because you had no idea where in the trail of tears you were...50 yd line maybe?... trying to hold it on zero. So yeah, it breaks pretty clean if you have the nerves to take it that far. Putting in the front pin, spring and detent in I was so happy but didn't check the groove orientation before I tried it out. Yeah, spring and pin took off like a fawking rocket landing in parts of the gun room unknown. Heard one of them land but alas...eyes aren't good enough to find them. Just another night on the bench. Thanks all.

Yep. Thats exactly how I have it. Will disassemble and get a good visual on what the hell I'm doing wrong.

I'm gonna disassemble again tonight and try another CMMG lower kit i have.

When you say "smooth" end first, it sounds like the chamfered and then the ring, followed by a second ring in the middle and then the blank end following...? This is the way the AR15 went together. I like the jig I have but when leaning to "more is better", the thickness of the 5D jig seems to be head and tails above all. Let me see how things turn out on this lower and I may have a different opinion. It's a damned good jig and things are rock solid when bolted in. But if I can't get repeatable results...it will end up on the shelf. Stay tuned. In this pic you can see how the trigger is far to the right, cocked or un-cocked t. Could be me, my jig, my pins, or my TCG. Taking apart to find out now. I will measure. Reassemble. and report back.

With the AR15 underway I have some time to begin what I started out coming here for in the first place...building an LR style .308. Finished up the milling on the lower and dropped in the CMMG TCG. And right off the bat things go awry. But before I get there heres some info: I'm using the Easy Jig Gen 2. When sliding in pins and tightening down plates it fought the entire way. It references on the front pin, buffer tube, and rear pin. Needless to say everything had to be in place before it could be fully tightened down. This was not the case with a AR15 lower. Note to self...gotta keep this in mind for the next one. Being my second, the milling went flawless. Dropped in the trigger and pinned it. Dropped in the hammer and pinned it and now the fun starts. Looking down in the TCG pocket the trigger is canted to the right side of the well 😫 My first thought is a wasted lower due hole misalignment. ARGH. Function check the trigger anyway, fires, fires, and on reset check the hammer lets go and flies forward. The feel of this trigger is like its dragging on 40 grit paper for 100ft and then lets go. When I looking at the parts prior the assembly the amount of machine marks would make you sad. Fawk it lets push on... In goes the safety. NOT. Disassemble the TCG, put the safety in, put trigger in, put hammer in. Just no love on this lower. Safety so tight its non-functional. Disassemble and reassemble. No love. Looks as if the second shelf of milling (B) on these 80% lowers just doesn't take enough of the floor. Same results, just not as bad, on my AR15. Next steps - Full disassembly. Re-mount in the jig and take some more clearance off the floor for extra space to allow for the trigger to move down to allow safety to fit in easier. I'll use the trigger pins to see if I can measure a distance between to points to see if there is a gross issue in terms of pin alignment. Maybe I just got a lemon TCG? This is my first foray into CMMG parts and I'm not impressed yet. The Anderson parts in the AR15 out do my Colt LE tenfold. Smooth, a bit long, but clean as hell. No grit feel anywhere. QUESTION - When assembling the lower TCG, which side do you start the pins from (left or right?) An what is the pin orientation? (milled slot first to or non-slot side first?) More saga and pics later today.

I'm going to start a new topic on the .308 lower build. The AR15 lower is fitting and functioning nicely. Starting on the upper today and will post as things move along. My only issue right now is that my upper kit seems to be missing a barrel nut 😲 It did come with one of those nifty rail guards that has some sort of nut built in to mount the guard to the upper and uses screws to secure the guard. I know I'm super new to this so I could be not understanding things but the threaded sleeve that goes into the guard seems way to flimsy to act as a nut. It also does not fit either barrel type fixtures on my wrench...

The 5D side plates are insane. Started putting together my 308 lower tonight and found a lot that doesn't look or act right. Will post pics tomorrow or Friday. Could be me, my jig, my lower, or CMMG parts. One of us is ugly. Pretty bummed out so i took a break. Time for whiskey!

What uppers did you use?

Digging the realism. Learn something every day here. Welcome from Marylandstan.

Whew what a night. Fawking glorious...so far. The AR15 lower is together with all the help provided. 2 little Chineseium files were all I needed to scrape off a few thou and make it fit sweet. No daylight showing and a nice tight rear pin fit. Surprisingly good actually since the parts were inexpensive. Pics with black sharpie show where I had to take the lower down a few thou. While more had to be done elsewhere 98Z5V did see a "little" spot. I guess he gets the beer. PM me. As a bonus I finished up milling one of the forged .308 lowers! Woot. Next steps are to get a good vise for barrel work and then save some pennies for the .308 build. Question... In the .308, does anyone prefer billet over forged or vice versa? And no the pins aren't crooked. Its cell phone camera trickery. Thanks

If it hangs up there I owe someone a beer!!

This ^^ Breaking out the files tonight to clean up the radii. Then test fit. My pic is misleading from the angle. It's actually bottomed out on the pin boss. I've crammed it in further and haven't hit the buffer tube loop yet. I'll know tonight though!

Excellent advice all. Unfortunately I don't have another vise yet (on the way) or I would have clamped the jig another from each end. You cant see it but there's a bolt that threads through both sides and connects them, so I wasn't too worried about pinching things. Now that I know that the FCG pocket can connect to the takedown pocket I'm set. I should have shotgunned my Colt LE and took a peek 🤬 The "directions" that came with the jig called my lower a Gen2 because it has the takedown pocket. They provided a pin to put in the jig to not allow the mill to move back far enough the touch it...ha. So much for that. BTW - I'm halfway through milling my first .308 and I used the same pin b/c my Cerro .308 lower has the same pocket machined into it. Difference being that after milling with the pin installed the thickness between the FCG and pin pocket is razor thin. I'm going to mill it out tonight and be done with it. Thanks everyone.

That 5D looks sick! Same price as mine. Wish i had known. Halfway through my .308 as we speak. Pics to follow.

Ha!! Tiny jeweler type files make short work of it. I have much respect for sheet metal workers. Best friend is a master. Squares to rounds and compound angles...its a helluva lot of math and layout. I will be grabbing that beer tho.

Thanks. Whipped out the dial calipers and this is what I found. Pin boss on the upper is .496 - I found this exact spec on a AR15 drawing. After looking for specs for the lower on the interwebs I found measurements of .491 thru .500. On one of the drawings it was clearly marked AR10 (.500). On another drawing I found .500 + or - .004. So theres a helluva lot of room with + or - .004. I didn't look for further drawings of the upper after my first one spec'd out exactly at .496. This leads me to believe that I can slowly "work" the lower until I have a nice tight fit. Thanks in advance for your comments.

Another member asked me to post pics of a build so here they are. This is a Cerro 80% AR15 lower with an Anderson TCG. Remaining Upper and stock parts are from Durkin Tactical. Barrel states .223 Wylde 1:8 MADE IN USA - no other markings - manufacture unknown. This is my first build to work out the kinks of machining and assembly before I drop a lot of money on a quality DPMS .308 build, hence the inexpensive upper kit. The mill and jig are a 80% Easy Gen 2 Jig. The unit mounted in the jig is a Cerro .308 DPMS compatible with 1 pass made on the mill. The semi assembled lower was completed as for as you see last week. Issues have been a tight safety and an extremely tight upper. The safety is loosening up with oil and working it on the block. The upper is tight on the rear pin boss in the lower. You can see the wear marks on the upper and the lower where both have been coaxed into alignment without luck. The upper is a Brass Aluminum Forgings unit - manufacture unknown. My plan is to measure the pin boss and recess in the lower to figure out who is out of spec and then address. Comment away - good and bad 🙂