Wooden Trigger Tester

[DustBuster]

I am currently building a DPMS 308, and for months have been agonizing over how the heck I’m gonna finish my lower.  Jigs are too dang expensive.  I did buy a top FC Pocket Plate, but I sure as heck can’t get a 5D these days, plus who wants to spend so much for one or two uses.  I fashioned a router surface with the plate underneath.  I I sawed and carved a mag block/lower holder out of wood, and was about to proceed with making sides to tie it all together, but I wanted to test out my router on a practice piece before proceeding. So I used my end mill on a larger hunk of wood... It worked great.  I then sawed the block of wood to the same width and height of the lower.  I then thought of something more I could do; practice the pin hole locations.  I drilled them and started to assemble the trigger I have.  To my dismay the grain of the wood caught my bits and altered the precision.  I assembled the trigger and it didn’t work.  I honed some out of the bottom because I was about a 32nd not deep enough.  The sear caught once, but my wiggly pins in the now supper sloppy crushed holes had everything failing.  Then finally I slopped some plywood to the sides, re drilled very carefully, and reassembled with my make shift 16 penny sinker pins.  My practice block of Doug Fir and plywood now works perfectly as a trigger tester.  I just need to craft a safety that is wider to test that function.  If aluminum and polymer becomes scarce, I might find some good Walnut for a 6.5 Treedmore some day 🌲

 

[392heminut]

LaRue sent me one of these with one of his triggers, no charge! I think 98 also has one.

 

[Armed Eye Doc]

2 hours ago, 392heminut said:

LaRue sent me one of these with one of his triggers, no charge! I think 98 also has one.

 

I have at least one of them, maybe two.

[DustBuster]

Fancy smancy!  I wish I had one of those I suppose.  My archaic wooden contraption is makeshift for sure.  I see that with your larue trigger jig one can see in there pretty good... that beats mine by a long shot.  Without my safety in mine, my disconnector hook engages way too much.  I went with JP trigger spec locations that jived with a print I found somewhere, so I’m fairly confident the holes are letting my sear engage sufficiently.  I took the cocked wooden trigger jig and bashed it hard back and forth on a table,,,, nothing let it slip.  You guys are the pros... I’m just a pre-schooler when it comes to this stuff.  I hope my larue trig fits as nice as this milsoec one did!  CU Armed Eye Doctor

[Armed Eye Doc]

I literally got out of bed to see if I could find them because I forgot to look.  And I will have to look more when I should not be sleeping.  If I find that I have more than one as I suspect, you are welcome to my extra.

[98Z5V]

14 hours ago, 392heminut said:

LaRue sent me one of these with one of his triggers, no charge! I think 98 also has one.

 

Last count was 3 of them laying around, brother, not doing anything here.  I have a billet Strike Industries unit that I use for all trigger testing/tuning. 

My bad - two LaRues, and one Ruger.  The Strike is far, far superior.  And way easier than doing something out of wood.  Way more accurate than doing something out of wood, too.

Time is money, and the amount of time that you invest into something, that someone has already made - alot of times, in life, that's not worth your time, or money, to try to make yourself.  Just buy it, end the guess-work, and move on with life. Cheaper, and less stress, that way.  I didn't invent the wheel, none of us here did.  But, we make it go around, alot. 

My $0.02...

[DNP]

I’m pretty sure a couple guys around here were at least there when the wheel was invented. Probably even sassed the guy who made it. “What good is that useless thing gonna do for anybody?  Back in my day....all you needed were a couple of strong legs and a little motivation.”

[98Z5V]

Wooden jig just isn't stable - or accurate enough, by any means - to be testing any trigger components with. When you're talking about 0.001" between a safe trigger, a non-functional trigger, or a completely unsafe trigger...   using wood for a trigger jig is not where you wanna be...

That's just my $0.02, though. 

[DustBuster]

My wooden Trigger jig really was a dual purpose thing... less for testing trigger and more for testing router.

i milled the perfect shape and then on afterthought I wanted to see if my hammer would fit with the dimensions I had.  It did, but I found out that 1/32 or 1/64 even to shallow of a depth Job was not good at all. I increased depth below the back of trigger and found that it worked better.  I will not make that same mistake with Aluminum.  What worries me is with the “mil-spec” plans I found... the FC pocket seems to be barely over 1/32”(.033”) away from the mag release bolt channel.  I need to see if all of these close specs work with the receiver I have.

i already pre drilled barely enough to mark my hammer/trigger locations, but I will be extra careful those hammer and trigger spots do not force my FC pocket to far forward, burning through into the mag release zone... Maybe there is allowance to shift the Pocket and Hammer and Trigger back farther away from mag or there is not.... My logical thought is that if there is room to go back...with the safety staying put, then the trigger could possibly be able to be squeezed more before hitting the flat spot underneath safety.  Rise stays same but run gets shorter, pitch increases therefore:  I’m just brainstorming just now... People have told me to not reinvent the wheel, but to me there is a tad less satisfaction.  Maybe I’ll make a Plexiglass Trigger Tester next and put Stike Industries outta business.. yeah right... Or a Clear Lr-308, with clear gas tube injecting color into the gun gas... Don’t know if our eyes could see it moving so fast.  

 

[98Z5V]

You've got it all figured out. 

When your gun doesn't fire, based on the changes that you think that will work, based on your thoughts, then we have this to go back to, to tell you why it's not firing.

You can change whatever you want, based on what you think - but the fire control group pocket is exactly the same on every single AR15 in existence, and all .308AR guns.  The standard is the standard, regardless of the platform, or  - the proof, here - we wouldn't be able to use the same AR15 triggers in any .308AR that we build.

You can monkey with whatever numbers that you think you can, and it's only gonna fuk you over, if you change any of those numbers.  You either NAIL the numbers for the fire control group pocket - or you fucked it up, and your trigger is either unsafe, or it doesn't even work.

But, you do you.  If you have it all figured out, then just run with scissors, and do whatever you want.

I'll point back to this thread, and your post, when you fuk with those numbers and it doesn't work... 

If you want a trigger jig, I'll send you one.  Free.  But, you thinking that you can change any of these trigger specs is just a foolish act, on your part.  I have enough spare trigger jigs, and i can spare them. 

[98Z5V]

11 minutes ago, DustBuster said:

but I found out that 1/32 or 1/64 even to shallow of a depth Job was not good at all.

 

Just so you know - 1/32" = 0.031".  1/64" = 0.016".

You need a trigger to be within a COUPLE THOU, on all it's aspects, for it to work. You're nowhere close, with what you're working with.