Hard coat 80% lowers..hammer/trigger pins thru un-hard coated holes..any pblms?

[HeavyMG]

Sorry for the long title.

Just doing my homework before plunking down my cash on an unfinished lower, so I appreciate all your responses.

Has anyone has experienced 'egging' or deforming of their trigger, hammer, or selector holes in 80% lowers that come already hard coat anodized.  If so, after how many rounds of, say, mil-surp or mil-surp type ammo?

These same holes (hammer/trigger/selector) in a 100% finished lower will have been hard coated thru their bores...if the hard coat is properly done.

Then again, with the thicker walls of the .308 lower FCG pocket...deformity of non-hard coated hammer/trigger/selector holes may be a non-issue.

Like I said, doing my homework and this is certainly the place to do that!

Pictures of one of my builds.  Semi-auto, water cooled Browning 1917A1:

http://www.tsmanufacturing.com/Lloyd%201917A1%20Build/

[MAGTIKI]

Hey Heavy,

I have just recently finished my TM 80% lower build.  I machined out the bare alum lower, had the whole thing hard anodized, it turned out beautiful.

[img width=810 height=607]http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb439/MAGTIKI/308/20120325_195055.jpg

Doing it this way allowed me to have even the pin holes finished.  But to your point, I understand why you are asking but want to point out that you already kind of answered your own question.  The walls of the lower are fairly thick and as long as the pin hole isnt machined out too lose there shouldnt be enough play in the pin to cause the sort of wear you are referring to whether finished or not.  Its not like an AK where the receiver is just thin sheet metal and therefore requires heat treating the holes to harden it to avoid the holes elongating.

As far as the 80% lowers are concerned, most of them are made of the more mild alum alloys so IMO if the hole is going to fail I think it will fail no matter if it is hard coated or not.  And I dont think it will, otherwise I would not have built one.  The coatings on these alum receivers are more for corrosion protection than anything.  As far as shooting it; I have only gone out with it once and used a borrowed pair of iron sights for the day for just some fun plinking and making sure everything worked so I dont have near enough rounds thru the thing to tell if there is every going to be any kind of a failure like you are asking about.

Dont know if anything I have said was helpful or not.... I hope so.  Maybe some of the other guys post up their opinions on this also cause the amount of knowledge here with these guys is astonishing!

[unforgiven]

That is great, nice job and no trace I love it. <thumbsup>

[HeavyMG]

Hey MAGTIKI;

Looks very nice.  I definately agree the pin holes shouldn't be oversized, and I agree again the thick walls would tend to counter any 'egging' tendency.

The Colfax Tactical lowers are supposed to be 7075 (I've got one on order, should be here Oct/Nov) but are already hard coat anodized.  I ordered the CT lower mostly (only?) because I wasn't real keen on the large radiused corners of the TM mag well.  With the UN Gun Ban Plan threat still ringing in my ears maybe I'll order up a TM lower also and have it hard coated.  Can't go wrong for the price, that's for sure.

What magazines are you using in your TM lower?  Do they fit pretty good, not too loose/too tight?  Drop freely?

Thanks again for the post and the pics.  Appreciate the time you took there to answer me.

HeavyMG

My semi-auto, water cooled, Browning M1917A1 build:

Test Fire Vids

http://www.tsmanufacturing.com/Vids/

[unforgiven]

Checked out your vid,very cool brother HeavyMG.

[MAGTIKI]

yeah, the TM lower has some physical features that arent as attractive as some of the others out that that is for sure.  You can see in the pic once its coated they dont stand out as bad, still there just not as bad.  But the prices I got for the small group buy I put together got me a few receivers for prices I couldn't complain about.  When I started these (this project) a few years ago knowing it was a long term project for me due to cost of parts and since I was doing everything myself... well when I started I didnt see Colfax and some of the others that are out there now, i may have gone a different route if I had.  All in all I am very pleased with the TM lower.  It is very well made and their jig worked well.

If the reciever you got coming is 7075 you're set!!  I would not worry about those holes at all!!  A buddy of mine just finished his AR15 pre coated 80%;  he gunkoted the pocket and holes after he machined it.  Taped off everything and then sprayed it.  Its an idea anyway.

I currently have C-products mags that I bought a few years ago before they sold the company, dont have any of the new companies stuff, but the ones i have work flawlessly.  I also have DPMS mags that work flawlessly.  I also have a few Pmags... now these are a different story.  They are very tight!  They dont drop free!!  I was pissed!!  So, i took the finest wet/dry sand paper i have and i mean fine... it did more polishing than sanding.  once  I did this on the parts that touched the magwell...  they fit perfectly and drop freely!!!!  I figure with time the magwell finish will wear and so will the finishes on the mags... everything will smooth out.

oh man,  i looked at some of your build picks of your browning..... very impressive Brother!!!  I couldnt get the vids to play right and i really wanted to see those!!