Tag: AR180

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More Early Sterling Info

After reading my last article I was contacted by Michael Vickers from Helston Forensics. He linked me a couple articles that he felt my readers and Jonathan Ferguson in particular would be interested in.

The first article is just chock full of interesting tidbits including Sterling AR-18S mods Sterling made, like a longer barrel to increase reliability, SAR-80 info as well as the connection to Mark Westrom, who went on to build the AR180B. Check it out Here.

Also mentioned in the article was the FAC-70. The Foote Automatic Carbine that Sterling considered making before taking on the AR-18/180 from Armalite. Michael sent me a second article that digs deeper into the particular weapon. The original article is Here.

I had never heard of this particular rifle before. I definitely want to learn more. It reminds me of the ARAK-21 line of rifles. I need to build a clone, don’t you think?

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Reader Pics: Home Made Upper

Reader David sent me some pics of his home made upper receiver shell. He also made gas system parts, guide rail, and a scope mount. Great work. I love seeing this type of ingenuity. Keep the pics coming as the build continues David.

 

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AR180S Pistol Grips Ready To Ship

Well I have 3 ready to ship.

I have reworked the model and done modifications to my printer and I am happy with how they are printing now.

I have also decided to put them up for sale and will print and fill orders as they come in. That might take awhile to fill as they take quite some time to print. 18+ hours to be exact.

These can certainly be used as is but really need to be sanded, polished, possibly even painted.

Here is an early prototype that I sanded and rounded the edges then polished.

First 3 will ship right away, first come, first served. Just click on the link at the top of the page to take you to the Shopping Cart.

I am really looking forward to getting some pictures of how your pistol grips turn out!

As always use the “Contact Me” link to send me an email if you have any questions.

 

 

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Reader Pics: New Sharpshooter Kit

Got an email the other day and I knew y’all would be interested in it.

A brand new Sharpshooter kit.

 

This one is packaged as coming from Timberline Hawk and differs in construction from my example. The hand guard cover is improved by the addition of Velcro to allow it to be removed easily. The butt stock cover is the real pain in the ass to install. If I made a new version of this I would certainly use Velcro for that as well.

Just for fun I am including a pic from the movie Daylight’s End showing a Sharpshooter in use.

 

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AR18-S Shorty Upper Project

Work progresses sporadically since I am mostly only able to work on this during the weekends. I formed a thicker front hand guard retainer and tried my hand at silver soldering for the first time. Got a little carried away with the amount of solder but at least the centering sleeve is not gonna come loose.

A quick glass bead to clean it up and off to my tabletop park tank. (stainless bowl from goodwill on a hot plate)

I also modeled up a set of fixtures to hold the front sight base and receiver for drilling and reaming the taper pins. Didn’t quite get it perfect the first time so I adjusted the model and printed another one.

Cut down a set of hand guards and we are almost there. Looking the part now.

Need another flash hider so I better get that modeled up as well.

Having built 5 shorty uppers so far I can say it is getting easier. I’ve worked out the bugs but even now I discover new things. What did I learn this time? I learned that the curves of an original AR180 upper hand guard are different than the AR180B. This is the first time I have cut down an original upper hand guard and now it makes sense why the retainers I have milled out of aluminum do not match pictures I have compared them to.