SBR – Page 6 – AR180S.COM

October 17, 2015

What’s Been Happening at AR180S.com

What’s been happening at AR180S.com?

Just busy as all get out.

Shipped out the first batch of AR180 Lower Parts Kits. I hope that leads to more AR-180 enthusiasm as more NoDak lowers get sold and more Stormwerkz adapters get sold, and finally uppers begin to come out of the GunLab. I’m sure that there will be a time soon that you will be able to build your own AR-180 from scratch.

Chuck has a few extra Bolt Hold Opens and I will be posting those up for sale individually after I get them in my hands.

Work has me traveling all over since one of our trainers left to teach at a community college and I am filling in for him in the Pacific Northwest. Hopefully we will get a new person to take over that territory and I can stay closer to home.

New AR-180S

I am looking to build a second shorty upper and I hope to bring you details as the build continues.

I have a 180B stripped upper and found an HBAR AR15 barrel as a starting point. This will allow me to turn the profile to exactly what I want and not have to sleeve the barrel under the gas block like my first one. I will also be extending the hand guards a fraction of an inch to match the original AR-18S lower hand guard that I have. This will become the standard length an will allow me to design an endcap and they won’t have to be custom made for each gun.

You can see in this picture how the hand guard is long enough to retain the reinforcing rib.

I am also toying with the idea on an even shorter version with hand guards cut off at the first rib.

This matches the description of the AR-18K but I have never seen a picture of said weapon.

If anyone has any info about these short versions, please drop me a line. I would love to chat about it.

Thanks for hanging out with me for a few minutes and if you are new or have not subscribed to AR180S.com, please drop your email in the box on the right and you will get emails whenever a new article comes out.

September 30, 2015

AR-180B Shorty Project Pt. VIII: The New AR-180S

A quick update on the AR-180B Shorty Project or what I like to call it, the New AR-180S.

I had some time to attend a therapy session in my shop this past weekend and I have to say it was successful.

I have been bothered by the hand guards on this gun from the very beginning and I finally decided to do something about it.

I have tried and failed to make a retainer for the hand guards out of sheet steel like the originals. I’m good with my hands but I am no body man.

I have long thought about machining a retainer from aluminum but a figured in could only be done with CNC, which I don’t have.

I decided that I would throw caution to the wind and try to mill it manually on my mill. Whats the worst that could happen?

For reference, this is the method I am trying to emulate.

My original, and always temporary method, was to take the end of the cut off piece and glue it inside the remaining piece. It has already broken once and was coming loose again.

I started with a piece of 6061 and laid out the shape a needed.

I squared up the sides then drilled out my holes and checked to see if I had my dimensions correct.

I then moved my end mill down to the depth I wanted and followed my layout lines using both knobs at the same time. This is where the therapy came in. It took a lot of concentration but in the end I think I did a pretty good job, if I don’t say so myself.

I made sure it actually fit the hand guards.

I then flipped it over and shaved it down to .035″, the same thickness as the steel retainer.

Then I trimmed up the sides on my porta-band.

And finished up with some flap disc and file work.

A final test fit.

Since I have no way to anodize I shot it with my favorite substitute, Rust-Oleum Dark Grey Primer.

And here she is an all her glory the New AR-180S!

I can’t tell you how much better the hand guards feel. They have always moved a little and never felt secure.

Now they are rock solid.

Fingers crossed that I can get some time this weekend to go shooting. I hasn’t had a round through it since it was a pistol.

September 19, 2015

AR-180B Shorty Project Part VII

It’s been far too long since I updated y’all on the project that launched about the same time as this blog, The AR-180B Shorty Project.

I was not entirely happy with the VZ-58 stock and although I want a folding stock, I could not resist attaching an original AR-180B butt stock to see how it looked and handled.

I could not be happier. I’m hoping to get it to the range now that it has cooled off and put it through it’s paces.

As shown, with an empty magazine, it is weighing in at about 6.5 lbs.

Shown with the GunLab lower completion kit, which should be ready to ship soon.

Make sure you hit me up and get your name on the list to save your spot. Just use the Contact form at the top of the page.

522FB5C5-5F6B-47A6-8594-0ED571867F43_zpsk2so854b 0D804A03-55B7-4F3F-AAB2-26FFA0A58B34_zpspen6mk9d

I need to make a hand guard cap and park the flash hider (it is painted currently) and I will call this one done.

Lessons learned by taking on this project?

I actually found an original AR-18S lower hand guard and discovered that my reverse engineered from pictures attempt was off by about 3/8″.

The placement of the front sight block is further back than it should have been and I can’t replace these hand guards with 180’s because of where the stiffening ribs are.

I guess I will just have to build another one!

Much thanks to those who helped make this project possible.

GunLab

NoDak Spud

Retro Arms Works

And a special mention to Ian at Forgotten Weapons for the inspiration to write about these cool weapons. I ran into Ian and Karl at the last gun show and I have to say, they are a couple of really nice and knowledgeable guys. I hope to get this particular gun closer to completion and let them shoot it. If anyone can find it’s flaws, they can.

September 5, 2015

AR-180B Lower Parts Update!

Just got my sample parts from Chuck and I must say, they look awesome. I really like the light park job that he has done on these and the quality is outstanding.

The Bolt hold opens need a bit of a tweak on one bend so that is holding us up a bit. They should be ready to go shortly so get your name on the list by emailing me at rkelley91 at gmail dot com and I will put you on the list.

These parts along with an AR-15 lower parts kit will allow you to populate a Nodak NDS-18S lower without having to buy an AR-180B first.

You can then use that lower on your original AR-180, AR-180B, and Vulcan V-18. Using one on an original 180 will allow you to use standard AR-15 STANAG magazines instead of 180 mags.

Pricing is $125 per set, shipped and insured in the continental US, Alaska and Hawaii slightly higher. No international sales at this time.

Now for some pics of this set in my SBR lower.

July 8, 2015

Full Auto AR-180 Conversion on Gunbroker

I was alerted to this interesting full auto AR-180 conversion by a reader and I contacted the seller to get more information. I had assumed that all conversions used the same system as the AR-18 but my research shows that there are many different ways to get the job done.

Gunbroker

This particular gun also brings to light the crazy gun laws that we have to deal with and in particular those surrounding full auto guns in Connecticut.

First lets see how an AR-18 worked.

You can see in this picture that the upper receiver has two tabs that retain the auto sear. A link is attached to the sear that rides along the bottom of the upper and is tripped by the bolt carrier. The sear acts upon the rear of the hammer. The hammer is different than the one used on an AR-180 as is the disconnector, bolt carrier, and firing pin.

This conversion goes about it in a completely different way.

This conversion is on a Howa AR-180 and it has a sear that acts on the front of the hammer. It appears to have a pivot added to the front of the fire control box and you can just make out the pin location in the picture above. The sear has a tail that is tripped by a piece that was welded on to the bolt carrier. It uses all the original 180 fire control parts with the exception of the disconnector and the safety. The 180 firing pin is also retained.

I wonder if this is how the Widowmaker conversions were done?

Now for the Connecticut twist on this story. It appears that those who drafted their assault weapons ban tried to get machine guns classified as assault weapons and in doing so, left the door open for guns that are full auto only. You can’t own a registered select fire weapon (one that fires Safe/Semi/Full) but you can have a papaered Full auto machine gun (Safe/Full). This gun is one such animal. For those that live in other states, it can be converted back to a select fire configuration.

Please feel free to comment about any conversions you have come across. I think this is a very cool part of the history of the AR-180.