In my youth, I worked in the machine shop of the Physics Dept. of my university. It was run my a cranky little Irishman. If one swept the floors, wiped the machines down, put away messes left by others and generally loved and respected the shop, Johnny tended to give preference and would teach some of us the basics of what we were trying to make for our lab gear. Old school learning, a sort of modified limited apprenticeship for a select group of eggheads willing to commit to the common good. Those who helped care for the shop learned lessons as they were needed.
Years later I was interested in the AR craze and had a mind to build a crazy accurate open class target rifle. I bought a couple lower receivers, upper receivers, a regular trigger group and a two stage target trigger group. It all went together like lego blocks, with no disrespect to kids today, but from my mindset of accurized bullseye target pistols and owning a revolver from Hamilton Bowen and owning his book as well as a few by Taffin, bolting together an AR is not “gunsmithing” in my mind any more than throwing a frozen dinner in the microwave is being a chef.
When I looked at the AR lower, the registered piece, my eye saw a nicely machined bit of cast aluminum. As I happened to have done a bit of work in Fiberglas, carbon fibers, epoxies and acrylics... as well as silicone mold making my passing thought was “I bet I could make a mold for this part easy!” Then using the right mixture of epoxy and carbon fiber filler and a few threaded sleeves just pour a lower, let it harden and voile. Instant lower.
Once the mold and a couple of aluminum sleeves are made, making a lower would be easier than making instant brownies. Certainly in my mind a heck of a lot more than 80%, yet an insult to the art of creating by hand a better product. My goal in building was to make something better than I could buy.
Next I thought of machining a lower from a billet of Aluminum. That would test my skills as a machinist with very limited training, but I bet I could do it. A billet receiver would be stronger, shinier, slicker. But I didn’t have access to a proper shop anymore and my goal was a rifle, not a machining project.
Those that make their own target 1911s are heroes and I love watching YouTube videos of these guys problem solving and machining. For their time and money, they could hire a pistolsmith twice, but I get it. It’s a sort of art project and keeps a man off the street or from foolishness like building his own airplane.
Then I look at some kits available where you buy a jig, hog some material out with a router (shudder!), drill some holes with a hand drill and presto, you have an ugly bit of rubbish that will go “bang” and skirts federal law. Bleach.
Next I wonder what an 80% receiver for a Sig 320 looks like, as the whole “receiver” looks about like the trigger group of a HighPoint pistol to me.
A few people are making what in my opinion are works of art from legitimate forgings. A lot of people are only out to dodge the letter of the law making yet another boring adequate pistol.
It’s a good thing I am not king, I would hold to the spirit, not letter, of the law.