I am looking for some nice 80% lowers
Beside the obvious like major machining errors or type2 anodizing instead of hardcoat, there are a couple of things I try to aviod:

1 Magwells broached off center
2 Milling high on the forging, which results in pivot lug being thinned out on top and detent hole being way up in the fencing
3 Drastic discontinuity on the backstrap radius when milling off the flash, and of course I prefer when the flash on the back is buffed off nicely instead of milled off
4 Funny machining that makes the part look like a toy, like the front of a DSA lower between the pivot lugs - have never seen it machined this way on any other lower

Tactical machining does a nice job, except last time i bought some they suffered from 1 and 3

Now considering Gorilla Machining
Anyone tried em?

You seem to know way more than me, but I like these guys.

https://www.righttobear.com/AR15-Anodized-80-Lower-Receiver-Betsy-Ross-Flag-p/80raw-and-br-m2.htm

Anyone use 5d tactical lower?
Tactical machining sells their jigs -
Makes me wonder if 5d is selling TM’slowers

I used the 5d tactical jig. it is great.

I posted in the 80% Lowers Summary thread back in August 2019 about the 80% lower that I ordered from Gorilla Machining. I'll repost some of the info and photos here, but the bottom line is that I wouldn't recommend them because of the strange machining they did on the lower. I ordered a Anchor Harvey 80% Lower Receiver from Gorilla Machining, if the raw lower is what you're looking at. It’s described on their website as a “Anchor Harvey Raw 80 Percent Lower with Optional Safety Engraving,” which I took to mean that you had the option of selecting whether you wanted safety selector markings engraved on the lower, like Right to Bear and other places offer. I couldn’t see any place to select the markings, but I figured you were supposed to write them in the order comments or something. Since I didn’t want any markings, I just ignored that, which maybe I should have looked into more closely, but “Optional” was the word that stood out to me. Sure enough, the lower showed up with “SAFE” and “FIRE” engraved on it, which was not what I wanted, since I was planning to have it custom engraved. The show stopper, in my opinion, is the groove milled in the left side of the receiver extension “collar.” Based on the follow-on discussion in the 80% thread, it looks like it was put there to allow clearance for a long punch to insert the bolt catch roll pin, although that still seems really strange to me:

Attached File

Attached File


The product image on their page is apparently just another generic photo, since it doesn’t show the selector markings or the groove cut in the side. I returned the lower for a refund because they said that all of their lowers were like that. They may have changed things in the last 9 months, but I wouldn't order from them again based on the generic photo that they're still using in their product listing.

Thanks 3ACR

That groove looks awful. It’s trying to avoid weird machining, I feel like companies think they can take more liberties with the 80s.

Im actually looking for hardcoat anodized. However, i find items in the white show more views. Apparently, the lowers from 5D tactical have a chamfer around the pivot/takedown pin holes and around the mag release button. Very odd. I’m basically in the TM camp except they go hard at that flash, i don’t love it. Even anderson receivers buff the flash off.