JT chopped my 14.7, opened up the gas port, mounted the FSB, lopped off the bayonet lug and pinned and welded the XM moderator. The guy is an artist.

The only gig I could find (if you can call it that) is that I wish the flash hider was timed a little better
..but thats my OCD kicking in (a true handicap). Other than that it perfect.  The parkerizing is a nice charcoal gray and you have to look hard to find the pin on the moderator.

Like the title says, JT has mad skills!

Edit to add.
I asked him if it were possible to time it and he said he would try but a lot of the times it doesnt.

They aren't really meant to be timed. If you look at vintage pics they have them at all different positions.

I know, thats what JT said. Its just an OCD thing.  

Glad somebody’s happy with his work.  He screwed up a perfectly good barrel for me by installing the FSB with a significant cant.

First complaint I’ve ever heard about Retro Arms Works.  Everyone makes mistakes.  Did you give him the chance to make it right?  There has to be more to the story.

If your sight base is canted after I installed it, please contact me, and I will make it right (no charge).  I always stand behind my work.

Thank you very much,
John Thomas

That pretty much backs up what I was saying.  Great customer service!

1st complaint I’ve ever heard of.

There is a shop that MANY here uses, they have had more than one blotched job and everyone loves them.

Ever think about contacting him after what you received back was less than satisfactory instead of waiting God knows how long and then being a passive aggressive whiner on a public forum?

JT's the man!

Big man right there.

For some reason, I just don't believe that John would have done that knowingly and I highly suspect he would have squared it away if he did and you followed up with him.  Are you sure you aren't thinking of the old ar15barrels guy that burned out in flames after failing to deliver to several folks here on AR15.com

John did the following custom work for me after I drew up plans on how I wanted to bush the FSB further forward, laid out how I wanted things cut and gathered all of the parts.

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Not only was his work outstanding, he did it quickly and did the work for a very reasonable price.  This was outside of his normal retro work and I think he enjoyed the fact that he was working on something a little different that still had a bit of a retro touch with the dissipator layout.

Is the ar15barrels guy you're talking about Randall Rausch?  I could see him screwing up something like a FSB.  Dude nearly ruined my FAL barrel and caused other issues, half-assed other things, raised prices while doing the work, etc.  I wouldn't trust him with a FAL or much of anything else gun-related.  Not apologetic at all for bad work.  I've had to warn locals away from him.  All the CalGuns folks love him, so he always gets recommended when I'm looking for a gunsmith locally and then there's an adverse reaction when I say that he's not what I'm looking for and why that is the case.

I can totally see him screwing up that sort of job and either not making it right or charging to make it right.

Honest question.  What reaction did you hope to get from your post?  JT is well respected on this forum here, and for good reason.  The retro section of this forum is full of pics showing his excellent craftsmanship. So he didn’t get your barrel perfect.  Obviously you didn’t even give him a chance to make it right.  You had to know you’re post would elicit the reaction it did.

Nevermind.....

Personal insult for posting a fact?  Guess that’s acceptable in a tech forum.  I paid for a job to be done right the first time, not play the mail tag game.  I am not required to give a free pass just because a person providing a service, and is so highly revered amongst the membership here, didn’t get it done right when originally accepting payment for the service.  I’m happy for the OP.  My outcome was different.  Respected or not, criticism of Mr Thomas for not properly installing the FSB is not a crime.  I am in the minority and this tiny blip will not tarnish his reputation as well respected gunsmith.  Honesty is obviously not taken well here.

Sir, I'd suggest you might be the one who made it personal when you opened up your posting with the following line:
"Glad somebody’s happy with his work."

I've posted an example of the work that John Thomas did right with the photos to back it up.  Between this thread and many others, there's been countless others who have done the same.

We've yet to see photos of your "screwed up"  "perfectly good barrel" that he installed a "FSB with a significant cant" on.

As for the complaint about having taken payment and not caught that it wasn't up to the standard you expected, we had a member here on AR15.com post that LMT...Lewis Machine and Tool...managed to let a barrel get out the door, sold through a dealer and home with a customer before the new owner realized that the FSB didn't have pins drilled and installed:
https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/Am-I-stupid-or-are-there-supposed-to-be-pins-in-the-FSB/118-728452/

If you can't accept that anyone could have some human error to the point that you can't email or call someone after you're disappointed with the work and then give them a chance to make it right, I'd recommend you start doing everything yourself so you can ensure it's always exactly how you like it.  Perhaps you have, you can tell us, or maybe you just jump from each manufacture you choose once you run into problems. In either case large and small business operations are going to have the occasional work example that gets out the door that doesn't meet expectations.  Assuming that there's only a small number of problems making it out the door without getting caught, how they handle those issues with the customers after the fact is what matters.

My experience with John Thomas says that had you contacted him, not only would he have taken the upper assembly and barrel back to fix the issue, he would have covered the shipping costs for the return trip and if the issue couldn't be resolved without concerns on integrity of the barrel, he'd replace the barrel out of his own pocket and make it right.

I’m extremely happy with John’s work and customer service. He called me to discuss my job request prior to starting the work to ensure we were on the same page.

I won’t hesitate to send him every retro job I have in the future.

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I think that was 45bravo right ?

I think bigstick61 was right in the guys real name, Randall. Not sure about his screen name. If I am remembering correctly, he did good work for a long time but then got a bit overwhelmed by the number of jobs coming to him and started falling behind on delivery and finished product got rushed out the door with questionable work.  I think he failed to ever get around to doing work after taking barrels, and maybe even payment up front, from members here and he eventually got the ban hammer.

There are still several barrel related photos floating around on the internet that he created that are useful.  The most common one I see shows standard vs m4 receiver extensions matched up to various uppers with Go/No-Go markings.

Very glad I'm not your auto mechanic.

Most reasonable people are rightfully skeptical of someone who trudges into a "tech forum" making claims that are at odds with that communities experience, especially when the complainant provides no proof to establish that claim as a fact.  The reliability of the voices in your head are insufficiently known in this community to be immediately accepted without question.

The man has offered to make it right with you if your claim is valid.  Just what the hell more do you want, anyway?

As i say in every thread John is not only a wonderful craftsman but a bang up human being also. Always friendly, fast shipping, great service etc. Never had an issue with him myself, he's a pillar of the retro community.

Now where is that darn LIKE button?

John is a consummate professional and a rather detail oriented perfectionist. I cant buy this BS of a canted front sight base. That’s an easy install.
No way in heJJ I can see that happening and him missing it.

JT did work for me & an unforeseen issue came up (wrong part drop shipped to him) He made it right even though he had no obligation to redo the work. Like many others, I couldn't be happier with his work.

Sounds like CPT1-285TH wouldn't have been happy with a "fixed" barrel.

Nothing but praise for John. His work is excellent.

He’s done work on a couple of my projects and I’ve spoken with him to pick his brain on a few ideas and he has been helpful, quick and performed great work with very fast turn around.

I’m not saying the guy isn’t capable of making a mistake as he’s only human but you should have brought it to his attention and given him the opportunity to make it right. Now if you’ve done that and you didn’t get the response you wanted then feel free to air your grievance.

I suspect he’s not aware of it and didn’t have the chance to make it right before you posted here though.