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Posted: 12/30/2013 7:10:33 PM EDT
| First time builder looking for help. Anyone have any recommendations on a polymer 80% lower? I've been looking into JMT. |
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I decided to try one several weeks ago when I received an advertisement for an Omni polymer lower for $40.00.
Put all the parts in without a single problem. In fact, one of the smoothest assemblies ever. The only thing I didn't like right from the get-go is the way they put the serial number on it. Sort of an eyesore. Just put some black paint over it and its almost unnoticeable. Took it to the range and shot about 250 rounds without a glitch. I don't know how strong it is if I were to really start physically abusing it but it feels rock solid. I've never had a tighter upper/lower fit on any I've owned or fired without having to do some filing or sanding. I'm confident that it will hold up to pretty much anything I'm going to throw at it. I would be wary of using it as an expedient stretcher pole, or even really bearing down on it to break my fall but I don't like to do that with aluminum either. It is noticeably lighter. I'm eventually going to mate it up with the lightest 14.5" barrel I can find and use a carbon fiber tube along with polymer sights to make it as light as possible. Should be kind of fun. |
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Check out this thread. It might change your mind about a polymer lower...
http://calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=873238 But really, Anderson or Aero lowers can be had for well under $100. To me, it's worth the piece of mind to have that quality in my lower. Best of luch with your new build! |
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Check out this thread. It might change your mind about a polymer lower... http://calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=873238 But really, Anderson or Aero lowers can be had for well under $100. To me, it's worth the piece of mind to have that quality in my lower. Best of luch with your new build! I second this. Got my Anderson lower for like 90 bucks. I'd be a little skeptical about the longevity of a poly lower |
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I second this. Got my Anderson lower for like 90 bucks. I'd be a little skeptical about the longevity of a poly lower Quoted:
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Check out this thread. It might change your mind about a polymer lower... http://calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=873238 But really, Anderson or Aero lowers can be had for well under $100. To me, it's worth the piece of mind to have that quality in my lower. Best of luch with your new build! I second this. Got my Anderson lower for like 90 bucks. I'd be a little skeptical about the longevity of a poly lower PSA had both versions of the Anderson for $49 online for a while... |
| I recommend just spending a little more and get a aluminum one but if you do go with a poly one you should check out EP Lowers its a jig less one that you just mill out the different colored material I.E. the black lower mill out the white section.I plan on getting one when they come out with the clear one. |
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PSA had both versions of the Anderson for $49 online for a while... Quoted:
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Check out this thread. It might change your mind about a polymer lower... http://calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=873238 But really, Anderson or Aero lowers can be had for well under $100. To me, it's worth the piece of mind to have that quality in my lower. Best of luch with your new build! I second this. Got my Anderson lower for like 90 bucks. I'd be a little skeptical about the longevity of a poly lower PSA had both versions of the Anderson for $49 online for a while... Good to know! Theyre not bad quality at all, im more than happy with mine, its 7075-T6 too cant go wrong |
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Check out this thread. It might change your mind about a polymer lower... http://calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=873238 But really, Anderson or Aero lowers can be had for well under $100. To me, it's worth the piece of mind to have that quality in my lower. Best of luch with your new build! I get my Anderson for $76 OTD. Excellent receiver |
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Welcome OP...friends don't let friends buy polymer lowers...except maybe for a .22 build....no...not even then. This is your answer. Do a little research and you'll find there are far too many stories of Polymer lowers failing. Too many to make me ever recommend one to anyone but an enemy. Do the right thing - aluminum forged at a minimum. That said, if you are dead set on rolling the dice on a Polymer lower, ATI has a zinc reinforced polymer lower. http://www.americantactical.us/page/hybrid.html |
I suggest buying a POLYMER80 lower, http://polymer80.com/product-category/products/ They are the best polymer lower manufacturers out there right now. Stay far away fro E.P. Lowers, that shit is whack. The one of the best features of the Polymer80 is for $20 you get a jig. For $100 you get everything lower, jig, bits, and screws. Before I got the Polmer80 lowers I tried EP and there is a huge difference in quality when you compare the 2. Also, as far as polymer lowers go, My first build was off of a New Frontier lower and I run 5.56 and 9mm on it and it is still in great shape just like it was new. On aluminum 80% lowers I just did my first from TR Enabling. They seemed to have the best price for a jig at $69 and a lower at $95. I got a couple end mills off Amazon for $20 and they cut through the aluminum really well.
 
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As the new guy ^ said polys for the win , good for almost 3 mags  only a idot would buy them now that the market is flooded again and PSA has aluminum lowers for under $50
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e219/angus6/100_2225.jpg How did this happen? I've seen my share of damaged beyond field repair aluminum receivers and uppers after nearly a nearly 1/4 century Airborne and Air Assault Infantry career. Most of the time it occurred while or soon after using it for something it wasn't really designed to do such as falling off cliffs, becoming unsecured during an airborne op, falling off of vehicles while driving, used as a step to get over a wall, ran over by vehicles, and things like that. Once damage occurs to the aluminum lower, that's usually the end of the lower. There is no quick repair. It's done. I'm betting that you could take super glue to that cracked lower and get it firing again. At least long enough to get you back to the extraction point. (And yes, I always had superglue with me in the field. Right along with tape, 550 cord, and other occasionally useful items. Not a fanboy of the polymers, but I do like them. Different materials usually require different design criteria and we as customers insist that our lowers, regardless of composition, look like the original versions. |
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The problem is that when it lets go again, being a pistol, you might just get a black eye when the tube launches at your face under buffer spring pressure. Quoted:
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I'm betting that you could take super glue to that cracked lower and get it firing again. . The problem is that when it lets go again, being a pistol, you might just get a black eye when the tube launches at your face under buffer spring pressure. Quoted:
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I'm betting that you could take super glue to that cracked lower and get it firing again. . The problem is that when it lets go again, being a pistol, you might just get a black eye when the tube launches at your face under buffer spring pressure. True. Still, I'd like to know how that actually happened. After super gluing it, it may or may not break the next time you have to fire it. I'd probably glue some crap on the sides to reinforce it a little. I certainly wouldn't consider it a permanent fix, and I probably wouldn't want to fire it unless I actually had to. That being said, every aluminum lower I've ever seen crushed, cracked, or bent, was out of the fight, without any chance of a speedy field expedient repair. I'd rather make it to the extraction point carrying something that might work over something that I know will not. |
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As the new guy ^ said polys for the win , good for almost 3 mags only a idot would buy them now that the market is flooded again and PSA has aluminum lowers for under $50
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e219/angus6/100_2225.jpg The OP isn't asking about Omni, he was asking about JMT 80% poly lowers, which are actually designed for polymer, as opposed to a design meant for alloy and then made out of polymer. The JMT lowers have specific areas reinforced and bulked up. I don't know if this will solve the problems, but it is a step in the right direction, and it is not the same as older polymer lowers. |
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As the new guy ^ said polys for the win , good for almost 3 mags only a idot would buy them now that the market is flooded again and PSA has aluminum lowers for under $50
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e219/angus6/100_2225.jpg All you did was shoot 3 mags? And it broke like that? I've got a NF poly lower. My dad dropped it at least three times while hunting with it. It only has about 10 mags worth of ammo through it. One side of the hammer pin came halfway out at one point. The trigger feel of the polymer triggers is way better than regular mil spec. We will see how well it holds up. If it breaks, I think it will be around the pins, or the buffer tube. It is nice and light. |
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True. Still, I'd like to know how that actually happened. 2 mags of .223 with a 7.5" and broke on the 3rd mag with was 300blk on a 10.5" couple shots into the 300 mag went to set pistol down and when I did it came apart. No dropping or banging it around just oh shit did you guys see what just happened. . At under $50 for aluminum never again, picked this up last Feb . when things were nuts |
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After super gluing it, it may or may not break the next time you have to fire it. I'd probably glue some crap on the sides to reinforce it a little. I certainly wouldn't consider it a permanent fix, and I probably wouldn't want to fire it unless I actually had to. That being said, every aluminum lower I've ever seen crushed, cracked, or bent, was out of the fight, without any chance of a speedy field expedient repair. I'd rather make it to the extraction point carrying something that might work over something that I know will not. This whole argument is pretty useless though. If the same thing that caused an aluminum lower to fail happened to a poly lower, you wouldn't just be gluing it back together, you would be picking up the splinters. Many poly lowers that fail, fail under normal shooting conditions, not ditch diving or acting as a speed bump. |
| Maybe a poly is good for a .22 build. I would rather buy a real lower. If you must go with an 80% lower than go aluminum, buy what you need to finish it and then sell it. An expensive way to go but in some states it is the only option now. PSA has stripped lowers for $50. If I could still buy them in the shit hole I live in I would buy a dozen just to have. |
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