Hi, long time lurker, first time poster.
I purchased three Del-Ton stripped lowers last week and received them yesterday.
http://spinr.smugmug.com/photos/312344904_3vVM9-M.jpgFor the purpose of identification later on, I'll refer to them as lower 1-3; #1 is the one in back, #2 is in the middle, and #3 is in the front.
Now then, got home and, in my excitement, commenced to test fitting them to my previously acquired uppers; an ArmaLite and DPMS.
All of them are exceptionally tight. It's nigh impossible to insert the pins without using a tool to tap them in. It gave me a bit of a nervous moment when I couldn't get them in at first. In fact I called Del-Ton about it, and was assured it was normal. And so all I needed was a bigger hammer, so to speak. A little careful manipulation and I got all of the lowers to mate to an upper. The tight fit is actually very nice, and not the reason for my post. I only mention it as a bit of backstory, guess, and to relate that the person I spoke to at Del-Ton was very nice and super quick in responding to my request.
Anyway, the primary issue concerns the outer dimensions of the lowers around the magwell. When attached to an upper, there is a noticeable "shelf" created by the lowers because they're all wider than the upper.
Take a look...
Lower #1:
http://spinr.smugmug.com/photos/312344879_EAYRN-M.jpgLower #2:
http://spinr.smugmug.com/photos/312344888_2uuRW-M.jpgLower #3:
http://spinr.smugmug.com/photos/312344896_KJu8v-M.jpgBy comparison, here's the same upper (ArmaLite) mounted to it's normal lower (Lauer/LMT):
http://spinr.smugmug.com/photos/312344910_9Aw3y-M.jpgLower #1 is the worst of the three, with #2 a very close second; #3 is the best of the bunch. Is this normal in any way, and is it common to have such a variance in similarly made lowers?
Aside from that, there are a couple of other abnormalities.
On lower #1, there is a groove in the ridge along the magwell:
http://spinr.smugmug.com/photos/312344884_pvtAY-M.jpgOn lower #2 is this peculiarity in the machining of the selector stops:
http://spinr.smugmug.com/photos/312344893_rh49N-M.jpg...as compared to those on lower #3:
http://spinr.smugmug.com/photos/312344899_DLAuU-M.jpgThe machining of the selector stops on lower #1 is somewhere in between those of #2 & #3, just not as sharp and defined as #3.
I'm inquiring about these matters because I'm still relatively new to the AR platform. I only acquired my first just over a year ago, and my second was a build I did back in January (the ArmaLite/Lauer gun). I do realize all of these issues are purely cosmetic and shouldn't affect function at all.
So, any thoughts?