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Building Your Own AR-15 - Part 1 of 10- Tools

Posted by KAT on 23rd Apr 2015

America’s most popular sporting rifle sure has a big following. It has many advantages over other platforms. To start, anyone with basic mechanical skills can assemble one. There are of course some steps that require special tools but even without those tools you could assemble a functioning AR-15 rifle.

At a minimum you should have an AR-15 wrench and the required punches to effective assemble an AR-15. Standard flat face punches will work but a set of starter punches or punches that have a little button on the face to keep the punch from sliding off the pin and marking up your new upper. A strap wrench or a set of non-marking jaws are nice for tightening the barrel nut and muzzle device but an AR-15 wrench is preferred for tightening a barrel nut.

A torque wrench can make the difference between not enough and too much when installing the barrel nut and muzzle device. They also make various plastic and aluminum blocks to hold an upper receiver in a vise while you are tightening the barrel nut and muzzle device. the lower receiver has a block available to hold it as well.

A good set of screw drivers, pliers and a hammer will round out the basic tools.

A set of head space gauges should be part of your tool set as well but some folks never bother to head space their upper. We don’t recommend that but if your upper malfunctions and you haven’t checked the head space…

Next – Part 2 – The Upper Receiver