DIY Polymer lowers. Interesting...

[TFOGGER]

www.ar15mold.com

Basically, cast your own polymer lowers. The manufacturer of the kits claims that they are high strength, and accept milspec parts. They have a number of videos on Youtube showing the process and completed rifles.

Thoughts?

[Grant H.]

Interesting, but I've never been a fan of polymer lowers on AR's.

I've done a few aluminum 80% with the drill press and router jig, and they have come out just fine.

[ray1970]

[hahhah-no]

[thvigil11]

I'd use the mold to make assault rifle jello shots.

[68Charger]

I can see this process being useful for making other things, but forged 7075 lowers (80% or 100%) aren't expensive enough for this to make any sense- but to each their own. There's not even a significant weight savings- they use 6oz of resin- so even considering some doesn't go in, some becomes casting flash, etc... maybe 5.7Oz compared to 8.7Oz for a forged 7075 stripped lower

The process itself is interesting- i checked out their youtube videos...
I assume they're CNC milling cutting board material to make the mold, and I'd be curious about the tensile strength of the resin- properties could probably be improved with the addition of other materials, but then it probably wouldn't pour anymore (and would require injection molding)

[Irving]

Can you use the mold for melted aluminium beer cans instead?

[68Charger]

Can you use the mold for melted aluminium beer cans instead?

mold appears to be cutting board material... so you'd have to make molds out of a material that could withstand those temperatures, and you'd still have a bad alloy (beer cans are cheap alloy)

[TFOGGER]

I can see this process being useful for making other things, but forged 7075 lowers (80% or 100%) aren't expensive enough for this to make any sense- but to each their own. There's not even a significant weight savings- they use 6oz of resin- so even considering some doesn't go in, some becomes casting flash, etc... maybe 5.7Oz compared to 8.7Oz for a forged 7075 stripped lower

The process itself is interesting- i checked out their youtube videos...
I assume they're CNC milling cutting board material to make the mold, and I'd be curious about the tensile strength of the resin- properties could probably be improved with the addition of other materials, but then it probably wouldn't pour anymore (and would require injection molding)

Agreed, with stripped lowers at ~$50 or less, this doesn't make sense. However, remembering the panic prices of early 2013, this might be an alternative. I too am interested in the properties (Ductile and tensile strength, fatigue resistance, thermal properties, etc.), but they have videos online showing them putting 100 rounds or so through a rifle built on one of these lowers, and another one showing them running one over with an F150, then fitting a milspec upper to it, so I was somewhat intrigued by the concept.

[68Charger]

They did test for thermal properties, and drove a truck over a stripped lower...



Our Story

We designed and built our first version of the Freedom-15 mold product in early 2007.
By late 2012 we finally had what we considered was a great mold product and we moved into product field testing and validation. Our primary problem is that we are "perfectionist gun guys" and we tested, re-tested and continued to improve the product design.
In early 2013, we decided that we should mass-produce the mold product "in-house". Mass-production presented a host of challenges that took us time to solve.
Our final internal product torture test for one of our "home cast" Freedom-15 units consisted of:
• Heating the entire assembled AR15 weapon up to 165F and letting it sit at 165F for 8 hours.
• Removing the weapon (with gloves, installed loaded mag) and start firing the weapon for 480 rounds (16 mags, semi auto).
• As soon as the 480 rounds were fired....the weapon was put back into the 165F heat and we repeated the test for a second time (heat and firing).

[Great-Kazoo]

The perfect item for 22 uppers. IF a D gets elected (looking like it every day) You could be making them out of playdoh and there be a line out the door for them.
I'd rather see something geared towards magazines.

[blacklabel]

I don't mind polymer lowers as long as they have metal reinforcements. I don't think I'd trust this after reading how much effort goes into developing a well functioning polymer lower.