Coil roll pin lower kits

Any you recommend more than others? I have used Anderson with the stainless trigger which was amazing for the price.

Explanation for new to AR folks: kits have all the little parts that go into an AR lower. Some come with spiral wound stainless coil roll pins instead of heavy wall split pins. Coil pins aren't milspec - it's a pretty low standard - and install more easily, while still doing the same job. You are much less likely to scratch the lower when simply pressing them in with a pair of vice grips with taped jaws, that banging away with a hammer and roll pin punch. It's a world of difference and allows you that one time photo of the finished firearm when it was all new before you wrapped a logging chain around it and dragged it down a gravel road to give it that combat patina.

Or so I'm told. ; )

Anyway, if you have a fav, link and thanx.

Aware of those who drill and/or tap with screws, my lower is not, and I am a lot more proficient squeezing a pair of vice grips to insert a roll pin. I never leave a hammer mark or have a pin skate across the finish. Ever. I have read dozens of posters online who do, and also break off ears. So many do that there are specialty trigger guards to cover it up. Why promote a technique which requires a high level of skill and experience to be used by someone inexperieced with firearms assembly at all? I'm thinking it's a contest of tool envy. My cheap Chinese vice grips vs a $30 set of punches?

Vice grips were the first method posted in the build it yourself thread in a large AR forum, and very few complain it doesn't work. Considering the consequences of operator error in using the tool, vice grips are user friendly, roll pin punches are a disaster waiting to happen. Keep in mind those punches in the armorer's tool kit are primarily there to work on servicing the unit machine guns. Roll pins on M16's rarely if ever need to be removed. and in either case, most of that work goes to depot, not in the company arms room.

I work on my own vehicles and do home remodeling, last project was installing a winch in a 05 F150. There is no available bolt on kit. I have learned there are textbook methods and there is also how you do it right, the first time. A pair of vice grips always fit whatever size the roll pin is, however long, and the progressive pressure prevents damage, unlike the hammer and punch method. I have read of owners who already damaged their lowers hammering even hardrer to get a balky split pin into a hole. If taking out the slide stop on a 1911 and leaving a mark is called an idiot scratch, why not the same scratches on an AR lower? Mine have none.

This is a firearms forum of knowledgeable people. Coil pins - as I suggested when I said I have used them before - are much easier to install, require less pressure, aren't prone to causing damage, and installing them with vice grips works. Especially the trigger guard ears which are particularly weak and frequently broken by errant hammer pounding.

So, coil roll pin kits that users have actually installed? Lets get past the sidelining and shilling.

I asked about coil roll pin kits, they are sold online, obviously many happy customers like me. There are alternate methods of installing roll pins and you don't need to endanger the finish if you don't have the skills.

Being an American, I get to do as I please building an AR, and if I can help others and prevent getting soaked by the system in the process, so much the better. This is what forums do best, communicate truths for the betterment of all. I learned this in a build it yourself forum on the largest AR site online over ten years ago, it works, and was recommended exactly because roll pin punches were pretty much unobtainium then. There is only one site in my metro that stocks them - the auto parts store I no longer work at. https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...2012-buick-verano?q=roll+pin+punch+set&pos=14 Made in the USA 31.99 and only one size in the set you can use. Vice grips are cheaper and safer. I own them, and most folks acquiring tools for around the house and auto repair would get a lot more usefulness and their money's worth with a pair, than a set of expensive punches with limited application.

I've replaced engines and transmission, brake jobs, water pumps, suspension work, and I'm finishing a DIY winch install. I have ONE tool box, with tools, not even on a rollaround, for the last 47 years. It's not what tools you own, it's what you can do with tools. Can I use something besides a punch, sure. A worn out drill bit works ok, pointy end into the pin, tap lightly, done. Don't throw out your old bits guys, they make tiny punches when you don't have one. Don't have a torque wrench for the barrel nut, why, you don't really NEED one, use an pair of 18" channel lock pliers. All you are trying to do is get the teeth on the nut lined up to insert the gas tube. Use your tools with imagination, you don't need to be the tool with a huge steptread roller sitting in your garage soaking up thousands of dollars you never get back. I have better things to do with my money, don't you?

Shop supers I've worked with have told me, the bigger the tool box, the bigger the tool. They size up a mechanic in inverse proportion to the size of his box. They go for the medium sized, well used with scuffs and dings, not too expensive and something you won't cry over if it tips. The guys who have huge showcase boxes aren't workers, they just stand around polishing their tool and spending their check on their Snap On Club membership.

It's a simple technical question, have you used a kit you like, what was it? Are there members who actually build AR's here?