EP Armory poly lower?

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meistermash

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Freinds, anyone try out EP Armorys 80% poly lowers?
They were on sale a while back for $19.99.
I figured I had to for that sort of change.

Thinking on building a light weight carbine.
 
My very first attempt at an 80% was an EP. Fond memories. This was before any jig was known to exist. They gave you a pack of stickers you stuck on and cut to the line. Good times. Except it didn't really work.

This is my opinion. It is a straight up copy of an aluminum lower. No attempt was made to adapt areas where plastic may not be strong enough. The plastic they use seems more brittle than others. I seem to remember it chipping on the edges a little.

My intent was to make it a .22LR rifle. It would have stood up to that. I don't think the buffer tube area is strong enough for center fire rounds. In the early days of these, a lot of them broke pretty quickly at the buffer tube.

For fun, not a bad lower to build for experience. My lower ended up being cut up and discarded because I didn't think it was safe to be out there and have someone try it with a center fire round.
 
Well, these are supposed to be filled plastic what ever that means.
I do have a few of those the atf made them stop making with a off colored plug in the fcg area. (You wittle until the color is gone)
Those I can see have no reinforcement filler type stuff.

Like you, I thought to build a 22 with them.
I never got around to it and I kept them as a novelty.
Lime green and pink.

I should build one of the new ones, try to break it just for shitsngiggles.
 
I don't recall if mine was the plug type. It did seem to have fibers in it when you cut into the real color.

James Madison, P80, and one other I can't remember seem to better molded and better plastic.

I did finally make a .22LR and used a JMT lower. It is a lot stronger but I still don't trust the buffer tube with center fire. That's just me, others have used them and they were fine.
 
Ahh thanks.
Might not even cut into one.
 
they are rigid an tend to tear out on the walls if you are not careful I had two that was the case on one and the other had bad buffer threads had to carefully basically rethread it with the buffer tube. Better to check that before you mill to keep some rigidity if that happens . Otherwise I just had one sitting around that I milled a long time ago and used recently for a dedicated .22 build and it is stupid light.
 
no issues so far with the one i've milled out and use as a multi-cal tester. I also been using it to test some mag lock prototypes (cause I'm in Commiefornia), easier to drill and remove material when needed.
obviously not the GTW option when others are available, but insane value for building. and all the other Gucci parts you want will work.
 
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Well I finally got around to routering one out.
It cut really well.
Going to make a light weight build.
Got a 16" pencil barrel coming.
16" mid gas nitrated. The smaller journal so I can trim down a front site block and have a poky thinger mount.
 
It didn't happen without Pictures.
 
Has anyone ever tried a “Genesis” 80% polymer lower? They had a brass insert for the buffer tube. I don’t believe that they have been in business for a while.
 
I've tried as many poly lowers for the AR platform as I could find. I've found 1 that took some abuse without breaking. The JMT (James Madison Tactical) lowers supposedly, used the same or a similar polymer that Glock uses. It's been a long time since I've seen any for sale though.
 
Here's an EP Amory lower.
22lr with around 2000 rounds through it.
20250326_141826.jpg
 
serger said:
It didn't happen without Pictures.
Click to expand...
I'll get you some later.
All I lack is drilling the taper pin holes for the front site.
I didn't have my non chynerman drill bits handy and had to run home for those.
And that means I said effit and stretched out in the chair.
 
Also havent pinned the gas block, put in the gas tube or a muzzle device yet.
 
meistermash said:
Last pic you can see a void under the safety dealeo.
Click to expand...
Is it a void, or did it chip away when you drilled the selector hole?
I've run into that problem with polymer lowers, both EP and Polymer80 lowers, chipping away, because its so thin there where the spring hole is and not being able to hold the detent.

I solved it by drilling the selector hole before milling.
 

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