Brief 5D Tactical 80% lower jig review

[BurnOut]

I'm not sure if this is the right sub-forum to post this, but here goes, anyhow...

Some time back, I purchased the 5D Tactical jig and a couple of their 80% AR15 lowers. I have been sitting on it for some time, trying to get the machinist at work to do whatever sorcery needed to be done to get the CNC machine set up to cut the lowers, but he just hasn't had the time to do it. The other day, I finally decided that I'd give it a shot using the 5D bits.

I'm sure that we're all familiar with the saying, "If you make something idiot proof, the world produces a bigger idiot"; generally, that's me they're talking about. When trying to make something idiot proof, after the kids at the Derek Zoolander School for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Want to Do Other Stuff Good Too can't mess it up, my phone rings and I find new, innovative ways to mess things up. Well, kudos to the folks at 5D Tactical, 'cause they came up with something that even I couldn't mess up to the point of breaking things or rendering the final product unusable. While far from perfect, my first completed 80% lower is absolutely usable, and externally you can't even tell that it isn't a factory piece (with the exception of missing roll marks and S/N, obvs).

So, I said all that to say this... if you're at all interested in doing the 80% thing, you owe it to yourself to give the 5D Tactical stuff a look.


Note: I am not affiliated with 5D Tactical (or any other company in the firearms industry, for that matter) in any way whatsoever; I just had a very positive experience with the product and wanted to let others know about it.

 

[deersniper]

Thanks for the review. Sounds like it might be usable for a non mechanically inclined person.

What else did you need besides the $200 jig? Do you need a vice/drill press etc ?

 

[oldfatguy]

Used a Broken Arms jig & tool kit to finish some 80% lowers. Their video is excellent. Yes a drill press is very good for the job.

OFG

 

[Drago6]

I've used the 5D with great success. After anodizing, my lowers were indistinguishable from factory. It's the only jig system I've used so no idea whether it is better/worse/etc than other options.

The pocket milling was extremely easy as long as you follow the directions (aka be patient). The only time I encountered a problem was drilling the selector holes on my first test lower. Went through the first side fine, drill seized up/stopped when i was about 85% through the hole on the opposite side and left things looking shitty, required fine grit sand paper and about an hour to undo the damage. Definitely make sure you have sufficient drill power/pressure so that it doesn't bind up.

Some things I found after doing ~8 lowers:
-Consistently lubricating the cutting area while milling the pocket didn't have any benefit over not doing it, but it did make all the chips/dust clump up which caused it to linger in the pocket rather than get sucked out by the vacuum
-Use high quality drill bits for the holes, first test one's i used some basic bits, several snapped and took awhile to drill, after that some premium/titanium bits and 100x better
-When drilling the holes I used a hand drill it worked fine, but a drill press would be vastly easier if you have one
-Get the $15 foot pedal from Amazon or wherever, allows you to firmly center the router and then turn on rather than having one hand on the router and trying to flip a switch
-I chose to wear a half face respirator, lots of very fine aluminum particles floating around that i'd rather not have in my lungs

 

[BurnOut]

@deersniper - I purchased not only the jig, but also router plate (required in order to get the jig plate mounted to my router), and the tool kit (including the Readymill adapter/insert and three drill bits).

As to the points that @Drago6 made:
- I admit to lubricating, with WD40, the pocket after every pass/depth adjustment; and as mentioned, it did make the chips clump. However, a quick blast with a nozzle on the compressed air hose cleared them out (but made a hell of a mess to clean up afterwards). That said, there wasn't much in the way of airborne dust.
- The quality of the drill bits is one reason why I purchased the tool kit from 5D; most of my drill bits have been abused in one way or another, and most of them weren't terribly high quality to begin with. I wanted a turn-key, no excuses setup to complete my 80% lowers, and that's what I got.
- On the one lower that I've completed, I drilled the initial hole (starter hole in the pocket) with a corded, 1/2" hand drill, and found that it took a fair amount of time, and more effort than I was expecting. As a result, I waited until I had access to a drill press (well, a mill, in my case) to drill the selector and trigger pin holes. I also took that opportunity to drill the starter hole in my other 80% lowers at the same time.
- The foot pedal... WHY DIDN'T I KNOW ABOUT THIS?? Seriously, though, it's a great idea... I developed a technique of holding the router with my right hand and bracing it with my left wrist while I reached up with my left hand to turn on the router, but a foot pedal would have made life a lot easier.

In summary, a person would need a bench vise (or some other similar method to secure the jig) and at least a hand drill in order to be able to use the 5D kit; access to a drill press/mill is certainly nice to have, but not required.