Polymer Ar Lower Repair

kingmt01

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I know nothing about epoxies or plastic for that matter.

I have a polymer lower that my son tried to drive the take down pin out of & broke the side of the detent hole. There is no pieces broken all the way out but it's cracked pretty bad. Is there anything I could out in it that would weld it back together? I've done some electric heat welding in many plastics but I don't know what this plastic is to know if it will weld with ether heart or chemicals.
 
Disclaimer ... I'm not a gunsmith (or a polymer chemist), and whatever you do is at your own risk. All I can offer is some general guidelines, based on what I've learned about plastics over the years, and a suggestion for a possible approach. Your best bet would be to start by consulting a gunsmith.

First, the bad news ...
The polymer lower is a thermosetting plastic, which means it can't be melted (welded) back together. If it were (as would be true of a thermoplastic material), the lower might fail (melt) under the heat of intense firing. Heating a thermoset will not do much of anything, until the temperature gets high enough to destroy the polymer. Nor is this the kind of plastic that can be solvent welded. The material used for the lower was chosen to be very inert to all kinds of chemicals, else it'd be vulnerable to cleaning solvents.

The only alternative would be an adhesive, but I worry about anything commercially available being strong enough to withstand the stress of firing the rifle.

None of the epoxies or "plastic welders" (such as methacrylate-type adhesives) are liquid enough to seep into the cracks you mention. They need to be applied to the mating surfaces of (separate) broken parts. Super glue might seep in, but it's major weakness is not being able to withstand shock loads (ie, firing).

Finally, it's more than likely that the plastic of the lower is "filled" with something like glass fibers. These fibers produce added strength. All the fibers originally running across a crack are now broken, so an adhesive repair of the crack will be weaker than the original.

That said, you or your gunsmith don't have much to lose by trying to make whatever repairs you can. A suggested approach: fully break out the cracked pieces, apply something like JB Weld to the "mating" surfaces, then drill the excess JB out of the hole once it's well set. But don't be too surprised if the repair fails.

PS - Just out of curiosity, is this the Bushmaster "Carbon 15"?
 
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Thanks for the detailed answer. This is a noncritical part. It's very thin & I'm pretty sure I'll only get one shot at fixing it if it even can be. If there was more meat to it I'd just drilled it out & stuck a tube down in it.

I have a bad feeling about SuperGlue. It just doesn't fell like something that will glue with it. I have the same feeling about JB but I might give them a try unless someone suggest something better. If it was a critical part I'd just trash it & do a 80% lower. If it can be fixed I'll let my son use it as a brush gun.
 
the problem that you are going to encounter is shock vibration.
every time the ar goes bang, the whole lower flexes.
the broken parts may/will move in different directions creating more opportunity for splitting or ejecting surface applied adhesives or epoxies.

if you gotta,
i'd consider 3M scotch weld 2214 or JB weld if no availability of the 3m
for best results, clean the area with alcohol and rough up the surface if possible.
if you can drill a small hole at the end of the crack(s) that will prevent further cracking in that line.

best of luck
 
I'd go with the 80% in aluminum. Fun project to boot.
 
Plastic lowers, especially 80% versions, are dirt cheap. If you have a single doubt about the ease or integrity of a repair, just replace the receiver. How much of your time and thought is $30-$40 worth?
 
I make less then $15 an hour & drive 3 hours a day to make it plus it'd save me the trouble of getting another & the time of finishing the new one so I guess a few hours wouldn't be out of line. I doubt I put that much time in it tho. I may put 30 or so minutes in it.
 
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