Home Brew: Working With 80-Percent Build Kits for Homemade Blasters

Long before our President tried to shake hands with a ghost or the even more stupefied task of trying to ban 80-percent build kits, I thought Congress was the only one able to pass useless laws. Banning these 80-percent home projects under the guise to keep guns out of criminal hands is laughable. Most criminals are creatures of opportunity, and most would not be willing to spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars for tools and parts when they can buy an illegal firearm for half the cost. But I digress, and it’s time to focus.

80-Percent Build Kits

I got tired of the writers having all the fun and wanted to build my own handguns: Glock 19 clones. I thought it would be cool to do two different builds from two different companies to see the differences. My goal was to use parts from each company to build a complete handgun, with only the sights coming from a different manufacturer. I used Trijicon handgun sights for both builds, along with its sight tool. I also used several Real Avid Glock tools that I found extremely helpful.

Next, I reached out to Lone Wolf for its Freedom Wolf (80% lower), ordered that part and then separately ordered other parts from them to complete the build. Simply “add to cart,” and you’re off and running. From Polymer80 I ordered the PF40C separately, and then order other parts to complete the build as well. I was going for both builds as a basic Glock 19 clone.

How Long to Build?

For my first time building handguns, I learned a lot and ran into issues on both builds. You can read about them and my solutions in an upcoming issue of Combat Handguns. It has been repeated several times in the news that an 80-percent build kit allows you to have a working firearm within 30 minutes with no to little experience. That’s a complete farce.

Our test pistols took much longer to build than the ridiculous claim of 30 minutes.

So, assuming you run into no issues and have all the tools you need on hand, it takes about 30 minutes to an hour of work on the frames to bring them to what the ATF considers a firearm. An additional 72 hours is needed for the Freedom Wolf so that the epoxy can cure. Then it takes an additional 30 minutes to an hour of assembling everything–again if you don’t run into any issues. And then there is test fire to work out any kinks or issues that might pop up. Just because you didn’t have issues assembling the gun, doesn’t mean you won’t run into any during firing.

Reader Suggestions

Check out the article in Combat Handguns to learn more about the builds, issues, solutions and more. With that said, I would like to take both builds beyond their basic configurations and would like your input.

Two 9mm pistols built using 80-percent build kits.

What’s your MUST HAVE Glock aftermarket part? Which of the two would you like to see be built in a “Practical Tactical” or “Nah brah, Gucci that gat up” fashion? What do you use: 80 lower jigs, mil spec parts, which 80 lower receiver, parts kits? Has anyone ventured into rifle kits? Sound off, let us know how you take on your favorite build.

For product info, check out polymer80.com and lonewolfdist.com. To get a copy of Combat Handguns for the full story on 80-percent build kits, visit OutdoorGroupStore.com.