New to building an AR

[KnotRight]

Last night I was at a party and a friend asked some advice about building ARs. He has been buying lowers and uppers when they are on sale but want to build one/few from scratch.

My advice to him was buy all the small parts that goes into a build that he could find. If he is planning on building 3, buy enough to build 5 or 6. For some reason those springs and detents seems to disappear or a friend might need some part to complete a build and forget to replace the one that he borrowed. I am out 2 hammers.

Also, try to buy all the tools that make putting together the gun from the start easier unless you have a friend where you can go to his place and do the build.

Then start buying the bigger parts that are not easy to lost and usually cost over $4.00.

 

[JT]

buy all the small parts

buy all the tools

Would you be willing to suggest/review/rate the better of these here?
Also, you might want to touch on blocks, jigs, and80% lowers as recommendations.
Thanks! I've learned a lot in the process, but there's much more I'd like to know.

 

[Get Off My Lawn]

I prefer this over any receiver clamp, Especially if you are working on a billet receiver.
https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-...ion-torque-tool-sku080000637-27452-53686.aspx

 

[NKD]

I have a couple “oops” kits laying around that have extra springs and detents and whatnot. I’ve gone to those little baggies many times for friends and for my own ARs.

 

[Ikarus1]

I've never bought an oops kit but over the course of 5 years and a dozen builds I've accumulated enough spare springs and small parts to have plenty of spare. PSA was sending me an extra part or 2 in every kit I bought for a while in 2016. I also bought spare LPKs when they were cheap around $25 (without FCG) and stuff kinda accumulates.

That being said a lower build kit from PSA is still probably the fastest and cheapest way to get a complete rifle if you have an upper. I've only built 3 uppers from scratch mainly because I wanted a specific barrel