Building a Glock for fun - Ron's Frankenglock

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Let's call this an exercise in curiosity.

This website has a coupon (VETERANS) right now for well, everything it looks like. My curiosity is getting the best of me, and I think I would like to build a frankenglock from an 80% lower. But as usual, I have questions.

1. Is it worth my time?
2. Should I just kit out the whole lower with sweet parts, then buy a used slide?
3. Is it just better to shoot the works?
4. Would it be cheaper to just buy a Glock 19x and throw my Vortex Viper on it?

Anyhow, I know people on here have done it so, impart some knowledge (please?)

Edited to add: I bought a complete 3rd gen g-17 lower from a member. I'd rather support this community. Anyway I change the title to Ron's Frankenglock. This is going to be my little Christmas present to me
....
 
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I started to build one - it sits in the safe collecting dust. While I was trying to decide parts a customer bought a Canik TP9sfx and I realized that's the gun I was trying to build, has the great trigger, Warren sights, optic cut, oversized slide release, swappable mag release buttons. In the end it would have cost twice as much to build the P80 out the way I wanted.
 
I think that building an %80 is fun for those who really enjoy tinkering and enjoy the process/challenging of a DIY project. But as stated above, you could put that money towards a gun that you can get more bang for your buck right out of the box.
 
I think we should discuss LESS OPENLY about this subject so as to draw less unwanted attention to it.......JMO

Yeah that cat has been out of the bag for a long time now. They know.

 
I live in Georgia; it's legal by federal and state law to complete 80% firearms into complete firearms for personal use.

That being said, I had a Steiner .22 upper sitting around that I'd occasionally drop onto one of my 17s. I finished out a P80 lower for it, and now I have a .22 caliber FrankEnGlock. It's a fun gun to shoot. The biggest difference of course is the feel of the grip. It feels a lot like my G17 LoneWolf frame, it's somehow "blockier", then my Glock Gen4 G17 frames.

If you like tinkering, and you'd like to have an unserialized firearm, (yeah, it's got a plate that you can serialize), or you just like the feel of the frame - I'd buy one. Or two. Or maybe more.
 
Here's a current and ongoing thread about it:


Seems like there can be issues, just like anything else I suppose. If you're mechanically inclined, patient, and have the time and money, go for it. I'm only mechanically inclined or I would start one. If I did so now, it would be like BEL's build - sitting in a safe collecting dust (and taking up valuable safe real estate!)
 
I think I may just look for a completed lower and then go from there....
And that's what I am doing. One of the members here was selling a complete 3 gen G17 lower for less than it would cost me to build one.

I want to do an upper that has an optics cut (I have a Vortex Venom sitting in the safe that needs to be used). This is going to be a range toy (not carry, that's the G48 once the sights are fine tuned on it).
 
The latest gen P80 kits actually have a decent (for in the box) trigger. Mine came with two shoes as well, flat and curved. In fact, there's little to swap out unless you want to go RMR or build a complete race gun. I'd save the money on internal parts kits until after testing out the stock kit. You may be pleasantly surprised by how acceptable the stock parts are. The P80 lower kits were on sale recent for $90 for the compact, which is fantastic.

Found these cheap RMR ready USA made slides recently as well. Never heard of the brand, but I'm going to test them out with a cheap RMR (Swampfox). Kicking myself for not buying in Oct when they were $159. for the slide only.

 
The latest gen P80 kits actually have a decent (for in the box) trigger. Mine came with two shoes as well, flat and curved. In fact, there's little to swap out unless you want to go RMR or build a complete race gun. I'd save the money on internal parts kits until after testing out the stock kit. You may be pleasantly surprised by how acceptable the stock parts are. The P80 lower kits were on sale recent for $90 for the compact, which is fantastic.

Found these cheap RMR ready USA made slides recently as well. Never heard of the brand, but I'm going to test them out with a cheap RMR (Swampfox). Kicking myself for not buying in Oct when they were $159. for the slide only.

Here is my issue. Is "RMR Slidecut" specific to Trijicon RMR sights? Can they be used with a Vortex Venom?

I know I want to put a match barely in it, I know I want to utilize the Vortex site I have, everything else, I'm up in the air at this point.

Right now, I'll wait until the lower comes in and see if I want to change anything in that, while researching what to do with the upper....
 
Here is my issue. Is "RMR Slidecut" specific to Trijicon RMR sights? Can they be used with a Vortex Venom?

I know I want to put a match barely in it, I know I want to utilize the Vortex site I have, everything else, I'm up in the air at this point.

Right now, I'll wait until the lower comes in and see if I want to change anything in that, while researching what to do with the upper....

I do think the slides in my link are Trijicon RMR. Sorry--missed the Vortex part.
 
I do think the slides in my link are Trijicon RMR. Sorry--missed the Vortex part.
No problem, just found that Holosun uses same mount protocol as the Trijicon. Maybe I'll do something different. Seems like I could probably use money saved on a different sight, and leave the vortex I bought for my Ruger MK4 alone....it also opens more options honestly.

But then, with the discount code this is not expensive

 
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ron, please say this won't end up in the classifieds in a few months as a custom glock. this is a sample of my biting wit for those that don't know. and oh, please custom stipple the frame.
 
ron, please say this won't end up in the classifieds in a few months as a custom glock. this is a sample of my biting wit for those that don't know. and oh, please custom stipple the frame.
Ha! No. Not selling, this is going to be the fun gun. The only pistol I have that I would consider selling is the Taurus, but it's so easy to conceal.

No custom stipple. I would f*** that shit up in a heart beat....
 
Here is my issue. Is "RMR Slidecut" specific to Trijicon RMR sights? Can they be used with a Vortex Venom?

I know I want to put a match barely in it, I know I want to utilize the Vortex site I have, everything else, I'm up in the air at this point.

Right now, I'll wait until the lower comes in and see if I want to change anything in that, while researching what to do with the upper....

Depends - my Leupold DPP had a different footprint than my SRO, which was different from my Vortex Venom. Some sights do share a common plate though. That’s why I like the Glock MOS system - it has done its own generic milling up front and made mounting plates for the most common RDSs.

So, with a red dot, do you need suppressor height sights for cowitness??

Yes, at least on my Gen5 MOS. That said, some RDSs have an iron sight on the unit itself, which makes it easier to pick up a sight line if your RDS fails.
 
Let's call this an exercise in curiosity.

This website has a coupon (VETERANS) right now for well, everything it looks like. My curiosity is getting the best of me, and I think I would like to build a frankenglock from an 80% lower. But as usual, I have questions.

1. Is it worth my time?
2. Should I just kit out the whole lower with sweet parts, then buy a used slide?
3. Is it just better to shoot the works?
4. Would it be cheaper to just buy a Glock 19x and throw my Vortex Viper on it?

Anyhow, I know people on here have done it so, impart some knowledge (please?)

Edited to add: I bought a complete 3rd gen g-17 lower from a member. I'd rather support this community. Anyway I change the title to Ron's Frankenglock. This is going to be my little Christmas present to me
....

It's never worth it if your goal is just to get a working gun, especially when brand new glocks aren't really that expensive. Used ones with low miles probably not far from
building one. Possibly even cheaper unless you're using junk. (and there are a lot of junk 3rd party glock parts out there. )

There's also the time cost of "what if it doesn't work". I can take a not working glock that otherwise looks OK and send it to glock and get it back working for short money. With a P80 unless you have some talented people on speed dial, you might have a pile of unfixable crap.

On the other hand, It's always worth it if you're trying to legally avoid 4473 paper trails etc (eg, because red dawn, etc) That's the only reason these things even make any sense.

-Mike
 
Well, me and bourbon don't mix well when I want something. Everything is ordered except for a barrel and magazines.

Make that just barrel.

Choices are:

Wilson Combat. $149.95 regular/$259.95 threaded

Brownells. $129.99 regular/$134.99 threaded

Storm Lake. $118 regular/$179.49 threaded

Wheaton Arms. $179.99 regular/$189.99 threaded

KKM Precision. $165 regular

GGP. $179.99 regular/$189.99 threaded

Blacklist Industry. $219.99 regular/$229.99

Suggestions? I know I've missed a bit. This may be a suppressor host, so I'm going to want threaded. The upper I got is milled and would show off fluted barrels nicely....
 
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Well, me and bourbon don't mix well when I want something. Everything is ordered except for a barrel and magazines.

Make that just barrel.

Choices are:

Wilson Combat. $149.95 regular/$259.95 threaded

Brownells. $129.99 regular/$134.99 threaded

Storm Lake. $118 regular/$179.49 threaded

Wheaton Arms. $179.99 regular/$189.99 threaded

KKM Precision. $165 regular

GGP. $179.99 regular/$189.99 threaded

Blacklist Industry. $219.99 regular/$229.99

Suggestions? I know I've missed a bit. This may be a suppressor host, so I'm going to want threaded. The upper I got is milled and would show off fluted barrels nicely....


I don’t know if the link will work but I used a Swenson slide and barrel. Here is the link to the slide I got it for $89.95 on sale from Midway.

$49.95 for lower parts kit
$79.95 for the P80 on sale last February also from Midway

It runs great I love shooting it
 
Optic comes in tomorrow....

What did you go with?

Also, after 300BLK and 308 builds, I’m sure it’s much cheaper to buy a preassembled version! But it’s fun and satisfying to build your own gadget. People I used to work with couldn’t understand why I made my dining room table or my home office desk.
 
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