1st build help.

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O4L

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Seadog

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I went with a PSA stripped lower. I was going to go with a PSA upper as well, but like I said it was sold out because I took too long. Any recommendations on an upper? I was looking at the premium uppers. The CHF, double chromed lined, etc.
That’s a good choice. Like other members mentioned preassembled is a good way to go for someone new to this. Also the one you were going to pick that had the CHF barrel made by F&N is good stuff. Once you get your receiver it is pretty easy to assemble. Lots of good YouTube tutorials on it to help you out. I’m not picky on uppers. I think I got some stripped uppers from Primary Arms a month or two back. They were Anderson. They also had the upper parts kits. Was cheeper than most other places too. But then you would need to buy you the rest of the parts like barrel, bolt and carrier assembly, gas tube, barrel nut, hand guards, front sight gas block, Crush washer and muzzle attachment.

May just be easier for you to wait until PSA has complete upper parts kits in again. Or a complete parts kit depending on what you have ordered. Then you won’t have to worry about some of the specialty tools you will need.
 
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Butters

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Ordered a matching PSA upper, not the premium CHF though. Waiting for it and the parts kit to be delivered.
Any recommendations on loc tite, anti seize, and grease?
 

tRidiot

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There is a specific barrel nut grease you can get, it's nothing really special, though. I use blue Loctite on castle nut, maybe on gas block setscrews. Nothing special to it, though. I used to use Mobil One full synthetic for lube, now I generally just spray it with some Ballistol.
 

dlbleak

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Isn’t the recommended grease called Aeroshel or something like that?
I have some little tubes of it. Usually just a quick swipe with a qtip does the job
 

Seadog

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Ordered a matching PSA upper, not the premium CHF though. Waiting for it and the parts kit to be delivered.
Any recommendations on loc tite, anti seize, and grease?

Any high temp anti-seize for the barrel nut will work but you’re not gonna need much at all. You’re going to season the barrel nut and receiver together. The anti-seize is to prevent gauling in the threads and to make it easier to take the barrel nut off in the future for whatever reason Arises. Once assembled it is not common to take apart again. The main reason would be to change barrels. But if you bought a pre-assembled upper that has the barrel on already you’re not going to need any anti-seize.

You don’t need Loctite on anything on the upper. On the lower I can’t think of anything that you need Loctite for either. I guess you could use it on the castle nut but the proper way to do it is there is tiny little notches on the castle nut next to the receiver and you center punch the receiver into one of those notches to prevent it from backing off once it’s torqued to spec. I have one of those automatic center punches and it does a good job, then you just touch up the little circular indentation. The indentation that moves a tiny bit of metal and pushes it into the notch basically works as a tension lock on the castle nut to prevent it from backing up.

As for grease? I could be wrong but I can’t think of anything in an AR that requires grease. You just want a really good Oil. Like someone above mentioned above any good synthetic oil like a quart of Mobil One will last you forever. There used to be a rule of thumb, if it slides it gets oil, if it rotates it gets Grease. Even though the bolt rotates in the carrier it’s still just gets oil, other than that everything else is a drop or two in specific locations and then the excess spread or cleaned off with a Q-tip.

We had a member on here that went by the name of Nghthawk. He has since passed away some years back may he RIP. He was an old army armor. On one occasions talking with him he told me back in the day that the oil they used on the old M16s was just diesel oil.

If I am understanding you correct and you bought a completed barreled upper that comes with the lower parts kit for the lower receiver, then all you really need is the oil. If you want to stake the castle nut then you will need an automatic center punch or a prick punch and a hammer. Harbor freight has automatic center punches that are about five bucks. They will do the trick. Or you could use a little bit of Loctite like another member mentioned. The choice is yours but the prober way is torquing. If you torque the castle nut, it needs to be approximately 40 foot pounds give or take a few pounds.
 
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JR777

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This is what you need: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aeroshell-...338651?hash=item4b0d56c95b:g:GZkAAOSwFMRdV1bw

What it does is prevent galling, which will expose the bare aluminum and open up the possibility for something called galvanic corrosion to happen.

The reason you want that specific one is it contains molybdenum, whereas most ant seize grease uses graphite. Graphite is an electrolyte, so it can hasten galvanic corrosion.

Another reason to use Aeroshell is that the standard torque specs are derived using it. Using another type of grease will change the clamping force achieved by a given torque.

Will your rifle explode if you use something else? Probably not, but you do need to use something to protect the threads from galling, and that something can't contain graphite, which leaves moly grease as the only commonly available option. Yes, you can go down to the hardware store and buy an entire tube of some random moly grease for like 10 bucks, or take that same 10 bucks and order the little tube of Aeroshell off Ebay, and not have to drive to the hardware store, and have enough of the correct grease to build about 20 ARs.
 

SPDguns

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I'd be willing to be present for a build class and help with the do's and more importantly the don'ts. I can bring my tools. I recommend the clamshell upper receiver vise WITH the insert, I'm not a fan of the tool that fits in the barrel extension. It will only work with mil-spec uppers, it won't work with a lot of the high end uppers. I've never needed a lower vise block. You can make a front takedown pin detent tool, I can bring mine. As for the AR-10 platform, there is no "mil-spec" and dimensions and tolerances differ greatly within and between manufacturers. For instance- Armalite makes one lower that takes Magpul mags and another one that doesn't.
 

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