How hard is it to build an upper? What parts?

[Johnny Diablo]

Upper recievers are not all tha bad in price at $125

I am guessing you buy

-upper receiver
-charging handle
-Barrel
-bolt
-Gas block and tube

Am I missing any parts?

I know it should all be assembled by a gunsmith but how hard is it to do yourself. I am not your normal or average bear.

[TZL]

ejection port cover if not included in upper

handguard or forearm

muzzle brake or flash hider

[JPN6336]

-Bolt Carrier
-Rear sight if A2 Upper

-vise
-upper receiver vise block
-barrel nut wrench
-torque wrench

[goober]

as long as barrel has extension already installed (which sets headspace) then assembling an upper is not really any harder than a lower. some specialized tools are called for, including an armorer's wrench and hopefully an action bock/vise, as well as a few punches and such. but putting it all together is not difficult for anyone w/ rudimentary mechanical skill, patience, and an ability to follw directions. tutorials and How-To's abound, including videos on YouTube and such.

[razorduc]

Sounds like your biggest challenge will be finding parts, not the build itself. I gave up after a couple months and picked up the BCM upper

[dchang0]

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=4&t=226782

Scroll down to the section on changing your barrel. It goes over all the steps needed to build your own upper.

[Richy]

The people that build uppers will lead you to believe that it's very difficult and expensive to do yourself.

It's not, it's simple, it's easy, and you don't need any fancy equipment to build a decent upper at all.

Me I don't build anything, that's what I pay people to do.

[dchang0]

Yup. Hardest part of building an upper IMO is lining up the front sight properly. Mine is apparently canted a bit to the left, so I had to crank my rear sights way over to compensate. It will be much harder without the right tools, too, so don't cheap out. Spend the money, and you can always sell the tools afterwards. Or borrow some!

[ThatFishGuy]

The only special tools i used was a DPMS armorers tool, and a punch to remove the pins from the front sight base, which you may or may not want to keep.
you basically just need to add a bolt carrier to your list and you have the bare essentials. maybe some lithium grease for the barrel nut. Its really not that difficult, just locate some good directions and you should be fine. the hardest part for me was installing the free-float tube...and that wasnt even very difficult. like someone else said, finding the parts right now will be the biggest endeavor, but parts are slowly becoming more available. good luck

[Josh3239]

I only build my uppers. It is super easy. But as others have said, the hardest part will be finding the parts nowadays.