FAL Build

[bataanboy]

Hey folks, I finally took the plunge and bought an FAL kit. I believe it is an Imbel, in very nice shape. My predicament now is locating a receiver. Seems they are hard to come by. I've spoken to Harlan at Nodakspud and they are waiting for DCI to send them. Do you think this is a sign of things to come? I really don't want to spend more than $300 dollars on a receiver, but I will if I have to.

[Planning]

Hey folks, I finally took the plunge and bought an FAL kit. I believe it is an Imbel, in very nice shape. My predicament now is locating a receiver. Seems they are hard to come by. I've spoken to Harlan at Nodakspud and they are waiting for DCI to send them. Do you think this is a sign of things to come? I really don't want to spend more than $300 dollars on a receiver, but I will if I have to.

while you are waiting for a receiver ( may be a long wait) you should start looking for compliance parts.

i got most of my compliance parts from gunpartsguy.com. james is easy to work with. paul at gunthings.com can help also. you will need 7 u.s made parts for compliance.
good luck

harlan has already shipped the first 300 receivers and it is going to be a while on the next 300, the waiting list was over 1000 and many have ordered more than 1 receiver. i think his last price was $250

entreprise arms will start shipping receivers sometime this month, they also have a large backlog list. $239, but there price is suppose to go up this week. update: new price $299.99

DSA, has a large waiting list also. i think if you are a fals site member the receivers are $350.

the last imbel receivers i have seen are going for over $500 this week.

century has a large waiting list and they have raised there price to $299.99

good luck............

there are a couple of guys that will barrel and headspace for a small amount, sledgehammer and ken kuben. (ken has 7 of mine now and i will be sending him another batch later. 8-10 weeks to get them back, so don't get in a hurry.) i don't know what time it takes for sledgehammer, big54r has a fal at sledgehammer now, pm him for his information.
there are a few more if you want complete builds, mark at gunplumber is one of the best at complete fal builds.

if you want to build it yourself, there is a lot of information out there on the internet to help and a few guys here that will/can help.

[bataanboy]

Thanks for the advice. I'm trying to do this deal on a budget but may get pushed into a corner with receiver prices going up like gas prices! I don't really have a firm timetable but would like to hunt deer with an FAL in November. I thought I would try to do the whole build myself and maybe ask for help with the headspace issue as I don't have pin gauges or the go-nogo gauges required to do it right. Once I have the receiver assembled I figured I'd have to strip the whole assembly for some type of coating or finishing, and would work on the rest of the compliance issues as I reassemble.

[Planning]

Thanks for the advice. I'm trying to do this deal on a budget but may get pushed into a corner with receiver prices going up like gas prices! I don't really have a firm timetable but would like to hunt deer with an FAL in November. I thought I would try to do the whole build myself and maybe ask for help with the headspace issue as I don't have pin gauges or the go-nogo gauges required to do it right. Once I have the receiver assembled I figured I'd have to strip the whole assembly for some type of coating or finishing, and would work on the rest of the compliance issues as I reassemble.

if you wait to try to locate the compliance parts as you rebuilding it will take awhile, some of the compliance parts are in short supply and take a while to get. i started looking in feb. and got my last compliance parts on friday last week (3 months to get everything).

i got my flash hider from mark at gunplumber and they look like the imbel orginals and have us stamped on them.

[bataanboy]

OOOH, I hadn't thought that far ahead. Sage advice Planning. Thanks

[Player]

pidaster helped me get my DCI receiver earlier for around 250, my para should be complete soon, the para stock and receiver is en route.

but i also put myself on the list, so it should reach me before it does you, and if the day comes where i can order a receiver, i will post it here to see if anyone wants to get one under my name. but i think it's REALLY going to be a while.

[bataanboy]

Henry, this is just the story of my life. My Mother always said patience was a virtue, and the last week has brought this to light. I'm always the last guy in line. But, I'll be smiling! I'll make sure to watch for your post when DCI finally comes through.

[Planning]

Henry, this is just the story of my life. My Mother always said patience was a virtue, and the last week has brought this to light. I'm always the last guy in line. But, I'll be smiling! I'll make sure to watch for your post when DCI finally comes through.

when you find yourself last in line...........start another line.......:icon_lol:

[okie shooter]

century has a large waiting list and they have raised there price to $299.99

I remember not too long ago(three or four years ago), that century built guns were wholesaleing for less than a hundred more than that price, thus century was selling them for even less than that to wholesalers. Who whould have thought. :)

[Bulletboy]

The only part you should have any trouble finding is the receiver. Virtually every other part you can think of can be found at gunthings.com, or at gunpartsguy.com. There are also a lot of other fine places to get some of the parts you will need, but those places are basically a 2-shop-stop to build your FAL. I used them almost exclusively to build my most recent one. Also, the go/no go gauges and feeler pins can be bought as a set from gunthings, for about 40 bucks, and I got my receiver wrench from Centerfire for about that price as well.

[Planning]

The only part you should have any trouble finding is the receiver. Virtually every other part you can think of can be found at gunthings.com, or at gunpartsguy.com. There are also a lot of other fine places to get some of the parts you will need, but those places are basically a 2-shop-stop to build your FAL. I used them almost exclusively to build my most recent one. Also, the go/no go gauges and feeler pins can be bought as a set from gunthings, for about 40 bucks, and I got my receiver wrench from Centerfire for about that price as well.

the FALCON fcg have been out of stock for a while ( i finally got mine on friday), the other stuff is in and out of stock , there has been a small rush lately to build fals, thus the supply of parts liminted sometimes. good luck.....

[Bulletboy]

the FALCON fcg have been out of stock for a while ( i finally got mine on friday), the other stuff is in and out of stock , there has been a small rush lately to build fals, thus the supply of parts liminted sometimes. good luck.....

Yup, I can understand that for sure. The parts kits are getting more expensive and harder to find too. My kit was given to me by a friend who didnt know what it was. It took me two years to get started on it because of the receiver shortage. I didnt buy one when I first got the kit because I had no way of knowing that they were gonna disappear. Thats exactly why I bought my cetme kit. Suddenly they were much harder to find. I couldnt find a G3 kit at all. Anyway, this is the way it goes, so if you have a chance to pick something up, do it. You snooze, you lose! :)

[bataanboy]

I'm not snoozing this time. I joined the FAL files group to get info and additional input. Seems DSA gives discounts to members and the wait does'nt seem terrible either. Seems to be a quality product and it may be available first. I'd better get on their wait list ASAP.

[Bulletboy]

Another thing you can do while you wait on the receiver is to get your kit ready, for example take off the old receiver stub, clean/degrease the parts, and so on. Something that may help you out quite a bit is the Gunplumber FAL videos. You can get the AGI as well, but I liked the Gunplumber ones better. You can rent em at smartflix.com fairly cheaply which is great because I bought mine back before smarflix had em and it cost about 80 bucks with shipping and everything.

[bataanboy]

Thanks Bulletboy, I also need to work on getting tooling together. I have a friend working at a machine shop who can help me out in that department. I'll start getting my list of compliance parts together also.

[bataanboy]

I ordered a receiver from DSA today(actually a friend with an ffl did). Glad I did because their website now lists them at $449. With an FAL File Forum membership you get them for $350. Said they could deliver in 4-6 weeks. If you have a build you are sitting on, nows the time to get receivers because they are in short supply. Thanks so much for all your input guys.

[Seattlefungus]

The Century FAL receiver being sold now is the L1A1, Inch pattern. The best bet for a quality Metric or Inch pattern FAL build is DSA. A lot of smiths will not touch a Century or an Entreprise receivers. (Just FYI.). As a company, I've bought parts from all three of them, no complaints. On the receiver wrench, check out www.gunthings.com (http://www.gunthings.com). They have on line patterns to make a lot of the tools for your build, and they sell them too. Good company. Bought from them more that once. Centerfire is all out of the receiver wrenches. For quality parts also check out the parts guy at www.gunpartsguy.com (http://www.gunpartsguy.com). His parts cost a little more (In some cases), but they are like new and he backs his parts and work. I had him park a kit and it looks like a new rifle.

[cavetech]

I just ordered two DS Arms type I receivers with cuts for the carry handle. 60 days until they are available.

[bataanboy]

Hey all! A friend who works in a machineshop just dropped off my tooling(barrel vise and receiver wrench) made from the patterns at Gunpartsguys' site. Waiting for my DSA receiver. It's only been a month but I'm getting itchy!

[Seattlefungus]

I just got my tracking number from DSA!!:2pistol::bash: