The BUILDERS SQUAD
by dropdbombnow
So what exactly is the "Builders Squad"?
It was a cold and rainy night (at least it was cold and rainy where I was) in late November of 2001 when one of the "regulars" over on ar15.com posted a message on the BIY (Build It Yourself) Forum proposing that a group of ten members might possibly pool their resources to buy one of the OSI drilling jig fixtures (which is used to help complete the 80% lower castings) and pass the jig around amongst the members of the group.
posted by: XX-Xxxxxxx
11/26/2001 4:30:18 PM
I was thinking about getting a group of say 10 guys together to go in on a complete OSI jig...
Here's the idea; Everyone pitches in $25 bucks. The only commitment is to deliver to the next man in line. Alphabetically. When the jig has made its way around the group we do a lottery on the board with a moderator and gift it out to one of the members.
No hassles, keep it simple. Whatya Think?
This sounded like a great idea and within 24 hours seven of the ten slots for the "group buy" deal had been filled. Within three days there were firm commitments for all ten positions and the "deal" was underway. It probably needs to be said here that, to my knowledge, none of the ten members of the group had ever met one another personally, and except for having read and traded messages, through the BIY forum, knew almost nothing whatsoever about each other. The ten covered a broad spectrum of experience level in working on the AR from "some experience" all the way up through "built dozens of 'em".
The original poster was from Arizona, and his original intent was to find nine other guys, who were also from Arizona, to share the jig. The final membership roster however, ended up reflecting an entirely different picture. The ten squad members ended up coming from across the depth and breadth of the nation with each representing a separate state.
The map illustrates, far better than could words, the jigs travel around the country. By the time that the jig reaches the last member of the Squad, it will have logged in excess of 13,000 "frequent flyer" miles of travel. (It's a really loooong way to Alaska and back to the lower 48!)
The jig package (at about 18 pounds in weight) has traveled mostly by UPS (insured for the full replacement value of all its components), and as a testament to the sturdiness of the jig itself, even UPS has, thus far, not been able to break it!
The next three or four weeks were a blur of forum postings and e-mails between the members. Checks and Money Orders for the cost of the jig were collected and the order for the jig was placed with OSI. A "head count" of the members "needs", as far as the number of 80% castings, was taken and a deal was cut with William at the Tanneryshop for a "group buy" of thirty-four raw castings. Several of the members came up with similar "group buy" bargains on other required items such as lower parts kits, butt-stocks, barrels, and upper receivers.
The order placed with OSI was for his newest jig model, the so-called "Super Jig", which had just then gone into production. We ordered the jig complete with the set of drill bits, including the big 1-1/8" bit for the buffer tube hole (one of the squad members already had the "monster" 1-3/16"x16 tap for the buffer tube). OSI was encountering some snags in production of the new jigs, and our jig package was not actually shipped out to the first man until late December. I wish that I could say that this was the end of any glitch in the story, but it wasn't.
As I mentioned earlier none of the ten members of the Squad had ever actually "met" one another and knew absolutely nothing about each other. Turns out that the group was really a bunch of great guys. Honest, hard working, willing to contribute to the group, to share ideas, give encouragement, and so on. You know the type. Just a bunch of super people. With one small exception!
I guess there's some law, written down somewhere, requiring that in any group of anything, there "has" to be at least one bad egg. Well sure enough, we ended up with one bad egg in our group. And naturally, as the odds always seem to favor the bad egg, ours just happened to be the first guy on the list. The jig was shipped to him from OSI in late December and he received it the first week of January. The original agreement was that each man was to keep the jig for seven days (one full week) and then was to ship it on to the next man on the eighth day. If a man had completed the work on all of his castings in that week, fine. If not, well we figured the jig would make at least two trips "around the horn", so if someone didn't get all of his castings done in the allotted week, he could finish up the others on the second loop. Everyone in the group agreed to this schedule.
We're not using any names here, but the first guy on the list was a "small time" parts "dealer", who had been doing a lot of business over on ar15.com, and who had come up with some "good deals" for the group in the way of upper assemblies and butt-stocks. Well, to make a long story even longer, parts were ordered from the guy, money was sent his way, and credit cards were charged for the parts. Time went by and no parts were received. Inquires into shipment of the parts got responses of "back ordered" or "will be shipped tomorrow" or "was shipped last week" or "must be lost in the mail". You know the story. More time went by and still no parts. No word either on how he was coming with the use of the jig in completing his lowers. In short, no parts, no word, no jig, no nothing. Then it got worse.
First e-mails begin to go unanswered. Then e-mails started bouncing. All the Squad members had each others mailing addresses and phone numbers, but phone calls to #1 only got a "this number is no longer in service" message. It was like the guy had disappeared. Needless to say, some of the guys were beginning to have grave misgivings about the entire deal. Consulting with lawyers was mentioned. Phone calls were made to police departments and district attorneys offices. Postal Inspectors were contacted.
Then, out of the blue, one day in early March (after having had the jig for almost two full months), #1 sends an e-mail to everyone saying that he is finally finished with the jig and is shipping it on to the second man. In all fairness, I think that everyone did eventually end up either getting their parts or getting all of their money back, but just the same, there were a lot of hard feelings all around.
The story, however, doesn't end here.
As I noted earlier, the squad membership covered a broad spectrum of experience in working on the AR as well as in building one from an 80% casting. One of the members had actually built his own drilling jig at one time (out of wood, if you can imagine! He named it the "ARK"), but no one in the group had ever before used an OSI jig. Turns out that the first guy on the list not only had an experience level of absolute "zero", but he also had damned near "zero" in the way of tooling or shop equipment. He didn't even own a drill press. He had attempted to use the jig with a hand held 3/8" electric drill and, in the process, damned near ruined the jig for everybody else. (More about the damage to the jig and how it was repaired later on.)
Anyway, once the jig had cleared the hurdles thrown up by #1, the pace picked up a bit and everybody was more-or-less back on track. We now considered ourselves to be a group of "nine". Note in the pic of our groups logo, that there are nine stars in the upper left hand field of the flag with a "tenth" star being located, "under the gun", as it were, in the bottom right hand corner of the field of blue. To the best of my knowledge, no member of the Builders Squad has ever heard from #1 again. Probably just as well.
You might be curious about the term "Liberty's Teeth" in our "Builders Squad" logo. This term has long been attributed to a comment made by our nations first president.
"The very nature of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that is good. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence."
--- George Washington
For a slightly different, and a bit more current, twist on the term, "Liberty's Teeth" click this link to read "The Parable of the Sheep" by Charles Riggs.
I really don't have a suitable ending for the story at this time. As this page is being written (6/26/02), the jig is just now arriving in the hands of the eighth member of the squad. At this point the jig has, at least, "helped out" in the completion of some two dozen fully functional lower receivers built from 80% castings. The remaining nine members of the Squad are still in almost daily communication, are still making "deals" amongst ourselves, and are generally just having a good olde time.
I'll continue to update this page as the jig continues to make its appointed rounds. Stay tuned.
Enough of the Builders Squad story - On to the project - The Jig and its Tooling