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Posted by Wayne on 1st Jan 2016

80Percents.com Reviews the Heavy-Duty Universal AR-15 80% Jig

The All-New Modulus Arms Heavy-Duty AR-15 80% Jig has been shipping for a little over a month and the reviews are starting to flow online. www.80percents.com has done reviews on our original Universal AR-15 80% Jig and has now provided a new review for the Heavy-Duty AR-15 Jig. 

80percents.com conclusions for the Heavy-Duty AR-15 80% Jig are:

The second generation Modulus Arms Heavy Duty jig is a leaps and bound improvement over their original jig. While the original jig works perfectly well, and is as universal as the new jig, this version solves the usability issues that I believe the first one had. First, the jig is much, much more substantial in weight and material. Thick aluminum with steel inserts should keep this jig lasting a long time. Second, the greater surface area of the new top plate makes it much easier to use with a full-sizer router like I use. I no longer feel I need to use extra care to keep the router from tipping and causing unplanned damage to my lower. Third, the elimination of all of the seemingly endless need to assemble, disassemble and reassemble the jig for each step. The steel template inserts make configuring for subsequent steps a simple two or four short screw process. Fourth, the side plates have been made shorter and out of steel so they no longer test the limits of my drill press to fit it in place. Plus the steel makes it unnecessary to be concerned about wearing out the holes on the previous aluminum side plates. Some jigs are made of aluminum with steel drill guide inserts. Modulus Arms went further and just made the whole plate out of steel. I still think the jig should ship with a cotterless clevis pin rather than relying on installation of the front pivot pin or use of a bolt but that's a relatively small matter a simple $3 investment the end user can choose to make.

As with the first generation Modulus Arms jig, this jig is the only router based design that will handle some of the wilder lower designs out there. Specifically the New Frontier Armory lower comes to mind. This just won't fit in the Easy Jig even with the universal side plates. There's only so much universality you can build into a product that uses full side plates and this jig gets around that by only having partial length side plates.