About 2 months ago I was changing out a suppressor mount to an A2 on a barrel I was planning on selling. I use the wheeler vice block that fits both 308 and 556 uppers with cross pins to secure them in the vice. I’ve done this hundreds of times and have never had a problem. With Aero products and many other manufacturers. I’ve been building AR’s for a long time. Anyway using my torque wrench I started to torque down on it to get the A2 in proper position with a crush washer. Heard a pop and thought it was my torque wrench popping but it wasn’t.

The whole rear pin ear sheared off, just a catastrophic failure of the upper. The grain of the forged aluminum doesn’t look right, but I’m no metallurgist so who knows.

Regardless I went to Aero’s website and started a support ticket and uploaded photos of the upper attached to the ticket. Didn’t hear anything for about 2 weeks so I called them with my ticket number and the guy looked at it, but said it would have to elevated up over his head. He assured me that they’d probably send me a new upper and have me send the other back for them to look at.

Great.. I was getting antsy to finish this build off and get my SBR back up and running so I just bought another Aero upper in burnt bronze to match my SBR lower. Thinking once they finally got back to me and sent me the new one I’d just sell it and recoup my money.

2 months later, I had completely forgotten about the issue and finally get an email from Aero someone asking for pictures of the tools used and the upper. I was on vacation but still had the pictures on my phone so I sent them right over. 3 days later he emails back and said some semantics BS that the tools I was using weren’t the correct tool or brand of tool and they wouldn’t warranty the upper and basically told me to pound sand.

So I wrote him back and let him know what I thought about his response and told him I’d never buy anything from them again. I know they don’t care but I’ve bought thousands upon thousands of dollars for myself in parts and guns and probably recommended about the same for people who ask what brand to buy ect.

Worst customer service I’ve ever had in the gun industry especially for such a big company. That upper probably cost them $25 bucks to make. So I’ll be blasting them every chance I get on the issue.

Dang that doesn't look good

Good post, ill mentally note it...I'll I trust what you say

They gone

That's the kind of breakage I've always dreaded when using that style of a jig. I like the clamshell type a lot better for that reason. I don't blame you for being upset at Aero P...it seems like they'd be happy to support you to keep you as a customer and to spread some positive info on good service. For about $30, why would they not??

I think it would be interesting to see how other makers and vendors would treat you. Maybe the same, maybe better. I dunno.

Yea it doesn’t look good, but there are duds from every company. Aero makes some really good stuff especially their M4E1 line for the price it is hard to beat and I’ve had nothing but praises to sing for them and their products. So it’s kind of bitter sweet putting them on blast like this, but this CS experience was absolutely terrible. Just goes to show if God forbid you do get one of their duds you’re SOL because their CS is crap.

I agree, I’ve never had a problem with this type of vice block and have been using it for a long time. And I’ve torqued some down pretty hard in the past. Hell I probably wouldn’t have even posted this and sucked it up and bought another upper, which is what I did anyway, had this just said this up front. I probably wouldn’t have liked it, but is what it is.

But for them to take 2 months to even respond asking for pictures what were already uploaded to the ticket just to use semantics and brand name, he mentioned both Midwest Industries and Geiselle by name, just to tell me I’m SOL kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

This vice block jig was used in the correct way, if they don’t want to warranty their stuff if you use certain tools then I guess they need to add that to their disclaimer on their products.

I really think other brands would just replace the $30 upper especially if they’re no where near as big as Aero. Just to keep business flowing.

I just sent in a warranty request with this thread tagged. They messed up here

Good luck getting a response before 2 months.

I'm assuming I cannot get a refund on that, ya know, the thing, I got from you? I will let you know what they send back.

Pizz on em’.

Bought a lot from aero in the past but I will make note as well.

If you neglect the customer service side of the business, it’s only a matter of time before the whole biz goes to s***.

Thanks for the heads up

Chalk it up to a lesson learned - that isn't the proper tool for torquing muzzle devices. Same goes for the blocks that fit in your magwell. If someone was using clamshell style blocks and broke off their barrel index pin I wouldn't blame the barrel manufacturer. Whether Aero should replace it or not, I can see it both ways.

I've changed to using Magpul's bev block for most of my AR smithing now. If anything Wheeler should be blamed for not saying "Yeah, we made a tool that really isn't useful for what you'd think. You run the risk of breaking an expensive upper if you use this to replace muzzle devices or torque barrel nuts."

You mentioned that the grain of the "forged" aluminum doesn't look right. Agree, it looks cast. Do they sell cast uppers? This doesn't speak to the poor response time and mishandling of your original claim but maybe they sent you a cast upper when you ordered forged?

I use the sandwich type. Why? Probably cheaper at the time I bought it. Thanks for the information. The way it was handled is much worse than the product issue.

So if you used the wrong tool and broke the part, why is it their fault? Even if you have gotten away with using the wrong tool in the past, that doesn't make it the right way to do stuff.

The other day I broke a bearing race putting it in the the way I have done hundreds over the years, but I always new it wasn't really the best way. I didn't expect OR EVEN ASK for a free race for my screw up, I just got out my wallet and installed the new race the right way

Why is this not the right tool? It indexes with both upper pins to clamp your upper in the vice. Should be more than adequate to torque a muzzle device. But I’ll look into the Magpul Bev block. Thanks for the recommendation.


Negative link below is to the upper and if you click on specs it shows it’s machined from 7075 T6 aluminum.

https://www.aeroprecisionusa.com/ar15-assembled-upper-receiver-burnt-bronze


The initial ticket I sent in I didn’t ask for replacement I was really wondering if they had ever seen this before and if there was a defect because the grain didn’t look right. I’ve stated previously in this thread had they just told me up front it wouldn’t be a big deal. I had already took out my wallet and purchased another upper, another Aero upper at that.


But the way they handled it was just crappy CS.

Yeah, but it still appears to be cast. I believe It should have a "grain" that runs with the tool marks, not that random arrangement to the structure. I think we have some machinists on here, maybe they will offer an opinion.

I can understand their position, but it does seem unusual for today's gun world.

I use Magpul's BEV block for muzzle devices/barrel nuts on conventional centerfires, but it doesn't work with pistol calibers or rimfires.

For those, I will clamp the barrel in the vise for muzzle devices, and use a clam-shell (if it fits) for barrel nuts.

If the receiver's external shape won't fit the clam-shell, then the Wheeler type mentioned above is an option for the barrel nut. The Bear Creek, side-charging, rimfire uppers are the only ones I've had to use that style of block for.

This vice block jig was used in the correct way, if they don’t want to warranty their stuff if you use certain tools then I guess they need to add that to their disclaimer on their products.

THIS

surly you're not the first one to have this happen using your method. THEY should include a RED note stating the only tools they would warrant.

this is a forged upper, not a billet, forged is pressure formed, billet is milled. the pics show a clean fresh break and that is exactly what the forged alloy will look like when it snaps off. torquing a muzzle device on the end of a steel/ss barrel mounted to a forged or billet aluminum receiver mounted in a vice by the pin lugs is just asinine to me. if he's been doing this for a long time, he's also been flirting with disaster for a long time. it's obvious operator error. i 100% see it, pressure in the wrong direction while torquing on the end of the barrel with that receiver vise mounted like that, and snap

Need to use a reaction rod so the torque is into the steel of the barrel extension not the aluminum of the receiver takedown pins

The Wheeler vise block I have can also clamp onto the top rail of the receiver.

Not as quick, but the receiver might be able to handle a bit more stress that way.

true, might have been a better option. but, when it comes to torquing steel on steel, steel is what needs to be viced, the alloy will steal be the weakest link

I got a new credit card with a ridiculously high limit

I was just about to make a significant purchase of Aero parts - I’m talking many 0’s

But I read this forum first because that is what all smart consumers do and found this thread.

So glad I did !

Ordering from Bear Creek Arsenal now - their customer service is handled by really smart people

This is hilarious, y'all aren't going to buy from a company because a guy ham-handedly broke parts in a way that they say not to use them. And if you think accompany you should list every way to not break their parts you've got to be nuts. Maybe they should put a video on their website about how to install barrel devices and such and say to "use a vise block like this," and actually have a video where they are using an Otis style block. Oh wait, they already did that

Also, I do not own any areo precision parts or work for aero precision or any of their subsidiaries LOL. It just astounds me that people are upset basically about a slow response to an email. Because any reasonable person cannot be upset at areo for somebody breaking their stuff by trying to install things wrong.