Who is repairing broken Vector Trunion welds now

[Samuel_Hoggson]

Twists? How many times did Colt "stop" selling ARs to citizens? Have you ever felt loved by HK? Why do we have expressions like "pre-Garcia", "pre-warning label", "pre-trigger lock S&W", "pre-64 Winchester", eieio.

How many times has Kimber been bought and sold. Remington? Winchester? I don't recall Ruger ever having been bought/sold/new management. Then, most stuff on their website is vaporware.

Twists and "crazy ass shit and drama" describes the entire firearms industry and, arguably, the entire business marketplace.

The Vector story is interesting tho. Could be worse. Think Bitcoin.

 

[deadduck]

You had me at "Ice Pick". :nutkick

 

[mike]

Still waiting for a reply on a second email I set them a couple days ago about something???

 

[Destiny]

Well, I felt like a kid in Uzi Heaven. When I figured out that the new Vector was only a few minutes from my house I contacted Tommy and he invited me for a tour.. yeah a three hour tour.. had a blast. I saw thousands and thousands of various flavors of Uzi receivers and all the parts.. Also saw HK Parts to the ying yang for G3, 93, MP5 and the K's.. saw crates of RPD parts. Also saw suppressor bits too. They do not currently have a retail shop but everything looks very promising. Saw some new axis mills for making obsolete parts and more magazines than I have seen in a few decades. Have Faith in the Future.

Destiny

 

[ScottinTexas]

Maybe this explains why I can't find a mundane common ice pick at any of my local grocery stores in 2022.

 

[Benaj]

That’s awesome wish I was closer for a tour! Get to see my Vectors Uzi cousins!

Sent them an email today about some HK parts.

 

[RoverDave]

Well, I felt like a kid in Uzi Heaven. When I figured out that the new Vector was only a few minutes from my house I contacted Tommy and he invited me for a tour.. yeah a three hour tour.. had a blast. I saw thousands and thousands of various flavors of Uzi receivers and all the parts.. Also saw HK Parts to the ying yang for G3, 93, MP5 and the K's.. saw crates of RPD parts. Also saw suppressor bits too. They do not currently have a retail shop but everything looks very promising. Saw some new axis mills for making obsolete parts and more magazines than I have seen in a few decades. Have Faith in the Future.

Destiny

Were there any people there? Any bodies to turn the parts into something useful? I've talked to Tommy on the phone but don't have a sense that they're really up and running yet.

 

[prdubi]

yeah...someone told me about the drama at the last SAR show. What a cesspool of idiocy.

 

[tactadv]

Okay......somebody has to ask the obvious (obvious I guess, if you were around Vector Arms back in the very beginning...).....where is REX Merrill in all this current mess? Rex -WAS- the heart and soul of everything that actually accounted for really building anything. He was the "intellectual property" of the company during the first go around.

-TomH

 

[RoverDave]

Rex is long gone. Hasn’t been involved or interested in a long time.

 

[Destiny]

Lets see

I saw Tommy and his Son and his son told me that they have a young fellow that works Part time after school. The old Vector had 12-20 employees with many of the employees specializing in one part of the manufacturing process. High Hopes for New Vector Arms

Rex was last known working for a company called Precision Machining in the Riverton/ Herriman , UT area but I haven't seen him in 6 or 7 years.

Destiny

 

[Dirk Hawthorne]

Were it my gun, I'd send it to John Andrewski. In my personal experience, he provides superior work for a reasonable price and turnaround.

I wouldn't.

I sent my full auto vector to him for a trunion and rear plate reweld.

It came back with the front end warped out of shape.

So I sent it to BWE and he re-did the trunnion weld and also told me that the back plate weld was bad and needed to be re-done.

Another guy I know needed the same work, sent his Vector to Andrewski, same result. Ended up sending it to BWE. He posted a thread about it here on uzitalk. I'll see if I can find it, but it's old.

I think the problem is that Vector receiver flats were case-hardened by Vector when they were manufactured, and when re-welded they tend to warp all over the place. I seem to recall BWE saying something like that to me.

And this isn't a story of a pain-in-the-butt customer who's never satisfied. The work needed to be re-done by BWE. I literally paid twice. People don't pay two gunsmiths just to be a "choosy shopper."

There appears to be a general phenomenon among shooters where gunsmiths are overly praised. Anyone who can put Locktite on a scope mount screw is said to be FANTASTIC.

 

[mike]

Sorry to hear about your experiences with John. I find that he does great work. I sent mine to him for some work, and I am very satisfied with the results. My issues were with a restrictor ring that I cut off on a semi auto receiver that I shouldn’t have, He replaced the restrictor ring. People turn their nose up on register bolts which in my opinion is a mistake. I have put my registered bolt in Victor arms, guns century, arms, guns, and IMI my guns and it ran perfect. The issues I sent it to John for was my own fault. Unless you’re running 22 long rifle that isn’t very dependable anyway or have a bunch of spear full auto barrels. I don’t see much advantage to it. I’ve heard of issues with bolts cracking, which I find hard to believe because they’re hard in to such a degree but I’m sure it has happened but I’m sure it can be repaired. I guess it depends on who manufactured the bolt. Mine was manufactured by Group industries. I hear stories about their bolts being warped thankfully mine is not. It’s nice being able to move the bolt around from Gun to Gun.

 

[trilogymac]

Between myself and a buddy we have had 4ea., complete micro builds done by John. 3 of which had the trunnions removed and reinstalled. Each were test fired with 3 mags before being returned. I believe the test sequence was 1 complete mag semi, one full auto dump and one full auto with bursts. They look and run great. I'm surprised at your experience.

 

[hkg3k]

There appears to be a general phenomenon among shooters where gunsmiths are overly praised. Anyone who can put Locktite on a scope mount screw is said to be FANTASTIC.

No disagreement on the internet "rah rah" sometimes bestowed (undeservedly) on gunsmiths by their shills and fanboi base.

I'll disagree with you, if you're suggesting that applies to John Andrewski.

BWE too, had a few "clunkers" get out the door (along with other CS issues) in his time. Nobody's perfect, and it's unacceptable you didn't have a better experience.

 

[Dirk Hawthorne]

No disagreement on the internet "rah rah" sometimes bestowed (undeservedly) on gunsmiths by their shills and fanboi base.

The "rah rah" also extends to literally anyone who can lay down a blob of weld with a Sears welder or run a CNC machine.

For example, I saw a video of Jesse James welding a bracket he machined to a chopper exhaust pipe and there were about 10,000 comments in the comments section hooting and crowing about how Jessie is the Albert Einstein of metalworking.

They were astonished by the fact that Jessie had managed to cut a bracket out of flat stock and weld it to a exhaust pipe with a big line of bloppy, porous weld.

Meanwhile, back in reality, the little 049 engines in Cox airplanes were machined to 20 millionths of an inch tolerances back in 1950, and they sold for about $30 in today's money.

I'll tell who impressed me - the guy who I hired to mud the sheetrock when I finished my basement. Now THAT guy is a wizard.