I guess having a little more time this year with the Covid ****, I found another 716 handguard on ebay for cheap. I'm not a fan of quad rail handguards whatsoever and the Lancer handguard is nice, just not my cup of tea.
Owning a manual vertical mill (Novice Machinist) I figured I would shave some weight off it and give it more of a narrow grip for ergs. Looking back I would've done a few things different. Got carried away the first go around with the end mill and took too much material off on the sides towards the qd sockets.. If I left a little more meat there I could've use a ball end to have a nice contour between the flat and picatinny, oh well.. I've machined it 3 different times now and have a little more machining left.
1- leave a little bit of picatinny on the forward bottom side.
2- leave the qd socket on each front side. Though I have a qd offset attachment that came with it that I can always use.
This may not be for everyone but the weight reduction is beyond noticeable and the feel of the handguard is much better. In the process of building my own curing oven, so I'll be able to cerekote it when I am done.
Here are a few pics of the process
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Owning a manual vertical mill (Novice Machinist) I figured I would shave some weight off it and give it more of a narrow grip for ergs. Looking back I would've done a few things different. Got carried away the first go around with the end mill and took too much material off on the sides towards the qd sockets.. If I left a little more meat there I could've use a ball end to have a nice contour between the flat and picatinny, oh well.. I've machined it 3 different times now and have a little more machining left.
1- leave a little bit of picatinny on the forward bottom side.
2- leave the qd socket on each front side. Though I have a qd offset attachment that came with it that I can always use.
This may not be for everyone but the weight reduction is beyond noticeable and the feel of the handguard is much better. In the process of building my own curing oven, so I'll be able to cerekote it when I am done.
Here are a few pics of the process
