[cal50]

That's REALLY bad.

 

[Abominog]

That's REALLY bad.

WTF how can that ship?

 

[Freedommachine]

I’ve fixed 8 of the their MG42s. They all look just like this…

I hope that little tab welded in against the recuperator isn't the denial bar 😬

 

[cal50]

They need a name change to "Chit house".

 

[jaredrLewman]

I hope that little tab welded in against the recuperator isn't the denial bar 😬

it is…

 

[jaredrLewman]

WTF how can that ship?

You should see the SG43 photos sent to me. They were even nice enough to swap his entire matching numbers receiver for his matching parts kit making it a non-matching gun, without any notice why. Oh, it took almost 2 years to deliver it too.. This gun shipped about a week ago…

 

[Rory]

I’ve fixed 8 of the their MG42s. They all look just like this…

at least they are keeping you with stacks of work? lol

 

[jaredrLewman]

at least they are keeping you with stacks of work? lol

I like making money. I don’t like customers paying $8500+, waiting 18+ months, getting delivered that, then asking me to fix it and getting hit with another $4000 invoice to fix it. As much as I like money, that doesn’t feel good.

 

[cal50]

Someone should break into chit houses shop and not steal anything but disable their welder.......

It's worse than most DIY jobs but from a licensed entity or someone doing work for others it's a bad joke.

 

[Rory]

I like making money. I don’t like customers paying $8500+, waiting 18+ months, getting delivered that, then asking me to fix it and getting hit with another $4000 invoice to fix it. As much as I like money, that doesn’t feel good.

Jared,
i was trying to bring some levity to the situation. It is a terrible situation for all involved. There are very few builders whose names i offer to others in search. you, greaser at Ravenna, dennis at midwest, and ed at cwa (though i heard he might have retired from building?)

so many have gotten caught up in one of these situations and with the best intent.... but the absolute fury i would have over spending another 4,000 on top of an already expensive build....

 

[jaredrLewman]

Jared,
i was trying to bring some levity to the situation. It is a terrible situation for all involved. There are very few builders whose names i offer to others in search. you, greaser at Ravenna, dennis at midwest, and ed at cwa (though i heard he might have retired from building?)

so many have gotten caught up in one of these situations and with the best intent.... but the absolute fury i would have over spending another 4,000 on top of an already expensive build....

Customer after customer requesting refunds from him and he simply blocks their phone number and emails, totally ignores them. He is the nicest guy until he has your money then all the sudden ghosts customers and strings them along for more than a year. He takes 50% up front, something I NEVER do. I get paid when the job is done and shipping, I dont want your money and parts.
Ice House is also blatantly copying vendor parts and passing off as the vendors parts in his builds. I have examples of his BRP Gripstick and Bolt carrier, poorly copied. He copied TecTacticals semi PKM parts and is passing them off in his builds as Tec. I have been keeping an eye since Nov of last year but internet searches on Arfcom show as early as August of last year people were seeing MAJOR issues with his MG42s and other jobs. The ONLY guns I have heard were any good were some of his EARLY 1919 assemlies in 2020/2021.

 

[Abominog]

I like making money. I don’t like customers paying $8500+, waiting 18+ months, getting delivered that, then asking me to fix it and getting hit with another $4000 invoice to fix it. As much as I like money, that doesn’t feel good.

I’d bet 90% of those who came to you for repair didn’t want to pay your price to begin with so went with a cheaper build. I have far less pity than you.

Don’t get wound up about what other companies do. Throughout my life I’ve lost clients to promises and less expensive competitors. Some later come back, having learned an expensive lesson.

It’s my experience that there are two types of people: those who ask why there’s a difference in price, and investigate why. And there are the cheapos. The latter never learn, and seem to struggle through life. Oh well.

 

[jaredrLewman]

I’d bet 90% of those who came to you for repair didn’t want to pay your price to begin with so went with a cheaper build. I have far less pity than you.

Don’t get wound up about what other companies do. Throughout my life I’ve lost clients to promises and less expensive competitors. Some later come back, having learned an expensive lesson.

It’s my experience that there are two types of people: those who ask why there’s a difference in price, and investigate why. And there are the cheapos. The latter never learn, and seem to struggle through life. Oh well.

Most of the guys who have reached out to me said the same thing. "You weren't taking work while you built your new shop so I went with him. I wish I would have just waited" I built my shop 2 years ago at this point and these guys are just now starting to get their guns back and well you can see how that is going. My turn around is about 4 months. Even if they waited for me to build the shop, They would have gotten their guns a year ago...
In the case of that Reddit gun, an old man bought it 2 years ago and then died and the FFL sold the collection on GB. That guy buys it cause he didnt want to wait the 6-8 weeks(this is what Ice House quotes via his gunbroker ad as turnaround) and bought one "ready to go" off GB. Similar stories to the WiseLite guns, those constantly get dumped on GB, not working, to the next sucker. Eventually people send them to me and we convert the WL guns to BRP internals and they work. Some require a lot of work but I have only every turned away 1 MG42 build we could not salvage. It was a home built USA rear end and it was just Mangled. After 3 days of chopping and trying to make it work we decided to abandon all hope on that rear end.

 

[Freedommachine]

You should see the SG43 photos sent to me. They were even nice enough to swap his entire matching numbers receiver for his matching parts kit making it a non-matching gun, without any notice why. Oh, it took almost 2 years to deliver it too.. This gun shipped about a week ago… View attachment 146391
View attachment 146390

That poor gun is trashed, it would take less time to machine a new receiver from scratch than to save that one. This guy has to stop or be stopped before he gets someone killed.

I'm curious what he did for denials in that one.

 

[Rory]

And many just don’t know any better. They see that option and assume it works and is ok. It’s not always a price play. Sometimes they just don’t know any better.

as for wiselite, their customer service and feedback when I bought a new made receiver from them that was cracked severely at the corners left me knowing I would never buy one of their products. Ever.

 

[jaredrLewman]

That poor gun is trashed, it would take less time to machine a new receiver from scratch than to save that one. This guy has to stop or be stopped before he gets someone killed.

I'm curious what he did for denials in that one.

Tiny spot weld on top of the grip lug mount/recouperator. That’s it..

 

[jaredrLewman]

Guns 1-14 were done this way. No blocking bar but a blob weld. Gun 15 had a blocking bar. Early guns used the old WL style parts, then he used BRP parts for some, later guns used his copied parts. I’ve seen examples up to serial number 29 and they all don’t work. I’ve already rebuilt 8 of the first 20 serial numbers. Serial number 29 is in my shop for total rebuild currently, just as poorly built as that Reddit gun.

 

[Apexgunparts]

And many just don’t know any better. They see that option and assume it works and is ok. It’s not always a price play. Sometimes they just don’t know any better.

as for wiselite, their customer service and feedback when I bought a new made receiver from them that was cracked severely at the corners left me knowing I would never buy one of their products. Ever.

The WLA stamped M53 receivers came from Global Machine.
They used to be a member on the Weapons Guild, and Bill sold a bunch of the halves there.
I remember some issues in the corners where the charging handles ride.
ATF wouldn't let them use a issue charging handle in the semi-auto, it had to be altered.

Richard

 

[Rory]

Richard, mine was split up a couple inches on once corner and a decent amount in others and it was just like whatever, if you were a good builder you’d just weld it and be really happy with our amazing quality.

 

[Apexgunparts]

Richard, mine was split up a couple inches on once corner and a decent amount in others and it was just like whatever, if you were a good builder you’d just weld it and be really happy with our amazing quality.

Was that the current owner of WLA, Joey F.?
Or the first owner Tony W.?

The later WLA receiver halves were longer in the back end to add spring length (I think that was the purpose)
I remember some were sold as repair sections and others were semi-auto receivers with blocking features installed.

That was a long time ago now.
Sorry you didn't have a better experience.

Richard