NEMO Arms has produced the first all titanium AR-10. Almost every piece of metal on this gun (except the barrel) is made out of machined titanium including the buffer tube, which as any machinist will tell you is much more difficult to work with than aluminium. It’s a little heavier than a standard AR-10 but otherwise it feels the exact same. The first one — this serial #1 edition — will cost you about $100,000, but if they decide to go full production on these puppies expect the price to drop to a more reasonable $49,000ish.
This gun wasn’t made to sell, though. It’s a piece to show off the manufacturing abilities of the company. They don’t currently plan on making a full production run of these, and it wouldn’t make much sense either financially or practically either considering the cost and weight associated. But it sure is pretty…
And the problem this solves is…… showing off their machining abilities? That’s really not terribly impressive.
There’s far more difficult materials (metals) to machine well than titanium. That said, with modern tooling and coolants, machining titanium has become far easier than in the past. The worst thing about titanium is it’s ability to work harden under your tool in seconds if you allow a tool to dwell on the workpiece without a feed, or a allowing a dull tool being used.
I think I’d prefer to work titanium over some versions of 300-series stainless steels.
Titanium is neato, but other than being ridiculously strong I don’t know what the point is if it is heavier than a regular AR-10.
$100 gurr? That’s not titanium, that’s unobtanium.
$100k? That will buy you a no-frills house in parts of Portland.
Heavier than a standard AR-10? Roughly 75 times more expensive than a standard AR-10? Wow, that’s just awesome.