How To ATF Form 1 Laser Engraving

What’s going on guys? It’s Hai.

I previously made a video detailing Silencer Shop’s eform 1 Beta service. Well, after 16 days my Form 1 was approved by the ATF and it was time to move on to the next phase. If you’re unfamiliar with the Form 1 process, there are really only two major steps. First, is to submit your Form 1 application. Second, is to get your firearm engraved with some information from your application to designate that this firearm is now an SBR or whatever it is that you applied for.

The ATF requires for the engraving to be at least 1/16" in height and .003" in depth. If you have the machinery or know how you can, of course, get this done yourself but most of us are going to find someone to do the work. I’m located in the Puget Sound area of WA and went to Hyperion Precision in Kent. I found this business after doing some research on the topic and saw that they were recommended by a few people. After checking out their website, I saw that they also offer same-day turnaround times, and that sold it for me because I didn’t want to drive back and forth or ship my lower to anyone. I just wanted the job done.

If you’re around the area, I can definitely recommend this business. Trevor, the owner, sets everything up and allows customers to proofread to make sure that everything is correct. Then the actual laser engraving process for a Form 1 is pretty quick. It literally takes about a minute to get it done but that depends on how much you’re getting engraved. The ATF requires that all Form 1s be engraved with the manufacturer's name, then city and state. I submitted my Form 1 under a trust so my trust name was engraved instead of my name. Also, Trevor has a lot of experience in doing these engravings and recommended that I should also include the caliber submitted on my Form 1. So, I agreed to also include that. As you can see, I did my engraving in the magwell. I did this because I wanted the engraving to be as unobtrusive as possible. As far as I know and what I was told, you can put the engraving pretty much anywhere that’s visible.

I do want to point out that again, the ATF only requires for the engraving to be .003” of an inch in depth. Trevor actually engraves quite a bit deeper and that’s a good thing because .003” of an inch is barely anything. If you engrave only that deep and decide to do a coating like cerakote or something else that adds material, the engraving will likely be covered over and you’re back to square one. Even bead blasting in preparation for a coating can damage that shallow of an engraving so keep that in mind. It would be wise to go quite a bit deeper than the ATF’s minimum requirements.

Finally, since I was already getting my lower engraved and because the Primary Weapons Systems lower that I was using had a big canvas on the side, I decided to also engrave my logo onto this lower. This turned out extremely well and really helped to make this firearm my own.


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