Here's a heads up. I am all about making stuff from stuff laying around the garage and man-cave.

I currently have a bicycle innertube i cut into rubber bands for odds and ends. I decided to sacrifice a couple of inches of it to an experiment today. I squeezed some E6000 into it and pressed it flat. When it cures, in a couple of days after i work night shift tonight and tomorrow night, I will cut the resulting flat sandwich into some heat resistant bolt buffers and see how they work. They should work out to around 1/8 inch or a little less thickness. We'll see how it goes. E6000, for those wondering, is a high strenght industrial adhesive that has found its way to walmart craft section. I highly recommend it for a wide variety of things. It is similar to shoe goo, but more fluid and a little runnier if you don't need something that will cure on the side of something vertical. It is very heat resistant and strong. Having it between two layers of thin rubber seemed like a nice idea for a buffer cushion.

More later...

Well, I don't know about that adhesive, but if you're thinking about inner tube rubber as a front (gas block end) buffer, I think you'll regret it. As for the rear buffer (op rod), a simple 1911 pistol buffer works great, for a pretty cheap price.

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Vacuum cleaner belts work well to, punch the center out with a 9mm case.

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Vacuum cleaner belts for me too.
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I have had a WC 45 buffer in my 186xxx for a long time. It has held up well and will continue to do so. The 181xxx mini I purchased a couple of weeks ago already had one in it . Tried to use one in the front but it caused problems. Sometimes the most simple solution turns out to be the best....Joe

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The 1911 pistol buffer goes on the guide rod where the “tongue” end of the guide rod & recoil spring meet the receiver. To install one, just pull back slightly on the spring & rod together until it is free of the cross pin. While doing so, be careful to observe which side of that cross pin the “tongue” was on (the top side). Accidentally inverting the guide rod will turn your Mini-14 into a single action shooter, until you put it back correctly. The older Mini’s don’t have this tongue, but a centered insert into a recess instead. Anyway, just insert the 1911 buffer onto the guide rod with the "ears" toward the barrel, and release the rod & spring back into the receiver. Done! A friend took some good pics of his install...keep in mind the action is laying upside down in the photo...

Now you boys quit yanking parts out of your wife's vacuum cleaner!

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I have the WC buffers on my op rod and gas tube of my mini-14 (580 series). The only issue I have had was I cant eject russian made steel cased ammo but it shoots it. I dont really have a problem with that since Im a reloader and prefer brass. My question is for people using something other than a WC buffer on the gas tube. When you run your mini hard and it heats up is there any danger of the vacuum belt or leather or whatever you use smoldering or catching fire?

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Heat is actually how leather hardens, and so does pounding it. Add wax to it and it becomes a better buffer, in theory. I'm in a testing phase with this and will let you all know how it goes for making great leather buffers.

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I also found some .125 thick leather from an old electrician's belt I haven't used in 20 years..definitely doing that first...I'll investigate the other two things when night shift ends. Thanks for the responses.

I really don't think you could get a mini that hot unless you were doing multiple 100 round mag dumps with bata magazines. I don't use a buffer on the gas piston, I have heard some say it could lead to an out of battery situation or a failure to go into battery, I don't want to chance it.

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I just made two buffers out of leather. What a quick easy mod this is. FWIW, I punched the leather with a 9mm case in my bench vise. Perfect hole, easy operation and the scrap stays inside the case for disposal. We'll see what this does at the range...al functions check perfectly after reassembly.

FWIW, the Wilson Shok-Buffs (fore and aft) in my Mini have held up for more than 1,000 rounds. The one at the gas block has darkened somewhat and is a bit, well, stretched out, but I've never had a FTFire because the bolt was out of battery.

You certainly won't melt one unless you're a spray and pray kind of shooter, at which point you probably aren't using a scope, and don't necessarily need a forward buffer.

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