How to Tighten Up a Loose Op Rod Guide on the barrel....

TacticalTeacher

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Hungry here, or my alter ego; TacticalTeacher....

As I opened up the box containing my IDF Sniper rifle parts kit from Wolverine Supplies, I immediately grabbed the barrelled receiver stub and wiggled the op rod guide. For you new-to-M14-platform fellas, it's the figure 8 thingy under the barrel/handguard. Give yours a wiggle (that sounded weird:cool:)

If it's loose this situation can/will/may cause a deterioration in your rifle's ability to group well. Life being perfect , you would like the numerous moving parts of a semi-auto to return to battery consistently, hence tighter groups...:d

Here's how it's done... take your 1/8" punch and knock out the pin, recover that pin. If your pin shattered like mine did, don't worry, I can mail you a spare. They are a 1/8" x 3/4" long and I've got just under a thousand (smallest amount I could possibly purchase).:eek:

Once that pin is out, slide your op rod guide forward to the muzzle (force of habit, I dunno why I always do that....)

Now bust open your "Knurlmaster" Knurling tool and have at 'er.....In the past several clinics we just dimpled the surface around the smooth barrel contact point and 'raised' or 'cratered' the barrel metal, being careful not to hit it too hard and cause damage to the inside bore... Have a look at the pictures.... :confused:




There's one view of the Knurler tool doing it's thing "raising" the metal so that the op rod guide can have some friction to bear against. :dancingbanana:

Here's another view of the Knurling tool in action after one pass on the muzzle side of the barrel...




As you can see, I've already knurled ONE line along the forward half of the barrel contact/interface. Now to do the next half... It's really a simple process once you have the right tools. They are not cheap so it's likely easier to purchase and center punch and dimple the metal like we do at the clinics... :runaway:


Okay, here is the completed knurling job and I've replaced the op rod guide with a fresh pin since the original factory pin shattered on being punched out...





There, have a look at the photograph and notice that I've hammered that op rod guide pin back into place and you can see the border of the op rod guide adjacent to the knurled barrel surface. Nice and tight. No wiggling. This is the treatment I expected from the IDF, but I ain't gonna complain. I'm just grateful John Hipwell (or Mr Wolverine) was kind and able enough to bring there here for us... Life is good... :dancingbanana:


Anyways bring on the questions after you wiggle you op rod guide. Many experts and businesses on here can help you! Don't suffer in silence. We have built one heck of a community here since we got CGNutz started back in (I'm getting old.... Greentips better chime in here...) 2002? 2003?

Cheers, :wave:

Barney
 
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You know I was just thinking about doing this to my rifle this weekend, this must be a sign.

Do you put any loctite or epoxy on the barrel before putting the guide back on? Or are the dimples enough to keep it tight?
 
Thanks Hungry! I need to get around to doing mine. Do you mind if I inbox you? I'm not sure if my barrel needs reindexing or what, but my gas piston only contacts 1/2 to 3/4 of the op rod and I'm worried it's going to cause issues.
 
Thanks Hungry! I need to get around to doing mine. Do you mind if I inbox you? I'm not sure if my barrel needs reindexing or what, but my gas piston only contacts 1/2 to 3/4 of the op rod and I'm worried it's going to cause issues.

Sure thing... send me a message. We can fix this for you. It's a lot simpler than you think..... :dancingbanana:

Cheers, :wave:

Barney
 
what do you do when the barrel is already knurled and the guide is still loose?

If the barrel is indexed where you want it, then I would use epoxy.

Rough-up the interior of the op-rod guide with 120gr emery cloth.
Decrease the barrel and the interior of the guide.
Slather a healthy dose of epoxy onto the barrel.
Slide the op-rod guide into place, line it up exactly where you want it.
Leave the barrel assembly alone for a minimum of 8 hours.

The epoxy will grab on the knurling and the roughed up interior of the guide.

John
 
Mine needs knurled badly, its super loose. Doesnt appear to have been knurled previously. Hoping a busy bee scissor knurling tool will be robust enough to knurl the barrel on a little hobby lathe.
 
The cheap busy bee knurler on my fathers cheap chinese lath did a wonderful job. The OP rod guide will need to be hammered into place. Now i need to machine up a jig to clamp the gas system together for a perfect tig weld.
 
I’m waiting for a m-14 course, in the future... when a certain political party, suffers, massive “ ####, loss” . I look forward to a “Hungry course”����TBA, in BC..�� ( Just trying to stay positive..��)
 
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