Building AR by clamping barrel

*MALICE* said:
If you were able to crush a barrel by clamping it in a barrel vise........man, I'd be afraid to shake your hand ;)
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ha:

He must have a really nice vice too, my vice has a slightly "S" shaped handle from swapping a barrel on a Savage action...getting that barrel nut loose was a chore. I thought for sure the vice was going to break, that or get ripped off my bench. In the end I had to go to a friends. He had a better vice, and a few tricks up his sleeve from years as a CF Weapons Tech.

According to Canada Posts online tracking the receiver is in my mail box. Wish me luck!
 
Just went to put the stripped upper on my lower, it looks like a prefect fit, but for the front pin hole is a bit snug. Should I just apply a bit of heat with my heat gun when I put them together, or give it a little polish with a .22 bore mop and some polishing compound?
 
redshooter said:
Just went to put the stripped upper on my lower, it looks like a prefect fit, but for the front pin hole is a bit snug. Should I just apply a bit of heat with my heat gun when I put them together, or give it a little polish with a .22 bore mop and some polishing compound?
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I will just tap it with a mallet. Work it a few times it will be fine.
 
cr5 said:
Clamping the barrel is the old way and works just fine but I prefer the reaction rod as I can position it in the vise in any orientation and there is no chance of over-tightening the vise on the barrel and there is no chance of it slipping or marking the barrel.
Clamping the upper receiver in a vise in the clam-shell blocks is not a good way to tighten the barrel nut, that is a lot of force being transferred into the upper receiver through very little material where the threads meet the receiver. It will work but you are risking damage to your receiver.
I've always put the barrel nut on dry and have never had any problems with corrosion or seizing of the nut. I recently picked up some moly though so may try lubing my next build to see if it's any better.
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How exactly does a reaction rod magically prevent the upper from having force being transferred? Think this through.

If there was very little material where the threads meet the receiver there would be trunkloads of military AR's with broken receivers.
 
Dietz said:
How exactly does a reaction rod magically prevent the upper from having force being transferred? Think this through.

If there was very little material where the threads meet the receiver there would be trunkloads of military AR's with broken receivers.
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Except that the force won't be transferred into the 'body' of the receiver with a barrel vise/reaction rod/bev block, whereas when you clamp with a 'clamshell', you risk twisting the receiver aft of where the threads are.

Anyways; many ways to skin a cat, as long as your rifle works when you're done, thats all that matter :) Lots of people have installed/uninstalled barrels using all 4 methods and everyone has to find the process that works best for them
 
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Dietz said:
How exactly does a reaction rod magically prevent the upper from having force being transferred? Think this through.

If there was very little material where the threads meet the receiver there would be trunkloads of military AR's with broken receivers.
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When mounted in the receiver clam-shell style block all the torque is applied to the receiver socket where the barrel slips into it. When using a reaction rod the receiver doesn't get the torque transferred to it. The reaction rod is the same as using a barrel clamp but is locked into the barrel extension instead of clamped to the barrel.
Pretty sure our military guys have already said standard practice is to use a barrel clamp not the receiver clam-shell when installing a barrel.
Maybe you misread my post a little. You're free to install barrels any way you want but I have read about guys wrecking their upper using the receiver clam-shell blocks.
 
Well that was a chore...

Upper came apart in about 15-20 minutes, I had visions of having the whole job done in 1.5 hours....Laugh2

I now understand what it means to "fit" a part, not unexpected as the Upper Reciver was a Norinco. After screwing about with it for 3+ hours I had it together...not quite, I need a different barrel nut.

Can anyone tell me if I can use my existing Colt Delta Ring with a barrel nut like this one, or will I need to replace the nut and the delta ring? https://truenortharms.com/products/barrel-nut-standard

Anyone know what a gently used HBAR upper receiver is going for these days? I should sell it now that it's apart, and buy an Aero...
 
*MALICE* said:
What's wrong with the barrel nut you have?
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Hahaha!, maybe nothing, it was late, I was frustrated, looking at it now I just have to shift the snap ring. It was so fouled up it looked like it was just another proprietary piece on a Colt HBAR. I just took it apart and it's soaking at the moment.

Edit...

Nothing wrong with the nut/delta ring, should have it together tonight, and test fire it tomorrow.
 
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Excluding the rubber headed late night confusion over the barrel nut switching the receiver is a "piece of cake". The actual work swapping parts probably took about 1.5 hours. Because of having to "fit" the parts the mating of the upper and lower is really good. The test fire went well. Anyone wanting to tackle this have at it, it was pretty easy.
 
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