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CanadianSoldier

CanadianSoldier

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Calgary, Alberta "Land of the Free"
This guy!

So I'm excited right, get my lower parts kit for my AR. I install mag release, no prob. Move on to bolt catch. I'm having some problems lining up hole and holding it there while I hammer in the roll pin. It's not lining up, bolt catch getting stuck on the bit of the pin that's sticking out, I pull out the bolt catch.

Plunger and spring fall on floor, no problem, I pick em up, and continue on.

I manage to line it up and hammer the roll pin in almost all the way, then I realize.....

I forgot to put the F-ING plunger and spring back in :eek:


How the hell do I get the roll pin out? There's about a mm of it sticking out. I found a nail that is small enough for the hole, but big enough to hammer the pin. I made a punch out of it and going to try this.

I am so angry, I just want to break walls and throw #### everywhere lol.

Sigh... what to do.
 
prproulx said:
I use proper sized drill bits as punches. Eventually the cutting edge breaks off and you have a shaft you can use.
The trick is to have the right size.
Click to expand...

NO, use the proper sized PUNCHES as punches! (I'm sure this is what you meant;) )
Get a good quality set as well. Craftsmen from Sears will serve you well.
 
Beltfed is 100% right. The best investment you can make for your gun collection is a good PUNCH SET and a good SCREWDRIVER SET. Both of which can be purchased from Brownells. You SHOULD HAVE starter punches, they'll save you lots of stress. Properly sized screwdriver bits will stop you from destroying/marring your screws!
 
Where can I get punches? Canada Trash didn't have any. All they had was those nail ones, but they're useless because they are narrow and then go wide....aren't narrow for long enough to punch the entire pin out.

This sucks, I don't have my upper yet, but it would have been nice to build the lower.
 
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You can get a whole set of straight punches at Sears, for not lots of moola, the srewdrivers are good too but they may not carry ones to fit exactly the screws on your project.
 
I relaly hope I can get this roll pin out, what a day ruined lol. One of those stupid mistakes and bad stroke of luck forgetting to put a part in, that you wanna drink your ass off.

Best part about today, my GF sent me an awesome painting, so that was nice.
 
Ironically, the punch I've been using all night, fits in to hammer out the pin.

I think its because it was a bit flattened, it had an edge around it. I filed the sides and it fit. (SKS punch)

Thank you Jesus haha.

Today went from awesome, to horrible, back to awesome again.
 
One of those tapered finishing nail punches from Canadian Tire will work just fine for tapping the bolt catch roll pin out far enough to get the spring and plunger in place. For putting it back in, I use a pair of vise grip to gradually squeeze it into position. Wrap the ends of the vise grips with some electrical tape to avoid marring the finish and have at it.
The correct pin punch sizes for working with an AR-15 are 3/32", 1/8", 5/32".
 
Mike K said:
One of those tapered finishing nail punches from Canadian Tire will work just fine for tapping the bolt catch roll pin out far enough to get the spring and plunger in place. For putting it back in, I use a pair of vise grip to gradually squeeze it into position. Wrap the ends of the vise grips with some electrical tape to avoid marring the finish and have at it.
The correct pin punch sizes for working with an AR-15 are 3/32", 1/8", 5/32".
Click to expand...

Thanks. Now do you think I need an export permit to order roll pin punches from Brownells?
 
prproulx said:
Thanks. Now do you think I need an export permit to order roll pin punches from Brownells?
Click to expand...
No. ............................................................................................
damn 10 character limit.
 
Well I'm gonna need to do something about this pin, it's in now but not all the way, and it's ugly lol. I can't keep the punch on it while hammering, without it slipping off. Same thing sorta happened with the trigger guard roll pin, it's in but it's not pretty.
 
:eek: Fer cryin' out loud!!!!! Yer killin' us here.:eek:
STOP!!!! You're wrecking your lower...:(
Go and get a set of the correct size punches...in particular, get proper rollpin punches.
Canadian Tire does sell punches...go to the automotive tool section. Better still, go to Sears. But please go somewhere, get the proper tools and stop butchering your lower.;)
 
While you are at it, get a brass & nylon faced hammer. brass punches are cheap insurance as well....you can get the hammer and brass punches for cheap at Princess Auto in the NE.

Those nail 'punches' are not punches. they are nail sets for use in carpentry. I would not use those. I would also not use vise grips for anything other than holding a pin in place to be driven into a hole.
 
CanadianSoldier said:
Well even if I have the correct punches, how do I hammer in the pin without the punch sliding off while hammering? The punch I have fits fine.

Man it was tricky holding the pin and punch in place, and it was a tough bastard too.
Click to expand...

Three weeks ago I put my first lower together. Here's what you need to do:

- invite a friend over to help you hold stuff.
- follow these instructions:
http://ar15.com/content/guides/assembly/lower/

Print it out. Line up the parts you have overtop of the parts on the picture.

Notice the list of tools.

READ EVERY WORD OF THE GUIDE.

We were done in about 1.5 hours and neither of us had any experience assembing a lower. We took our time, thought about how everything would end-up working, and adjusted our methods to suit the tools that we had at our disposal. One spring flew across the room (we found it). No other problems were encountered.
 
CanadianSoldier said:
Well even if I have the correct punches, how do I hammer in the pin without the punch sliding off while hammering?
Click to expand...

You use a roll pin punch. It's like a regular parallel punch, but the front face has a little 'dimple' in it that locates in the centre of the rollpin, which centres the punch while you're driving in the roll pin. It also prevents damage to the face of the rollpin that your driving.
 
tpb: That's what I did except I used the guide on the ARF forums, and didn't have a friend helping.

I was wondering about a punch with a face made for roll pins.

Oh well, bit of a butcher job but I'm still glad I built it myself, I could have bought a complete AR, but I wanted to try this out. I'm sure I'll build another down the road. Too bad they can't be FA haha, guess I can't complain, I get to use FA in the Army :D.
 
beltfed said:
I would also not use vise grips for anything other than holding a pin in place to be driven into a hole.
Click to expand...

I was skeptical about using the vise grips at first as well. I've used them a couple of times now and and it makes putting in roll pins much easier and signifigantly reduces the risk of dinging the receiver while trying to tap the pin in with the 5 or so hands normally needed for that task. Wrap the teeth of the grips up with tape to avoid scratching anything. Hold the pin in place in the desired hole and adjust the grips so they are just a smidgen tighter than enough to hold the pin in place. Progessively squeeze the pin into place by tightening up the pliers a half turn or so at a time, releasing them and closing them up again. STOP if it encounters any resistance. The pin just slides right into place.
 
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