Need advice on flash suppressor removal [Archive]

BGREID

01-20-12, 17:30

I know to just unscrew it but, I have a 12" free float rail on a 16" barrel leaving only 3" of exposed barrel. So I cannot get my barrel vice on it as the vice is longer than the exposed barrel. The flash suppressor is installed with a crush washer. I am sure this can be done but how do I do it? This is a Midwest Ind. free float rail.

GTifosi

01-20-12, 17:57

With a crush washer its likely not on there so tight that you couldn't literally just put a wrench on it and spin it off w/o mounting the barrel in a vice.

Certainly an upper receiver action block would be stout enough for that job if you've gotta have somthing to hold it while wrenching.

slomo

01-20-12, 19:08

You wouldn't want to clamp a vise directly on the barrel anyway. Get a hardwood block larger than your Fore grip and a little shorter than the space between tne grip and FH. Drill a hole a little smaller than the barrel, saw the block through the hole and use the block in your vise to clamp the barrel.

BGREID

01-20-12, 19:13

You wouldn't want to clamp a vise directly on the barrel anyway. Get a hardwood block larger than your Fore grip and a little shorter than the space between tne grip and FH. Drill a hole a little smaller than the barrel, saw the block through the hole and use the block in your vise to clamp the barrel.

I have the aluminum barrel blocks but they are to long to clamp on the exposed barrel. I may have to try the wooden block idea.

SpaceWrangler

01-20-12, 19:19

Certainly an upper receiver action block would be stout enough for that job if you've gotta have somthing to hold it while wrenching.

It's not the action block you have to worry about, it's the keyway in the upper receiver that the Barrel Index Pin slides into. By wrenching on the Flash Hider with the upper in a vice with an action block, all the torque is being transfered to the pin and its slot in the upper receiver. The pin can take it, but the thin aluminum upper receiver can not.

http://shanedaughtry.com/images/Barrel%20Nut%202.jpg

Seriously, don't do it. If you're applying torque to the barrel, fix the barrel in the vice (somehow).

Inkslinger

01-20-12, 20:27

Why don't you take off your hand guard?

BGREID

01-20-12, 21:09

Why don't you take off your hand guard?

I didn't put it on, so I don't know how to take it off. That is what I am trying to figure out. I just don't want to mess it up.