Removing super tight muzzle brake

[PSLguy]

Got an AR pistol with a factory muzzle brake that just doesn't want to budge. Hand guard and receiver are all polymer, so I don't have a lot of places to firmly grasp onto it.

I'm leaning towards removing the hand guard and gas block and just using a honking pipe wrench to hold on to the barrel.

Muzzle brake is scarred up from initial attempt, but I don't care as I won't be re-using it.

Never had one this tight. Suggestions

[NoHeavyHitter]

Muzzle brake is scarred up from initial attempt, but I don't care as I won't be re-using it.

Never had one this tight. Suggestions

Use a Dremel to split the brake lengthwise and split it open using a screwdriver (so you don't go deep enough to hit the threads).

[deephouse]

Torch


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[PSLguy]

Both are good ideas. May try torch first, then Dremel as last choice

[ar15barrels]

I get a lot of barrels sent to me after people used a Dremel to split a muzzle device and they cut into the crown.
Dremel safely or don't Dremel at all...

My vote is to remove the handguard and hold the barrel properly in an aluminum block in a press and then just twist the muzzle device off.
Always works for me.

[PachecoFTW]

Torch, not a blow torch.
I once spilled alot and I mean alot of rocksett on a brake and barrel.(years after I wanted to remove it) I soaked it in acetone, goof off, and multipurpose oil, but the damn thing never moved after each attempt.
Heat it and give it a go. Only heat has worked for me.

[deephouse]

Do you have a vise OP?


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[PSLguy]

I have every necessary tool to do this properly including vise, Armorers tools, jigs to hold barrel, upper, lower, etc.

Problem is gun is at my house in Utah, not here in CA where most tools are. Looks like I made need to move tools/jigs that are gun related up there. It's about time anyway I suppose. Most guns are there.

[checkenbach]

I soaked mine in Kroil for a few days, then used a heat gun to warm it up. Still tight as a MoFo though...

[Scota4570]

Bubbas listen up. Pipe wrenches are not a gunsmiting tool! It is so sad to see all the maham that has been done to guns with pipe wrenches.

IF you are short on real barrel tools there is a cheap solution. Make a pair of maple or oak blocks that fit the barrel. Do this by putting a wood spacer between two blocks and drilling a barrel sized hole between the blocks.

Apply powdered rosin to the blocks where they will touch the barrel. You can get violin rosin from a music store or baseball pitcher rosin bags.

Position the blocks around the barrel, near the brake. Put it in a beefie machinists' vice and clamp down hard. The barrel is now held extremely securely. You will not even mark the bluing.

Please use a properly fighting wrench on the brake. Vice grips and pipe wrenches are not suitable.

There is no reason in the word to mar up your barrel.

Your brake may have been improperly secured with red loctite. Heat will break the bond, about 500*. Do not torch the brake enough to heat blue the metal. To much heat also melts the rosin.

Have fun.

[Experimentalist]

I get a lot of barrels sent to me after people used a Dremel to split a muzzle device and they cut into the crown.
Dremel safely or don't Dremel at all...

My vote is to remove the handguard and hold the barrel properly in an aluminum block in a press and then just twist the muzzle device off.
Always works for me.

Perhaps a bit of penetrating oil might help? Couldn't much hurt...

[deephouse]

Bubbas listen up. Pipe wrenches are not a gunsmiting tool! It is so sad to see all the maham that has been done to guns with pipe wrenches.

IF you are short on real barrel tools there is a cheap solution. Make a pair of maple or oak blocks that fit the barrel. Do this by putting a wood spacer between two blocks and drilling a barrel sized hole between the blocks.

Apply powdered rosin to the blocks where they will touch the barrel. You can get violin rosin from a music store or baseball pitcher rosin bags.

Position the blocks around the barrel, near the brake. Put it in a beefie machinists' vice and clamp down hard. The barrel is now held extremely securely. You will not even mark the bluing.

Please use a properly fighting wrench on the brake. Vice grips and pipe wrenches are not suitable.

There is no reason in the word to mar up your barrel.

Your brake may have been improperly secured with red loctite. Heat will break the bond, about 500*. Do not torch the brake enough to heat blue the metal. To much heat also melts the rosin.

Have fun.

[Scota4570]

You’re asking guys that don’t have the tools to remove a flash hider... to make maple wood blocks that fit a barrel.


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If a guy does not have access to a saw, a drill, a wrench, and a machinist vice they should not work on their own guns. In the vein I would not suggest removing chrome lugs nuts from mag wheels with with a pipe wrench or vice grips either. IF you are going to work on guns some basic tools are needed. I just told everyone how to avoid buying a barrel vice.

[G-forceJunkie]

Google "AR-15 barrel vice jaws"

[deephouse]

If a guy does not have access to a saw, a drill, a wrench, and a machinist vice they should not work on their own guns.