Super glue

[TurboFall]

I managed to superglue my pistol grip onto my lower receiver, and find myself needing to get it off.

What's the best way of approaching this? I'm thinking of soaking the bottom end of my receiver in acetone or MEK, but will this damage the receiver or any parts?

[RANGER295]

[C.G.]

If the grips are plastic, Acetone will most likely etch or crack them.

[RANGER295]

If the grips are plastic, Acetone will most likely etch or crack them.

[TurboFall]

A little spilled along the cracks between the pistol grip and the receiver, but I have no idea to what extent the glue seeped into the crevices. I certainly had no intention of gluing my pistol grip on.

I read that super glue can be dissolved with acetone, MEK, or a really long hot water bath, and I have access to the latter two. I tried just wiping down the cracks with MEK, but no dice . I don't mind scratching or etching the pistol grip too much, it's only a regular A2. So do you guys think an MEK/hot water bath will work? I don't want my receiver/trigger/hammer/stuff to corrode or anything.

[RANGER295]

[TurboFall]

There was a minor chip on the receiver too small and irrelevant to fix through proper means. It seemed like a good idea at the time

[redcliff]

+1 on removing the screw and rapping it with a hammer

[TurboFall]

Alright, I'll give hammering another go, and hope I don't break anything in the process. Should I have the safety selector in one position or another?

[ke6guj]

safety selector position should not matter. However, superglue may have glued the selector detent spring into the grip and receiver, so that may get messed up.

[NeoWeird]

Just a quick tip; when trying to break stuff giving them a good heat or freeze before trying is always a good idea. Prep the lower to the point you are going to hit it and then throw it in the freezer over night. The next morning/night get everything ready then take it out and IMMEDIATELY give it a good hit. Try to avoid touching around the area you are working on unless you HAVE to. The idea behind this is that the materials, in this case the receiver, bonding agent (super glue), and pistol grip will expand and shrink at different rates. Hopefully freezing with cause them to shrink and pull away from each other and maybe even seperate completey (not likely).

It should help. This can also be done on Loctite but not so much on the harder stuff, like Red Loctite but it CAN work.

[RANGER295]

If the grip screw is removed, I really don’t think you could break anything other than the pistol grip short of putting the receiver in a vice and hitting it with a sledge hammer. Don’t hit it from the side. I would probably either hold the receiver in one hand pointing up and hit end of the pistol grip towards the rear, or do the same thing by holding the receiver and striking the grip on a work bench or something. Smack it good.

Edit: +1 to what NeoWeird said. In this case I would avoid heat and freeze it.

[TurboFall]

Whoo hoo! Got it loose. Apparently some of it pooled into the gap between the trigger guard and the grip; short quick knife work and a hard smack got it loose. Thanks for the help everyone. And I learned my lesson; guns aren't glued together for a reason.

[RAD-CDPII]

I managed to superglue my pistol grip onto my lower receiver, and find myself needing to get it off.

What's the best way of approaching this? I'm thinking of soaking the bottom end of my receiver in acetone or MEK, but will this damage the receiver or any parts?

Look on the bright side, at least it's not glued to your hand.

[NeoWeird]

Look on the bright side, at least it's not glued to your hand.

Why would that be worse? The outer layer of your epidermis would slowly die and fall off anyways; so who cares if you rip them off or wait for them to die.

Unless you're a bachelor....then that missing hand is a HUGE problem...

you know...for opening beer bottles and stuff...