Ar15 new handguard

[allen-1]

Which should be simple except nothing wanted to come apart.

I knew that torch was on my shelf for a reason.

 

[Golddiggie]

Never needed to use heat to remove a barrel nut from an upper before. At most, my 18" breaker bar took care of removing the nut (when I had a wrench to go onto it). I did use a large pipe wrench on one that used a proprietary wrench that was unavailable, once. Still, never used a torch on any of them. Hell, even the PSA upper I recently applied Cerakote too just needed some more muscle applied to the adjustable wrench to remove the nut (didn't have a crows foot in the correct size at the time, do now).

How old is the upper that uses the old 'drop in' setup? I removed that from my first AR within a year (max) of getting it back around 2012/13. I think I've only seen non-free float handguard setups on the cheapest of cheap uppers in the last five years.

Did you use the old plastic clam shell upper holder with that? Could explain why you couldn't apply enough force to the nut.

 

[allen-1]

Never needed to use heat to remove a barrel nut from an upper before. At most, my 18" breaker bar took care of removing the nut (when I had a wrench to go onto it). I did use a large pipe wrench on one that used a proprietary wrench that was unavailable, once. Still, never used a torch on any of them. Hell, even the PSA upper I recently applied Cerakote too just needed some more muscle applied to the adjustable wrench to remove the nut (didn't have a crows foot in the correct size at the time, do now).

How old is the upper that uses the old 'drop in' setup? I removed that from my first AR within a year (max) of getting it back around 2012/13. I think I've only seen non-free float handguard setups on the cheapest of cheap uppers in the last five years.

Did you use the old plastic clam shell upper holder with that? Could explain why you couldn't apply enough force to the nut.

It's a S&W that I bought in 2012 as a response to CT passing an "assault weapon" ban after Sandy Hook. I bought it, declared it, and kept it in CT until I sold my camper last year. It's been sitting in the back of my safe for the last year, untouched, still "CT legal".

I shot a fund raising match last weekend, one of the raffle prizes I came home with was a 16" handguard. So I pulled the AR out of the safe, replaced the pinned stock with an adjustable one and swapped handguards.

I had/have the correct wrench, and I have the tool that locks into the "star" chamber. I tried simple force, then tried the deadblow hammer on the wrench to break it loose. Finally went to propane.

I've got a spare 1-8 Sig LVPO, probably putting that on it.