If you enjoy the forum please consider supporting it by signing up for a NES Membership The benefits pay for the membership many times over.
Be sure to enter the NES/Pioneer Valley Arms April Giveaway ***Smith & Wesson SD9VE 9MM***

Reply to thread

Message

Looking at throwing my last AR lower together (cheap) so I picked up this barrel assy for a great price. It's a VooDoo barrel with Fortis gas block and a Primary Weapons Systems FSC muzzle brake. Problem is the brake is "blind pinned" and it has a BCM barrel nut on it for a KMR hand guard. I like the big quad rails and not really a fan of the key mod rails, not to mention the BCM hand guard is pretty pricey. No other hand guard that I know of uses this same barrel nut so the question is do I attempt to ruin a nice $100 muzzle device and possibly the barrel too? Or bite the bullet and buy a KMR hand guard for a lot more than what I paid for the complete barrel set up.
If you look at the pictures you can see where the pin was welded over. Not really sure how centered it is however, I really don't think it should be that bad to remove. A friend with extensive metal work experience says its pretty hard to drill through weld. I'm thinking start with a center punch and a small carbide drill bit in a drill press and step up on the bits.
I know the right thing to do is bring it to a machine shop or gunsmith but they're expensive and wont guarantee they can save the brake or even the barrel threads.
Any advice or suggestions?

<blockquote data-quote="Franko" data-source="post: 5378090" data-attributes="member: 41691">Looking at throwing my last AR lower together (cheap) so I picked up this barrel assy for a great price. It&#039;s a VooDoo barrel with Fortis gas block and a Primary Weapons Systems FSC muzzle brake. Problem is the brake is &quot;blind pinned&quot; and it has a BCM barrel nut on it for a KMR hand guard. I like the big quad rails and not really a fan of the key mod rails, not to mention the BCM hand guard is pretty pricey. No other hand guard that I know of uses this same barrel nut so the question is do I attempt to ruin a nice $100 muzzle device and possibly the barrel too? Or bite the bullet and buy a KMR hand guard for a lot more than what I paid for the complete barrel set up. If you look at the pictures you can see where the pin was welded over. Not really sure how centered it is however, I really don&#039;t think it should be that bad to remove. A friend with extensive metal work experience says its pretty hard to drill through weld. I&#039;m thinking start with a center punch and a small carbide drill bit in a drill press and step up on the bits. I know the right thing to do is bring it to a machine shop or gunsmith but they&#039;re expensive and wont guarantee they can save the brake or even the barrel threads.Any advice or suggestions?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Franko, post: 5378090, member: 41691"] Looking at throwing my last AR lower together (cheap) so I picked up this barrel assy for a great price. It's a VooDoo barrel with Fortis gas block and a Primary Weapons Systems FSC muzzle brake. Problem is the brake is "blind pinned" and it has a BCM barrel nut on it for a KMR hand guard. I like the big quad rails and not really a fan of the key mod rails, not to mention the BCM hand guard is pretty pricey. No other hand guard that I know of uses this same barrel nut so the question is do I attempt to ruin a nice $100 muzzle device and possibly the barrel too? Or bite the bullet and buy a KMR hand guard for a lot more than what I paid for the complete barrel set up. If you look at the pictures you can see where the pin was welded over. Not really sure how centered it is however, I really don't think it should be that bad to remove. A friend with extensive metal work experience says its pretty hard to drill through weld. I'm thinking start with a center punch and a small carbide drill bit in a drill press and step up on the bits. I know the right thing to do is bring it to a machine shop or gunsmith but they're expensive and wont guarantee they can save the brake or even the barrel threads. Any advice or suggestions? [/QUOTE]

Verification