Through an act of abject stupidity, I have wrecked my action block and need to rebarrel an upper post haste.

Anyone have any home remedies/tips/tricks for doing the procedure safely without an action block?  

I drilled two 1/4" holes in a 1/2 inch x 2 inch  aluminum bar about ten inches long.  The holes match up with the two takedown pin holes.  The upper edge of the bar is flush with the bottom of the upper receiver and the end of the bar is back far enough that the barrel nut and delta ring clears.

Then I bolted it down snug with a couple bolts and clamped the aluminum bar in a large vise.

Worked great to swap uppers and to index a front sight.

I am a firm believer in the right tool for the job, but for no more uppers than I will be fooling with, this worked fine.

AL

I've been thinking about something along those lines, myself.  Thanks for the confirmation that it will work.  I've got new action blocks on order, but they won't be here until tomorrow afternoon and I need this one in about 10hrs!  

:)

hmmm..........

I have had sucess using a strap wrench on the BARREL itself, not the upper.  Some will say this will damage the upper, but I don't see how.  I just lined up the closest notch on the barrel nut that wasn't too tight, and it works fine so far.

use wood ,couple of blocks with the barrel in between......if you use soft wood like pine just smash the wood around the barrel with the vise...if you use hard wood like oak i would clamp the 2 pieces togehter and drill a hole about 1/16 to 1/8 smaller than the barrel .......then put the barrel in.