How do you PROPERLY remove and add a new barrel to an upper receiver, in your own home, without paying someone else to do it, or having someone else do it for you, or having to ship it somewhere, etc...?

Buy the barrel from SPECIALIZED ARMAMENT and they will install it for free.

www.sawlesales.com

"We will properly install any barrel purchased from Specialized Armament on your upper receiver or firearm at no charge! Hopefully, this will avoid any financial incentive to damage your own firearm or create unwanted problems."

Search older threads on this forum as well as the build it yourself forum for answers.
In short to do it right you need to acquire a upper receiver vise block to hold the receiver,barrel nut wrench,torque wrench and pin punches.  Some will tell you all you need is a helper and a pipe wrench but does this seem like sound advice for working on a firearm to you??  Do some reading on this site and all will be revealed.  By the way, for your own peace of mind check headspace after installation.

I searched around on the asssembly pages of old.ar15.com, and found nothing.

How do you check head spacing?

Quoted: I searched around on the asssembly pages of old.ar15.com, and found nothing.

Did you miss the -23&P at old.ar15.com/books?  Its only got complete direction, tool/parts listings, and diagrams.  Other than that WTF do you need?

How do you check head spacing?

Gauge, Head Space, Field.  Proper Military (5.56 chamber) one is available from Fulton Armory.  

Brownells & Bushmaster sell the civilian versions. (the military one is better IMHO - you don't have to take the bolt apart).  Note that using the civilan gauges in a military chambered barrel will give you bad readings.

BTW headspacing is determined by the bolt/barrel fit - it has Nother/Zip/ZERO/NADA to do with how the barrel fits into the upper receiver.

Sounds to me like you need to invest in some good books on the AR to really understand the rifle, what it takes to accurize it and how to service it safely.  There are military manuals for this as well as a number of commercially produced books.   The military manuals are a good place to start. Walt Kuleck's book on the AR is also a good source.

Read about the process first then decide if you can tackle it.  

Frankly, I wouldn't recommend doing it for a one off.  If you plan on doing a number of rifles then it might be worthwhile tooling and skilling up, otherwise, send it out and have it done by someone with all the gauges, wrenches, fixtures and other tools that you will need.   Really.

You want one of the military armorers manuals, available on line from the books section of the old ar15.com, from the maryland AR shooter site and from other sources.  It covers the tools needed, the procedures to follow and how to check everything to make sure it is correct.

My army M16 manual states that you need a vise, barrel vise block, a combination tool, torque wrench and a roll pin punch.

To remove, it shows the barrel clamped in the barrel block, removing the roll pin that holds the gas tube from the front sight and then backing the tube into and then out of the receiver. The combi tool is used to unscrew the barrel from the receiver. Or in the diagram they are acutally unscrewing the receiver from the barrel in that the barrel is held in a vise.

Installation is reverse of the above, except you have to torque the barrel tight to somewhere around 35 psi. Don't quote me on that figure.

Suggestions include using a new roll pin in that the old one sometimes gets damaged or deformed.

Quoted: Quoted: I searched around on the asssembly pages of old.ar15.com, and found nothing. Did you miss the -23&P at old.ar15.com/books?  Its only got complete direction, tool/parts listings, and diagrams.  Other than that WTF do you need?

Hmm.. I looked at old.ar15.com and looked under ASSEMBLY old.ar15.com/docs/assembly/ (makes sense to have it there, wouldn't you think?)

I don't have time to browse through a bunch of links. Its not my fault its not organized correctly...

Quoted: Installation is reverse of the above, except you have to torque the barrel tight to somewhere around 35 psi. Don't quote me on that figure.

It's 30 foot-pounds.  Tighten the barrel nut to 30 ft-lb, loosen it, tighten it again to 30 ft-lb, loosen it again, tighten it a final time to 30-80 ft-lb (whatever you need in that range to make the gas tube line up with the cutouts in the nut).