Got a PWA receiver I've assembled except for:

The hole for the detent pin and spring is far to short. Anyone else have similar problem or other solution? My guess at this point is that I am going to have to drill it out but obviously am not very anxious to do that. Anyway, this brings me to 2nd problem:

I inserted the detent pin into the hole to see if it was wide enough as well and the detent pin fell into hole. I cannot get it out but am currently trying to find a strong magnet--lot's of luck so far(sarcasm). The tip of the detent pin is about 3-4mm from the surface.

Any help is appreciated. I post on the build your own forum but there's not much action there.

Clip a few coils off of the spring, so it just slightly protrudes when fully seated in the hole.

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Quoted: Clip a few coils off of the spring, so it just slightly protrudes when fully seated in the hole. -

From what I can tell I'd have to take more than half the spring off and I wasn't too certain how well that would function at that point. I do have a few spare springs I can experiment with though.

I did find a magnet rated to hold up 95 lbs but its not doing the trick. Part of the problem is that I can't get it right next to into the hole. Probably about a centimeter from the tip of the pin.

Everything other than this seems up to spec but for some reason nothing seemed to go smoothly with this assembly. Took 3 times longer than usual for some damn reason. Then I get to the very end, last piece, and now this. Damn. I want to take it out and shoot it.

It is fairly common to have some crud left in that hole when the receiver is finished.  Just take a small drill bit and run it down the hole and spin it by hand.  That should clean it out.

I guess if worse comes to worse, you can always leave the detent in the bottom of the hole and install the spring and a new detent on top of it. I figure Tony's idea will get it out of there though.

Thanks Tony. I'll definitely try that when and IF I get the pin out. I don't understand how the hell it got "cemented" in there. The tip of the pin is only a couple of mm deep in the hole. I don't think it will go deeper as I tried several things in the detent hole and none would go in more than about 1 1/2 cms , tops. I've shot oil in it, used a magnet, heat--no luck. Won't even move. Of course, I haven't tried pushing it in further but I'm certain if it went in any further it would be minimal at best(or worst).
I'm starting to think I'll have to drill the pin out but really don't want to do that. Probably pretty damn hard as well. The pin is no big deal though. I've got plenty off spares.
There is no weep hole in this receiver or I probably would have had it out a long time ago.
Thanks to everyone else as well.

Got a wooden mallet, or a stick?

Hold the receiver with the hole facing down,
and give the face of the receiver a few sharp (but not really hard) raps with the stick or mallet. That may knock out the pin.

If that doesn't work:

Locate any dead old 3.5 inch computer hard drive. Tear it apart and pry the magnets off of the magnet assembly by the head arm coil.  Those magnets are FEROCIOUSLY strong.   Stick one to the side of a small steel rod like a drill bit, stick the rod into the hole, and you may end up being able to pull the pin out when you pull the rod out.

Watch out for those little magnets. Two of them can slam together so hard they'll shatter violently, and they can give you blood blisters if they pinch you.


CJ

btt

what material is the pin made of?

Quoted: Quoted: Locate any dead old 3.5 inch computer hard drive. Great, now I'm going to be tearing up a 3.5" floppy drive just to see how strong these magnets really are!!

He said hard drive, not floppy.

Got it out, "drilled" out sandblasting grit, and is completely assembled. Now I can finally relax...

It was definitely sandblast grit(I used to do that for a living) and the spring that came with the Colt kit was still too long but one of my spares seemed perfect. It was shorter than the Colt for some reason.

Got the pin out by using a magnet on my smallest allen wrench and after inserting and gently tugging about 2000 times since yesterday she finally slid out. I did also shoot a little gunscrubber in there a short while ago so I've got to assume that that helped alot as well.

Thanks to all for your advice and help.

BTW, looks totally awesome. Pics when I get a digital camera--should be soon.