After ruining one of my most prized possesions, a 6" vise that had a screw with very little backlash and the front had almost no play, tonight in a bloody, bone-crunching accident, I've decided I need to buy a set of barrel blocks.  If I had had them, I might not have destroyed my vise.  I've seen the vise blocks in Bushmaster's catalog for $15.  Do you guys think that they'll be sufficiently strong enough and hold well enough for a stubborn FAL barrel project?  If not, does anyone have a better one to recommend?  I once saw one that bolted together and had holes so that you could then bolt it to a work bench.  That would be great, because I'm going to need to apply a lot of torque and my vise is broken.  Also, if anyone knows where I can buy one around Columbia, SC, I would appreciate it.  I'm going to be there until Monday.

Thanks in advance.

Never heard of anyone using barrel vise blocks on a FAL. AFAIK, a receiver wrench is used with a (big) pipe wrench [:)] DSA sells these for $59.95.
[url]http://www.dsarms.com/tools.htm[/url]

And when you're using the receiver wrench, how do you hold the barrel in place?  With the barrel vise blocks.

be careful:

a while back, I had some for my AR15 barrels.
If they are made out of aluminum, or other
shiny metal,,then they might leave marks
all over your barrel.

When the barrel is compressed against these soft, aluminum, barrel blocks, it will impress silver
residue on the barrel.

Once you release it from the vice grip,, it looks like the bluing from your barrel has been
stripped away and you are just looking at a
bare-metal barrel.

even though your not. All it is,,is metal
residue imprinted on your perfectly good
barrel.

Meat-Hook

There are barrel vises made out of aluminium?  That's insane when softer metals exist and are easier to work with.  Anybody can pour lead in a mold, as we've seen by the number of people that reload and cast their own bullets.  Also, I don't see how the aluminium could hold the barrel in place as well as something that would conform better to the barrel.  I don't care what it does to the way the barrel looks, because it's just a cheap FAL barrel, but I need it to hold.  If the aluminium is anodized, then it would be even harder.  I already torqued the barrel, covered with rosin, down hard in a vise with aluminium rails.  I could still spin the barrel with only about 25 foot pounds of torque.

I guess I'll have to e-mail Bushmaster and ask what their barrel vise is made out of.  If it's not a soft metal, then I guess I might have to make my own.  I've got about 50 pounds of lead from old car batteries that might work.  It's nasty stuff, but it is harder than the lead alloys usually used in wheel weights or bullets, so it might be the right thing to use.z

I have seen a channel iron used with lead poured into it with the barrel pressed into a groove carved in the lead to form a tight fit mold, use one for each side and a vise.

I have also heard, in a pinch, you can take an open end wrench (27mm) and file the mouth to fit on the flat parts of the barrel in front of the receiver face, be sure it's a real tight fit. You may have to tap it on with a mallet.

Either way you will probably need the reciever wrench to keep from bending or squashing the reciever.

I have also heard some STG-58 barrels are built on demilitarized receivers that don't have enough receiver stub for an easy barrel removal, these barrels are often easier to cut off than screw around with.

You probably already know how to time the barrel and adjust for headspace and relevant use of breeching washers I am guessing since you are changing barrels.

Good luck on your barrel project.

cyberian, thanks for the idea to use channel iron.  It would help the lead hold its shape better.  I might try that.

I'm putting a barrel with a very nice bore on my new receiver.  I started to torque it down when the breech face hit the inside of the receiver.  Now, I need to remove it so that I can file down the breech face, but I can't get it to loosen.  I did cut the barrel off of the old receiver.  I used the usual job of using a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel in the channel under the cocking handle.  After I got it cut down near the threads, I hammered a chisel into the split under the cocking handle.  The receiver easily broke in a clean line, and I was able to remove by turning it by hand.

I tried using a 1 1/16" modified wrench (I think it's a little closer to the correct size) on the barrel.  The problem is that with my receiver wrench, I can't get a good hold on the flats on the barrel.  I guess I could grind down my receiver wrench, but it's already pretty thin (relative to the torque I've already tried using to get the barrel back off).

There are two approaches to installing FAL barrels. One involves some sort of soft insert for your vise that will hold the barrel (I've heard lead being used). The barrel is fixed in the vise while a receiver wrench is used to turn the receiver onto the barrel like you'd do with a bolt action.

The other method involves fixing the receiver in the vise and turning the barrel onto the receiver. In this case, the receiver wrench is really a receiver vise insert that will securely hold the receiver w/o damaging or crushing critical points of the receiver (gas tube threads or cocking handle rail). I preferred this method because I could see what I was doing. It also only required one tool, the receiver vise insert. The barrel wrench was a modified 1 1/16" wrench with the opening relieve for a tight fit on the barrel's wrench flats.

The receiver wrench most commonly sold (DSA, Casey Elliot) is used with the first method. I didn't like this method because it was harder to see my witness marks for timing the barrel.

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Your vise is broken? I haven't seen a receiver wrench/device that bolted onto a bench. Have you considered holding off till you can get a replacement vise?

Gunplumber sells some I think:

[url]http://www.arizonaresponsesystems.com/[/url]

Go to the FAL Files:
http://www.l1a1.com/cgi-bin/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=1&SUBMIT=Go

Do a search on barrel vise and you should get the info you need. There has been a current (in the last week) discussion on barrel vises and reciever wrenches. In the marketplace area somebody was selling aluminium reciever wrenches for $48.