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Posted: 3/13/2004 3:30:54 PM EDT
| I am having one hell of a time driving the taper pins out of the sight base. I know I'm pushing them in the correct direction, and I'm a big boy so I can get behind it. Any advice on how to loosen these things up would be greatly appreciated. |
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Penetrating oil and letting it sit for awhile may be in order. If it was wet at all they may have corroded tight, I had a set like that. P.S., my first guess was that you were pounding on the big end of the taper pin, in that case I'd tell you to use a bigger hammer! [:D] |
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They can indeed be tough little buggers. Taper pins are designed to be pretty much permanent fasteners and they often succeed. You may have to drill out the small end of the pin (very carefully of course) to remove the (probably) mushroomed small end, and then stick a properly sized pin punch in the drilled hole and try again. If that doesn't work, it's time for a machinist/gunsmith to work his magic charms on it, probably by setting up the barrel on V blocks on a milling machine and drilling out the pins, followed by cleanup and removal of the remains, and then reaming the holes with a no. 2/0 taper pin reamer. Presumably, you're going to install something else where the sight tower is. A gas block, maybe. Well, using the taper pin reamer as a guide, with a mill you can precisely locate where the existing holes in the barrel are for the old pins, place the new gas block or sight tower on the barrel, and drill straight into the existing holes with sufficient precision that the new pins will fit in the original holes after reaming out the gas block or sight tower to fit those pins. I've done this before, and will be doing this again in September. My main rifle is going to get its bayonet lug back, and its A2 flash hider as well! (If things go as they should, that is.) CJ |
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don't be afraid to add a little heat !! a friend told me he got his out by dumping a 30 round mag. as fast as he could laid the barrel against a brass anvil & smacked the crap out of the pins, in one blow they each come out !! i used a [B]concave[/B] punch & propane torch, about 4 or 5 hits & they slid out.., another one was so f**ked up i sent it to Colt & it came back better than before...., PRE-BAN !! no charge either.....! |
| If you're willing to write off the original FSB, you can use a fibrous cut-off wheel in a dremel tool to cut lengthwise through the bottom of the FSB to just kiss the bottoms of the pins along the pins entire length. That relieves the pressure on the pins and a tap will get 'em out. It worked for me. I don't like big hammers around barrels. Too easy to bend one. |
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