BCM stuck barrel lock nut : or : patience when it matters getting stuck things unstuck

BCM makes some great stuff however their AR uppers can be somewhat difficult to work on from time to time. Usually at the top of the list for difficulty is front sight taper pins and stuck barrel lock nuts. I've run into both and had to get help with the front sight pins. The lock nut is our focus here for this short post. I had mounted the upper in the action block in an attempt to remove the barrel and it simply would....not....budge.... I broke 2 teeth off the nut in fact in my attempt. Before I got super carried away I realized I had no need to get the barrel out that night, it was getting late and I had time so I put some Kroil oil around the base of the lock nut on the receiver side of things and set it next to the wall by the wood stove over night.

The next day I tried again, I readied my mental state of mind for physical combat with a lock nut that simply would not budge and chucked it up in the vise, put the action wrench on it and before I even started thinking about grunting in effort it came loose long before I thought it would. You see heat and oil and time allowed the surfaces to expand and contract and allow the lube to flow into all the areas and make our life a little easier. I've seen stories of people using LONG cheater bars and flame heat to get nuts to loosen up however it costs nothing to put some oil on a stuck nut and set it aside overnight and work on a different project.

One of my favorite methods I've seen for stuck bolts (even broken bolts) or nuts is welding a nut over the top of it and using a air power impact wrench to get it loose. The heat and vibration do wonders in getting it loose. If you break off the nut simply weld another back on and try again.....it will come loose eventually.....the more you know.

Getting things unstuck : or : stuck reloading press ram

A long time ago I came across a vintage Herters double ram reloading press for a song, the deal actually included a 2nd Herters shotgun press. Both the double ram metallic press and the shotgun press were frozen from rust. I only wanted the metallic double ram press, the shotgun press was missing a lot of parts and had a great patina and was a perfect candidate for the antique store (which selling it paid for both presses). The metallic press had a problem being frozen as it was however. The rams were connected with a link that was very likely to crack or break if forced trying to get the rams freed up. As both rams were frozen I thought about the problem for a while. In the meantime I applied oil to them and thought the issue over.

One day I watched a youtube video on tips to getting proper torque on a nut with a short wrench in a very confined space ( "Ave" was the content maker if anyone is interested he puts out some good stuff). What he did is he took an air powered hammer to the wrench and applied it to the side. This vibration and impact allowed him to get a lot of force on the wrench and thus the nut to get the kind of torque he was looking for.

Things that are rusted, frozen or otherwise stuck hate vibration and heat above all else. When I took this idea and applied it to my double ram press it was a breeze. I made a bronze fitting to go over a rivet setter tool on the air hammer, set the air down low to start with and with the press disassembled so I could get to the rams themselves individually I gave it some air and within no time they started walking and working free. It was actually a lot of fun watching them work free. This was a far better option than beating on it with a hammer and a punch and cussing along the way. Tricks like this open up a lot of possibilities on salvaging old tools and such.