Gunsmiths who work on AR uppers; install AR barrel, gas block, and barrel nut

Bigchillin83 said:

Lol there's a lot more than cheaperthandirt, every utg and alg I have bought was bought as a "kit" and all came with wrench, just takes a little more than 2mins surfing the web to try to prove sombody wrong to figure that out.... Just saying

And I noticed you couldn't even say your right about Midwest industries all comming with a wrench lol, it's ok, I'm married I'm used to not hearing "your right" lmbo

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DaSouthernYankee said:

Hm, the ALG used to, I have no idea when they change that. Either way, it's a whopping $5.


Sent from an unidentified bayou mobile device

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dtrice said:

Later in the year, I'm thinking about re barreling an AR. Which means I'd also need the gas block and barrel nut to be installed. Are there any smiths in the area who would do that type of work?

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shrxfn said:

Not really. I would consider myself a real man and didn't get a bench vise until recently. I just didn't need one at the time.

When I needed to hammer some flat iron into bend I put it on my tractors bucket and used that 90 degree angle to make the shape with the hammer. Needed to hold something to unscrew it, two pairs of vise grips did the job. Need to hold a piece of wood to saw it or drill it my booted foot did a good job for that. As you can see real men use the tools at hand to get the job done when needed.

Now I do own a bench vise because I needed to do some smithing on the guns and the job required a bench vise to do it right and I finally got that cabinet and workbench setup going so I had a place to mount it.

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KDerekT83 said:

You don't need a whole lot to do your own work if you can make do with what you have. $40.00 computer desk from walmart, $20.00 5" bench vise from harbor freight, misc other tools, and I mill/build my own rifles on a regular basis.. Pretty soon I'll be getting to doing pistols too.. Looking into the Poly80 PF940C 80% frames and what all I'll need now....

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jdindadell said:

Sorry, I may have mis-spoke there about the "real man" part... By "real man" I meant someone who actually fixes and creates items correctly, with precision. I see no way to accurately perform certain tasks without a bench vise. And "working around" a bench vise is not really what a real man would do, a real man thinks and prepares. Plus a bench vise is one of the first tools a workshop should have.

A real busy man may need to use the "old workaround" to get something "done" but that does not mean it is done correctly. I have had to do this at times, and almost always wish I had taken the time to do it right...

As far as factory built ar uppers go, I have handled a few hundred and can say that a meaningful amount of them, maybe a dozen, had the barrel nuts on hand tight. Best to check before getting the upper setup in the vise.

You do not really need a receiver block to install a barrel in a flat top upper, you can use wood or plastic between the jaws and the pict rail on the top and across the bottom to hold the upper. While the magpul wrench is nice (I use it most of the time), a simple dpms style wrench end to use with a breaker bar or torque wrench will do, and can be easier if you still have the delta ring on. Plus if you plan to torque the barrel nut on assembly (which is advised) you will need the torque wrench. The 11 dollar on special harbor freight torque wrench is plenty good. In fact, you can go to the freight and buy the torque wrench, bench vise and some punches for less than 100 bucks.

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