Castle nut staking, why the big deal?

[dcmdon]

Rob,
I wasnt contradicting you. The mere fact that loctiting it to the buffer puts the rotational forces on the wrong part is reason enough to stake the nut.

You do bring up a good point about parts secured with loctite coming loose. PROPERLY loctited nuts will not come lose.

However I'd guess that many who do use loctite where it is appropriate (again not advocating it on the castle nut, just trying to contribute some general mechanical knowledge) do not use it properly. To work properly the parts must be thoroughly degreased. That means they need to be well soaked in brake cleaner/gun scrubber or some other high vapor pressure solvent.

Most people dont bother to do that first and don't get the bond they are expecting.

Don
p.s. As for my own use, none of my castle nuts are staked or loctited. They are all range toys at this point. I'm also not sure what stock I'm going to be keeping on my favorite lower. One thing is sure though. When I take my first carbine course this year, it will be properly staked.

[zydeco76]

When I first intalled my CAR stock it used blue locktite because I did'nt have a punch at the time. I had every intention of staking it aswell when I picked up a punch. I opten worried about it when seting up at the range and would check it. I procrastinated like this for some time. Eventually I forgot about it as the nut never moved at all. I had become quite familiar with how I had indexed it originally. After a couple thousand sounds I deciced to place the A2 stock on the rifle to get my frenken upper running. That is when I found out why you don't use locktite on it. Trust me on this. A staked castle nutt is easier to remove than a Loctited one. Even using the proper method for weakening the loctitie bond is far more of a PITA then useing a punch.

[Magsz]

Guys, two questions.

1. How does one use a torque wrench in combination with a castle nut wrench?

2. Without the use of a torque wrench how does one ensure that the castle nut is staked to a proper torque rating?

I just installed two Magpul endplates and id really like to make sure that my castle nuts dont come undone at an upcoming class.

Thanks guys!

[DRich]

Several of the castle nut wrenches have a cut-out for a 3/8" ratchet / torque wrench.

If I had to do it without a torque wrench, I'd just tighten it down "nice and snug" and stake it well.

[Magsz]

I keep hearing "nice and snug" and that makes me nervous.

What is nice and snug? Applying your full body weight to it or tightening it until it stops moving and then giving it an additional application of elbow grease to snug it up just a bit more.

In order to break the staking i had to use a freaking pipe as a lever to extend the amount of force i could apply to the wrench lol.

Im wondering if i would need that much pressure to tighten it (im hesitant to use the pipe to tighten it since its imprecise).

[Shihan]

I keep hearing "nice and snug" and that makes me nervous.

What is nice and snug? Applying your full body weight to it or tightening it until it stops moving and then giving it an additional application of elbow grease to snug it up just a bit more.

In order to break the staking i had to use a freaking pipe as a lever to extend the amount of force i could apply to the wrench lol.

Im wondering if i would need that much pressure to tighten it (im hesitant to use the pipe to tighten it since its imprecise).

LOL dont use the pipe to tighten down. I will look for the specs for you.

[Magsz]

Shihan,

This thread has the torque specs listed between 35 and 50 ft pounds.

My problem is that i have no way of measuring it so im guestimating at best.

I promise, i wont use the pipe...i felt like a caveman having to use that lol.

I watched the video on brownells and it looked like that gent barely used any effort to snug down that castle nut before staking. If that is all i need to do to ensure that my castle nuts wont back out, im fairly certain ive torqued them enough lol.

Here's a link to the vid.

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/Gun...p=0&t=1&i=1211