I’m looking to buy a barrel wrench. I don’t need anything fancy. I figure that the regular combination tool will work just fine for my needs.
Does anyone have experience with Brownell’s combination wrench? Is there any reason to pay them $35 for a tool that can be found for $10?
That’s what I use. It’s the original amorers wrench design. It works fine nothing fancy. Where can you find one for 10?
Dunno who makes thier specific wrench, but I can assure you that ‘can be had for $10’ will get you just that or less in quality and cost you more in the long run than what you thought you saved on some econobox ‘tool’.
Strip or round off the teeth on enough barrel nuts, have the barrel nut nipples strip off the wrench because they are shit alloy instead of machine steel, or have to resort to a conventional wrench on a reciever extension because the slots on a combi wrench don’t fit, usually to the way oversize, and you’ll likely find that having quality tools is just as important as having quality parts.
I use an actual issue armorers wrench of that design along with an actual castle nut wrench and am quite content.
Problem is freinds who bought some craptacular ones always want to borrow mine or have me do the work for them because what they have doesn’t even make a good paperweight.
What castle nut wrench are you referring to? I looked for the square one with the two teeth sticking out of the face, that slips over the receiver extension, but I didn’t have any luck. I have a MI cheapie, that I made a square hole in it so that I could torque the castle nut. I did some math for the off set, so that I didn’t over-torque…
Mine is one of the single nub hook style wrenches from forever ago with no allowance for a torque wrench, and the only trick it does is castle nuts.
Though I have one simular to yours that I use for taking them apart.
Speaking of armorer’s wrenches, is the one TCU sells the same as Smith Enterprises? Their picture isn’t good quality but they look the same and is $15-$20 less than a Smith.
I would not buy that or anything from Brownells. It’s over priced and Brownells shipping/customer service has taken a nose dive over the last several months.
I ordered the exact mil-spec armorers wrench from Midway USA for my build last month. Midway want’s $15.00 less and they ship very fast. It’s an excellent product and the wrench worked perfectly. Very sturdy.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/762854/dpms-mil-spec-armorers-barrel-wrench-ar-15-steel
I believe that you attempted to bash Brownells in another thread. Yes, they did have some glitches ( I believe they admitted this) but strangely enough I have ordered from them several times over the last few months and had no issues.
The only advice I can offer is to get over it. If you don’t want to order from them, that’s cool. But, I don’t think that you need to keep beating the war drums. They have been in business for many years and are probably one of the best in the market.
Buy the PRI wrench from Brownells and the “Hammer head” from Hammerheadrifletool.com and you will be set.
I like the PRI’s design, up until the point that I HAVE to remove the FSB to use it. I was just wondering if I was paying more for a better tool, or a name. Thanks for the advice though.
Quick bit of drift: Any advice for a castle nut wrench that can break staking, and still be usable for re-torquing? Boneheaded me “eyeballed it” and my nut is both staked and loose. 
Gotcha. I would just use the standard one then until a better one comes along.
Yeah, you’re right. I’ll leave that dead horse be;)
Hammerhead has no equal when it comes to castle nuts.