Having one hell of a time trying to remove the castle nut on my LMT lower. I don’t want to buy a gunsmiths vise. Tried the DPMS armorer tool and one from NcSTAR. I’m guessing my best bet is to go see a Armorer with the tools and have him do it. ‘Sigh’ Pain in the ass, something so simple has become difficult as hell.
Do you have a regular vise?
Chalk this up to proper staking on LMT’s part. I know they can be a real pain in the ass. I ended up using a padded vise with a DPMS wrench and a cheater bar the first time I broke mine loose.
Agreed. I’ve never removed mine but it’s double-staked and double-staked well. Definitely the most secure factory staking job I’ve ever seen on a lower. I can’t imagine it being simple, easy or fun getting it loose.
Derek
Yeah, no doubt on LMTs part about very fine work. I’ll get it sorted out. Thanks for the advice though!
I used a center punch to try and move the staking out of the way and went at it with a punch and hammer instead of a wrench and it eventually worked free. It wasn’t pretty but it came off and I was able to install the magpul asap and a new castle nut.
Yeah, I have a table mounted vise… I’m currently looking for something to cushion my lower.
LMT must really want their castle nuts to stay in place. Mine came from the factory like this. I haven’t tried to mess with it yet.
I have one of those cheap all in one ar-15 wrenches and had to put a rag between the receiver extension and tool so the tooth can have a better hold.
I have that same exact tool… Thanks for that advice, hope this works!!!
I mounted sling adapters on my two LMTs and those of 4 friends as well. It was not difficult.
- Buy the lower receiver block that allows you to hold the lower securely in a real vise.
- Use two hands, one to hold the wrench on the castle nut, and the other to apply force to the end of the wrench.
- If it will not break, enlist the help of a friend to rap the wrench sharply with a rubber mallet while you apply force as described in 2.
- Mine all broke free with step 3, but if it is still stuck, a cheater bar on the end of the wrench would be next.
The real key is the proper lower receiver vise block and a real solid vise. After reinstalling the castle nut I restaked it with a heavy duty center punch. Again, not a hard task.
I’ve used a similar wrench to remove a LMT castle nut and having only one tooth to transmit all that torque is not ideal. Spreading the torque across 3 points is better, I gouged my castle nut pretty badly in the process of removing it. The single tooth displaced about 3 mm of metal before I was able to move the damned nut and I didn’t notice until it was too late.
I believe you’re using the wrong part of that wrench. The “single tooth” spanner at the end is for the early receiver extension nut. The next spanner up with the three lugs (9-12-3 o’clock) is the tool to use on the current “castle” nuts.
+1 on that.
We started doing so many M4 builds for local organizational clients it got to the point where the common spanner wrenches were not doing the trick, so I broke down and got the Stock Wrench from SAW. I don’t recommend it for the casual builder because of the price, but it’s hands down the best castle nut tool on the market. OK, more to the point, save your money on getting a lower vise block- the best trick I came away with from Colt Armorer’s School was locking the rear 1" of the buffer tube to do any lower receiver extension work- keeps from putting any torque on your lower whatsoever. Buy some cheap cast aluminum barrel blocks, wrap some webbing around the end and lock it down in the vise- rock solid and you wont mess up your lower.
I’ve always noticed on the really good staked castle nuts that once you break it free that the endplate is hard to slide off the buffer extension because of it messing with the threading on it.
Sandwich it between two lumber scraps. That is what I do.
PW, any chance you could post pictures of this method? Thanks.
Anybody take a look at faithmyeyes pic he posted? Looks like JB weld. faith…you say it came that way?
It’s either jb or some sort of blacking compound to touch up the stake. i normally just use Cold Blue or Aluminum Black for stakes.