Un SAFE acting my rifles, are the barrels OK?

Vapor

Vapor

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So many many years ago when the SAFE act droppedI had a local "gunsmith" make two upper complaint for me.


Fast forward to moving, and the muzzle caps bothered me. I already was taking care of the welded part carefully. Now I tried to undo the caps, and they were stuck like Hercules.



I figured this much, if I needed new uppers or barrels, I had nothing to lose by seeing if they had simply loctite them on

I used the only torch I had, MAP gas. I just did some very quick, gentle passes. Sure enough, they caps moved with some mild help of some vise grips


Then I worried I hurt the heat treat of the barrels.

Again, these were quick passes with minimal dwell time. I used the map gas as short as possible to just make that red loctite move.

Now, does everything look okay? Can I time the A2 birdcages and enjoy the rifles as they were intended after cleaning the red loctite residue off?

The barrel on top is a heavy profile FN chrome lined and the bottom is an m4 profile nitride.

IMG_20250304_210707105.jpg IMG_20250304_210715575.jpg
 
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Vapor

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Rondo223 said:
Loctite only requires about 350-400F to break it's bond. I seriously doubt you caused any damage to the barrel unless it was damage from gripping the cap too tightly and deforming the threads.
Click to expand...


I already test fit the A2 birdcages I got. Threads seem fine. I'm pretty excited to give new life back to these uppers.
 
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spat

spat

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Put a damp cloth on the barrel above where you're heating it as a heat sink.

Even if the heat treat right at the muzzle gets hosed, that doesn't matter much anyway. It's not a high pressure zone. Having the last inch of a barrel fully annealed probably wouldn't matter much anyway even if you did overheat it to incandescent. Be more worried about warping it than the temper.

But, like others said, heat it just enough to break free and you're probably fine.

I soldered mine on and had to heat them quite a bit more to remove when I got out here and have had no trouble at all.
 
libertysnake

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Two of my rifles were never threaded, while one the manufacturer spun the threads off during building it.

The two that never had threads I could have someone just cut the end of the barrel and put brand new threads on those when I move one day.

And since they're AKs, I have no mounting ears on the side of the rail that holds my cleaning rod. They ground the area down with a dremel or something. That's where the bayonet would be, below the gas block and no slant break in front -- both of which are required to get the bayonet to mount correctly. (Otherwise it'll be insecure in the front and back, and detach. The break is thicker than the barrel actually significantly, and that's why mounting one assumes both are cut to spec on top of the notches near the accessory rail.)

So with a proper break, and the ears for the rear to hold onto, I should be able to "un" ban state it and get all those features back one day, but with some work from a gunsmith probably. (Although the one without threads, I can never properly mount a bayonet since you need the break, so I'd have a break welded onto the end without threads.)

That's my "when I move to a free state" plan.
 
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