Help with muzzle device removal

[blaserman33]

I am trying to remove a SureFire 3 Prong flash hider from my Geissele 11.5” Super Duty Upper and for the life of me can’t get it to budge. I have tried heating it with a torch, I have tried soaking it in water for about 36 hours part of which was boiling hot water, I have tried hammering on the front of it to “break” the Rockset, and nothing has worked. I am using a Reaction Rod style tool along with the upper being in a vice just to hold it steady and putting everything I can into it. I even had a friend crank on the muzzle device while I held the reaction rod end and my vice busted loose before the muzzle device. I don’t see anything that looks like it could be pinned & welded on aside from a 1/16” hole partially drilled through the muzzle device, but I have seen many pictures of SureFire devices that have that pre-installed and there definitely isn’t a weld bead on it, but I attached photos to try to show what I am talking about. So does anyone have any secrets or magical tricks to get this thing off? I don’t know how I got it with the torch, it was pretty hot, and from what I hear heat doesn’t work on Rockset anyways.

 

[wade2big]

Well you are about as good of a photographer as you are a gunsmith it seems.

just busting your balls. I don’t know what else you can do other than what you already have.

 

[LawnMM]

Your photos suck, it kinda looks pinned, can you drop a drill bit into that hole and touch the barrel?

You need to take the handguard off, put the barrel in a vice, I'd heat the brake with a heat gun then put a big wrench on the flash hider and crank it loose.

 

[blaserman33]

Well you are about as good of a photographer as you are a gunsmith it seems.

just busting your balls. I don’t know what else you can do other than what you already have.

I knew I was gonna get at least one comment on the photos but this phone is old as hell and I couldn’t get the light on it right to get it to focus better. But it works okay when I take photos of your wife. Sorry, but I had to do it!

I honestly don’t how this thing is still attached! The only thing I haven’t tried is putting it in the water while it was still physically boiling, but I don’t know why that would matter, all i did was took the boiling water and poured it into a bowl where I soaked the muzzle.

 

[blaserman33]

Your photos suck, it kinda looks pinned, can you drop a drill bit into that hole and touch the barrel?

You need to take the handguard off, put the barrel in a vice, I'd heat the brake with a heat gun then put a big wrench on the flash hider and crank it loose.

no, the hole doesn’t go all the way through. But if you look around the web you can see that SureFire muzzle devices have like a starter hole in them. Like the one below. I don’t know how you could get a weld down inside a hole that small that is perfectly concave like the tip of a drill bit. The hole looks like when you have partially drilled through something you can see where the tip is cutting ahead of the full diameter. Every pin & weld I have seen has a small bead or spot weld on top, not something below the surface.

 

[LawnMM]

Barrel vice, heat, large wrench

 

[blaserman33]

Here is another where you can see the partially drilled hole.

 

[blaserman33]

Here is a real good picture of exactly how mine looks. I don’t see anything that looks like a weld on it unless the weld is only down inside that hole.

 

[6.5SH]

Clean the carbon out of it so the hot water can reach the threads. Heat isn't going to do anything for Rocksett (withstands 1100+ C).

Shear strength is listed as 450 PSI which is ludicrous amount of foot pounds. Allegedly it is supposed to break with not much more torque than it was applied with. I think that doesn't hold true when someone used the entire tube to assemble it. I also don't see any shims so quite possible someone did something stupid when they torqued it on.

If the water doesn't get it worst case may need to send to someone like ADCO to cut it off.

ETA:
Sorry, your last non-potato picture shows shims so is still shred of hope there.

 

[camocorvette]

I just recently took that exact muzzle device off.

Pain in the ass. Lots of heat didn't do crap.

Then I just propped the torch on it for 10 minutes and it came off like butter.

Probably not good for the barrel.. but it's a 10.5 and it seems to shoot just fine.

 

[blaserman33]

Clean the carbon out of it so the hot water can reach the threads. Heat isn't going to do anything for Rocksett (withstands 1100+ C).

Shear strength is listed as 450 PSI which is ludicrous amount of foot pounds. Allegedly it is supposed to break with not much more torque than it was applied with. I think that doesn't hold true when someone used the entire tube to assemble it. I also don't see any shims so quite possible someone did something stupid when they torqued it on.

If the water doesn't get it worst case may need to send to someone like ADCO to cut it off.

ETA:
Sorry, your last non-potato picture shows shims so is still shred of hope there.

I’ll try cleaning the carbon off and re-soaking it. The carbon that was on the prongs of the flash hider flaked off and was sitting in the bowl but I guess the stuff around the threads is probably more stubborn.

 

[Mike Casselton]

For clearer photos with your phone, just hold it still and touch the screen where you want the focus to be applied. Give it a sec and it'll clear up. If not, do it again.
BTW, you're still better off taking photos in decently lit rooms vs sunlight or highly reflective lighting.
Outside in the shade is best for these types of pics.

 

[BuildingConceptsllc]

My Smith always says that the only way to get rockset devices off, is to freeze it, then hit it to "shock" it and it will break free. He's fluting a a barrel for me with a yhm qd break that's rockset this week so, I sure hope it works like he said. He's done a bunch of em, so he should know.

 

[rustyinbend]

I recommend buying a new barrel, and selling that one on GunBroker for $1,350 and marketing it as a "... tightly integrated barrel-brake flash suppression system ...". There's a GB-Moron out there just itching to buy it.

Seriously though ... try the "Freeze - Smack" idea above. That worked for me a while back when I had the same problem. Also, instead of always trying to loosen, try tightening and see if you can brake the bond in the other direction first. It only takes a millimeter or two.

 

[Waorani]

Who put it together? Doesn't look pinned so unless it's on an SBR or MG, it might be silver soldered which will need a lot of heat to bust loose.

Also, if you can find one of the old AAC flash hider tools ( https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1006920739 ), they fit the 5.56 Warcomps.

 

[7magsavage]

Ran into this exact problem with my AAC upper.
No way I would hold a torch on it for any length of time if it were my rifle. I tried heating with torch (reasonably). Tried lots of muscle and nothing. Finally I propped the upper on a sack of deer corn on my kitchen counter and boiled it for 5-10 minutes and it came off like butter.

 

[308pirate]

Here is a real good picture of exactly how mine looks. I don’t see anything that looks like a weld on it unless the weld is only down inside that hole.
View attachment 7641917

That's a blind hole. There's no pin in/under it.

You must have the glue from hell on those threads

 

[chongoMT]

FWIW, after installing and removing hundreds of these, the AAC tool works best. As does the boiling, canned air cooling cycle combined with a breaker bar. As annoying as it sounds, repeated tapping with a screwdriver or wrench can help. It can take a few minutes of nerve wracking noise though.