Increasing the thickness of a loose Radian barrel nut?

[Leicafan1990]

I recently purchased a Model 1 build kit and I’m really impressed with the quality of the parts. I do have an issue with the rail and barrel nut though.

In the build instructions, it says: “The rail is designed to have a tight fight with the barrel nut. Moderate force might be needed to slide the rail over the barrel nut.” Unfortunately, the fit between my barrel nut and rail is very loose. The barrel nut slides easily in an out of the rail with little to no resistance.

Here is a video of the loose fit:

I contacted Radian about this and the rep I spoke with was nice enough but he didn’t really seem to be concerned about my problem and told me the rail will lock up just fine. I want to trust him but everything I could find online about this says that there should be a very tight fit between the rail and the barrel nut.

This Reddit thread shows how tight the fit should be:

Since Radian didn’t really seem concerned with my issue, I either have to ignore it and hope for the best or I need to find some way to tighten up the fit between the barrel nut and the rail.

My best idea at the moment is the spray the outside of the barrel nut with a few coats of Alumahyde II. This should add a little bit of thickness to tighten up the fit between the rail and barrel nut.

Any thoughts? Am I just being an OCD nutcase?

 

[alamo5000]

It will work just fine. You are worrying about absolutely nothing.

 

[alamo5000]

I found this video. It shows a bit about the design. My opinion is even more now than it was before to just put the thing together and carry on with business. It will work fine.

 

[alamo5000]

More info here:

 

[rpoL98]

It will work just fine. You are worrying about absolutely nothing.