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Gunsmithing AR castle nut

Hogshooter

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
May 23, 2003
368
1
Powhatan, Va
I have a Noveske lower on one of my AR carbines. Went to add a single point sling adapter to the lower and noticed that the castle nut is staked in the two notches to the end plate. I could not break it loose with my stock wrench so I took a small dremel bit to the staking. I am afraid to go to the depth where I hit the threads but I did manage to dremel what looks like most of the staked metal away. Damn thing still won't budge. Does anyone know whether Noveske uses locktite on the nut in addition to being staked ? I Doesn't appear to be but thought I would ask before I proceed to do more with the dremel. I had never run across one staked before...thanks
 
Re: AR castle nut

Installed properly, all castle nuts are staked.

What kind of wrench are you using?

Replace the dremel with some heat and see if anything flows.
 
Re: AR castle nut

Wrench is just a ProMag carbine stock wrench. Not a very expensive one at all. Wrench tip didn't bend but I felt I was at that point since I was putting a lot of torque on it.
 
Re: AR castle nut

I use a cheap RRA castle nut wrench($7.00) on all of my lowers and have always been able to break loose the castle nut, and yes all of my LMT lowers have been staked properly. What i do is put the lower between my legs(or a vise if you have one),hold the wrench tight with one hand and then hit the wrench handle with a hammer a few times to break it loose. It has worked numerous times on all kind of different lowers.

The only time i had a problem was with an RRA lower that was loctited from the factory and it wouldn't budge. In that case i went and got a cheap handheld torch from home depot and heated the castle nut up enough to melt the loctite, then it came right off.
 
Re: AR castle nut

Got it loose. Once I cleaned the staking out of the notch all it took was a few taps on a drift punch in the notch to break it free. The el cheapo stock wrench did not have enough ass. Castle nut was not damaged in the least bit. I must say Noveske does a real good job of staking.