Make Your Own M&P15-22 Barrel Nut Tool - How To

[bluepythons]

Hello Everyone,

I have seen on here and other sites about how people have removed their M&P15-22 Barrels to have them threaded etc. I have seen one members pic on the tool he made and thought I should give it a try. I made my tool, then took some pictures of how I did it with a piece of scrap and I thought I would share. Now let me preface this with saying I am not a machinist so if someone says an edge is a little off, oh well, the tool works as it should. The only thing I used was a Dremel tool with some various bits which I will mention.

Here is the tool I made:

A little info about the barrel nut first. The nut threads onto the barrel kind of like a regular AR15. It is 1.125" in diameter and has four slots for the teeth of the tool. The slots are at 12,3,6, and 9 o'clock positions and are about .185" wide and about .133" deep. See Pics of the nut:

I tried at first using 1" conduit but it was too large as 1" is the inner diameter. I then went to my local Fastenal store and found some 3/4" thick wall pipe that was just over an inch outer diameter, it matches up to the nut pretty close.
Pic of the pipe and nut:

I cut my pipe to about 18" long and then used a piece of tape wrapped about 1/8" down from the edge, this will be the depth of my teeth.

Then I cut some thin strips of tape and placed them covering the 12,3,6, and 9 o'clock positions, this is marking where my teeth will be. I just eyeballed them and they worked fine.

 

[bluepythons]

Re: Make Your Own M&P15-22 Barrel Nut Tool - How T

Continued

After I had the tape in place, I used a paint marker to mark where I had to cut to get my teeth in place. Once I removed the tape whatever is blue is where to cut. Keep in mind I made my teeth marks thin so I left some extra room when cutting.

I just used a Dremel tool and a cutting wheel, the ones advertised for metal and started cutting away the blue marked areas leaving some to spare. Once I got close I kept checking it with the actual barrel nut and ended up with this. I cleaned up the teeth later with a file further, this is the rough cut.

Once the tool fit the nut I could actually remove it by hand. One the other end I thought about drilling a hole so I could use a screwdriver but that pipe is thick. I ended up finding an old socket in the junk drawer and JB welded it in the other end. I think it will hold just fine as there wont be much torque needed. This way I can now use a socket T handle to tighten it.

After it dries and sets I will sand it and spray it with a coat of black spray paint.
Hope this helps. This project was super easy and the pipe was around 5 bucks.

Thanks,
Dave bluepythons

 

[eyeson247]

Re: Make Your Own M&P15-22 Barrel Nut Tool - How T

nice! thanks for all the pictures, esp with the caliper measurements.