B51 stuck end cap removal

[wham bam51]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I set my breech with barrel intact on my workbench. I then clamped a straight edge to the top of the breech along the length of the barrel. It is def NOT good.

[wham bam51]

The receiver hole def looks to be drilled on an angle. Serious problem.

[Ribbonstone]

OR...the barrel is bent right at the joint between the receiver and barrel

OR the receiver is "cocked up"or "cocked down"  from a dead flat fit to the air tube.

OR you tightened the two forward receiver screws dead tight,then  tightened the rear pair'

BArrel being a bit bent would be the easier fix....if it it 100% proved to be bent,then can either:

1. Remove it from it's glued in attachement to the receiver ...shim it until it reinstall "straight"...then reglue it in it's straight orientation.

Or...


2.unbend/rebend it until the muzzle end is straight/even so that the barrel band slips back in place.

Or...

3.Not give a "ship"about a little bit of up/down/left/right barrel pressure needed to get the barrel band to slide on.

[wham bam51]

I hadn't thought about it being bent at the receiver... so that is a def possibility. As for the other things you mention, since the barrel was just sitting on my bench top and not on the air cylinder it cant be from incorrectly tightening the screws or burs. there is no visible bend in the receiver itself. The next step will be to remove the barrel from the receiver.

[Ribbonstone]

Thinking about the BAM's barrel attachemt (at least the orginal/non-modded ones)....used glue.

Had to be some slight "slack"in the insertionof the barrel...wouldn't  take much at the far end of a long ever....are pretty wellstuck with the diversion of "level".

Totally ignoring WHERE they grouped on the target/back stop....wasn't any measureble difference in group size  between free float with no-band and "pinky push" aligned band.

 BUT if it really bugs you and the barrel istelf measures "straight
".
WORST case,if no other soltuon arrives,would be to n do the attachement.  Some seem to be easy,most seem to be really gluded the &^^& inthereand take a lot more heat to get out....then some work to clean up the sticky/burned stuff....but starting "clean"  would be good to center the barrel so that it would run even and let the band slide on/off without any serious effort to align it.



Once you got to that point, would more likely drill/tap and attach the barrel by set screws.

My two,even corrected, do require that "pinky push"...work well enough that I'm not seeking the perfect fit.

[wham bam51]

Pinky push  he he    The barrel has about a 1mm wow in the middle when the band is on. It can't be good for accuracy. Even if it didnt affect it too much I still feel like if i am going to put a bunch of work to fix up the gun how I want it I may as well try and correct the issue. As long as its not going to involve a ton of money being spent.

I did attempt to remove the barrel from the receiver and it is really stuck in there.

[Ribbonstone]

Some kind of expanding  industrial version of glue....barrel has what looks like o-ring grooves, but are there to interlock the glue.

[wham bam51]

Sadly I have had no luck at all with removing my barrel. I have heated the daylights out of it and best I could get it to move was about a 1/16". Now the rod i used to knock the barrel out is stuck as well. Im not sure why it is so dam hard to remove but something is not right. At this point I am not sure what will be my next move. If barrels and breeches where more readily available I would probably just replace them.

[Ribbonstone]

HAven't had that plesure on the BAM. Have had problems with other barrels stuck/glued in.

If you have no intention of saving the barrel.

Get  5-8" " of water pipe....won't matter if it's tash yard pipe or brand new solong as the internal diameter is big enough to let the barrel pass though it (even 3/4"ID pipe will work).

Slip the pipe over the barrel down to the breech, leaving you like 10"of barrel poking out..  If you're worried about nicking up the breech,put a brass washer onto the barrel first (anything with a 1/2" ID should slide down a BAM barrel right up to the breech).

VICE the exposed barrel,with the breech hanging down.  Put some padding below that to catch the breech when you knock it off..

Grab the pipe with a big set of vice grip pliers.

Heat breech.... use  the chunk of pipe as a slap hammer.

[mackeral5]

This glue sounds a lot like the glue that held U joints in '80's GM driveshafts.....

[Buldawg76]

This glue sounds a lot like the glue that held U joints in '80's GM driveshafts.....

If it was the plastic glue used in 80s driveshaft's heat from any propane and up torch would melt it into a expanding molten snake as it squeezed out from between the barrel and breech. I used an oxy/acetylene torch to melt the plastic and pop one of the u joint caps out of the driveshafts more times than I can remember.

BD

[wham bam51]

The breech would be the harder more costly part to replace. So if I have to scrap a part it would def be the barrel.I use map gas to heat it but it seemed to have little affect. I think the mistake I made was using a rod that was too soft and when I started banging on it it likely swelled inside the breech. I am going to have to break down and buy a vise. My local tool library doesnt seem like it will re open any time soon.

[wham bam51]

Great news. Ct had vises on sale so I snatched one up. First I used it to remove the stuck rod. It made quite a pop and I thought it must have snapped but fortunately it was just the sound of it breaking loose.

I then used a modified version of ribbonstones suggestion to remove the breech. I had an old home made clamp left behind from the previous home owner. The jaws had the perfect size hole to fit over the barrel.

More heat and about a dozen very hard whacks and the receiver was off. There was some very slight scratches from the barrel sliding in the vise but easily fixable.

This sucker was on there dam tight. Even after removing all the glue remnants and cleaning both pieces up it would still have to be forced back together so some very light polishing was done and the two pieces now slide together nicely. I will mount the block to the air cylinder and install the barrel band. Then I should be able to rotate the barrel and see if I can determine where the alignment issue is.

[Ribbonstone]

Nice...did well to get that rod out and the barrel off still in serviciable condtion (you'll find a project for it on down the road).

[wham bam51]

I have hit another road block (of course)  When i fastened the breech to the cylinder and installed the barrel, no matter how I rotate the barrel with the band off it always touches the tip of the cylinder and will always bend upward when the band is installed. If the barrel was bent that would not be the case so the problem is with the breech. With my limited tools I am thinking the only way to correct it is to remove a small amount of material from  receiver end of the barrel so it could be aligned correctly before epoxying it in place or using set screw or both. I would only remove it from the top and bottom and not the sides as I only want the barrel to adjust up and down.

I am def open to others thoughts on correcting this issue.