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Posted: 12/18/2013 3:24:28 PM EDT
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On a brand new BCM upper, I swapped to another muzzle device. The new crush washer was hand tightened to 1 oclock which is a long way to 12 o'clock . The old washer hand tighten to 9 o'clock which is I further tighten to 12 o clock. It felt like any other new washer. The question is ok to do reuse.
I am not trying to be cheap. I am not comfortable doing all that torquing even with a geissele action rod. |
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My crush washer did the same thing. But I was able to go from 1 to 12 no problem. I read somewhere that a crush washer typically can rotate 1.5 times before it's fully flattened.
Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable reusing a crush washer but that's probably my paranoia. |
| I reuse them all the time, multiple times on dozens of my rifles in all kinds of calibers. I have never had that first problem with reusing them. You know who says you are not to reuse them don't you? Those that sell them or those that think since it says you shouldn't in the trade manual that it must be written in stone. You know the types, those who will not use anything but milspec even if it is NOT the best part to use. Milspec does not mean it the best part to use, only that the part meets minimum military specs. Rant off. |
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I reuse them all the time, multiple times on dozens of my rifles in all kinds of calibers. I have never had that first problem with reusing them. You know who says you are not to reuse them don't you? Those that sell them or those that think since it says you shouldn't in the trade manual that it must be written in stone. You know the types, those who will not use anything but milspec even if it is NOT the best part to use. Milspec does not mean it the best part to use, only that the part meets minimum military specs. Rant off. agreed, I reuse them as well. I even file them down when I am tryng to time a brake and dont want to torque them too much. Yes I could use shims, but those look better sitting in my toolbox in their fancy sealed plastic bag. |
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agreed, I reuse them as well. I even file them down when I am tryng to time a brake and dont want to torque them too much. Yes I could use shims, but those look better sitting in my toolbox in their fancy sealed plastic bag. Quoted:
Quoted:
I reuse them all the time, multiple times on dozens of my rifles in all kinds of calibers. I have never had that first problem with reusing them. You know who says you are not to reuse them don't you? Those that sell them or those that think since it says you shouldn't in the trade manual that it must be written in stone. You know the types, those who will not use anything but milspec even if it is NOT the best part to use. Milspec does not mean it the best part to use, only that the part meets minimum military specs. Rant off. agreed, I reuse them as well. I even file them down when I am tryng to time a brake and dont want to torque them too much. Yes I could use shims, but those look better sitting in my toolbox in their fancy sealed plastic bag. +1. I use a fine grit sandpaper if I begin to find excessive resistance in timing a brake. |
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I was just having this discussion with a friend. We were not sure either. One question though.. Are we talking the split crush washers (old school) or the cone shaped ones? Or both ok to re-use?
I figure the cone shaped ones are probably ok if when you remove, they still have a cone shape... |
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I was just having this discussion with a friend. We were not sure either. One question though.. Are we talking the split crush washers (old school) or the cone shaped ones? Or both ok to re-use? I figure the cone shaped ones are probably ok if when you remove, they still have a cone shape... these: http://www.brownells.com/rifle-parts/barrel-parts/rifle-barrel-hardware/washers/crush-washer-prod18734.aspx |
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If you have a barrel that has a relief cut below the threads at the shoulder of the barrel, you can deform the crush washer to the point that it has a smaller diameter than the threads.
This makes it *really* hard to remove. This is the main reason I don't reuse crush washers. |
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If you want to use the new washer, but are worried about the torque one way to do it is to crush the washer slowly. That way you don't put all that torque on it at once. Turn it down a quarter of a turn, and then back it off. You'll see the crush washer slowly crushing but your torque values are not going up a lot. The one thing you need to be worried about with this is that you don't want to back it off, and then be able to go past 12 o'clock with less than a quarter of a turn.
Hopefully that makes sense. I watch a youtube video about it, but I can't seem to find it again. |
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If you have a barrel that has a relief cut below the threads at the shoulder of the barrel, you can deform the crush washer to the point that it has a smaller diameter than the threads. This makes it *really* hard to remove. This is the main reason I don't reuse crush washers. Man, I have this problem every time I use a crush washer on a 5 / 8 x 24 thread so I had to find a way to get them off. What I came up with that is not too painful is to use a small set of vice-grips, clamp on to the washer and twist side to side. It fatigues pretty quickly and breaks off. This is why on 5 / 8 x 24 (.308) sized crush washers I do what several have mentioned, thin them down so it takes no more than 1 / 4 turn to get them to index correctly. Only 1 / 4 turn is not enough to cause it to mushroom to the point they won't come off easily yet is tight enough that I have never had one loosen. |
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Long story short, you can do it if you don't need to turn it very far. I no longer reuse them and here is why. I once was replacing a flash hider and reusing the crush washer. I ended up using to much torque and snapping off the index pin. From now on I spend the extra $1 and use a new one.
This would not have happened of there was enough "crush" left in the crush washer. |
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Man, I have this problem every time I use a crush washer on a 5 / 8 x 24 thread so I had to find a way to get them off. What I came up with that is not too painful is to use a small set of vice-grips, clamp on to the washer and twist side to side. It fatigues pretty quickly and breaks off. This is why on 5 / 8 x 24 (.308) sized crush washers I do what several have mentioned, thin them down so it takes no more than 1 / 4 turn to get them to index correctly. Only 1 / 4 turn is not enough to cause it to mushroom to the point they won't come off easily yet is tight enough that I have never had one loosen. Quoted:
Quoted:
If you have a barrel that has a relief cut below the threads at the shoulder of the barrel, you can deform the crush washer to the point that it has a smaller diameter than the threads. This makes it *really* hard to remove. This is the main reason I don't reuse crush washers. Man, I have this problem every time I use a crush washer on a 5 / 8 x 24 thread so I had to find a way to get them off. What I came up with that is not too painful is to use a small set of vice-grips, clamp on to the washer and twist side to side. It fatigues pretty quickly and breaks off. This is why on 5 / 8 x 24 (.308) sized crush washers I do what several have mentioned, thin them down so it takes no more than 1 / 4 turn to get them to index correctly. Only 1 / 4 turn is not enough to cause it to mushroom to the point they won't come off easily yet is tight enough that I have never had one loosen. I have noticed this as well with the 5/8 x 24. Sometimes when I am done they look backwards because of the way they crushed on. |
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Long story short, you can do it if you don't need to turn it very far. I no longer reuse them and here is why. I once was replacing a flash hider and reusing the crush washer. I ended up using to much torque and snapping off the index pin. From now on I spend the extra $1 and use a new one. This would not have happened of there was enough "crush" left in the crush washer. Wouldn't the much greater torque of the barrel nut prevent this from happening? Unless you were really strong arming the wrench I wouldn't think that less than 20ft.lbs. of torque on a flash hider would impact the indexing pin underneath a barrel nut torqued at 30-80 ft. lbs.. |
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Quoted:
Long story short, you can do it if you don't need to turn it very far. I no longer reuse them and here is why. I once was replacing a flash hider and reusing the crush washer. I ended up using to much torque and snapping off the index pin. From now on I spend the extra $1 and use a new one. This would not have happened of there was enough "crush" left in the crush washer. Done this reusing a crushed washer in a upper block and snapped the index pin and broke upper...first time doing it so it was my fault and now I know to get a new washer...I always use my upper block to install flash hider tho because I usually don't have to torque them much ymmv |
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Man, I have this problem every time I use a crush washer on a 5 / 8 x 24 thread so I had to find a way to get them off. What I came up with that is not too painful is to use a small set of vice-grips, clamp on to the washer and twist side to side. It fatigues pretty quickly and breaks off. This is why on 5 / 8 x 24 (.308) sized crush washers I do what several have mentioned, thin them down so it takes no more than 1 / 4 turn to get them to index correctly. Only 1 / 4 turn is not enough to cause it to mushroom to the point they won't come off easily yet is tight enough that I have never had one loosen. Quoted:
Quoted:
If you have a barrel that has a relief cut below the threads at the shoulder of the barrel, you can deform the crush washer to the point that it has a smaller diameter than the threads. This makes it *really* hard to remove. This is the main reason I don't reuse crush washers. Man, I have this problem every time I use a crush washer on a 5 / 8 x 24 thread so I had to find a way to get them off. What I came up with that is not too painful is to use a small set of vice-grips, clamp on to the washer and twist side to side. It fatigues pretty quickly and breaks off. This is why on 5 / 8 x 24 (.308) sized crush washers I do what several have mentioned, thin them down so it takes no more than 1 / 4 turn to get them to index correctly. Only 1 / 4 turn is not enough to cause it to mushroom to the point they won't come off easily yet is tight enough that I have never had one loosen. Heh -- I hesitated to respond with this because I wasn't sure if anyone here would sympathize. :^) Really this is a big problem and most people don't have the right combination of tools, patience, and skill to fix it. It can also happen with standard threads but it takes a little more effort. I think the main cause is over torquing or over using crush washers. I think when it happens to some of these guys who suggest reusing crush washers they'll change their tune. Crush washers are inexpensive -- IMHO, just use a new one every time. |
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