On some firearms the gun barrel is fastened to the receiver with a nut, referred to as a barrel nut.

A barrel nut (also known as steel cross dowel or dowel nut) is a specialized nut, and is commonly used in aerospace and ready-to-assemble furniture applications.
It is used to bolt thin sheet metal parts to larger, often billet or forged, parts. The barrel nut is a round slug, or formed sheet metal part with threads perpendicular to the length of the nut. The nut sits in a hole inside the forging and a standard bolt is threaded into the barrel nut from outside the sheet metal. They are preferred over a standard nut and bolt, because they do not require a flange to be machined or forged onto the receiving part, thus reducing weight.
Barrel nuts are also common in flat-pack furniture, where long bolts and barrel nuts are used to hold together T joints in chipboard sheets.

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  1. jblake00

    Noveske barrel nut problem....

    So I'm trying to get this barrel nut off, but I need a SWS proprietary wrench, which is no longer manufactured. I'm hoping someone on here has one I can borrow/rent/buy or something! Any help would be appreciated, there are some awesome guys here, and it would be great to meet yet another...
  2. F

    Barrel nut swap

    Anyone in the Clackamas County area that has the tools to swap a barrel nut? I bought a new hand guard. I do not work on these things enough to invest in the tools and do not have a vise. Beer of your choice.
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