Q: Can you pin a WarBlock onto my barrel that already has a front sight base installed?
A: We wish we could and we’ve tried! The problem is that there is really no precision standard location for the pin holes and in our experience the location is wildly variable. Because of this there is no good time efficient way for us to locate the holes while the barrel is mounted in the machine. Sure it is possible that we could located them accurately after some time but then there is the issue of calibrating the depth of the pin. Since we are talking taper pins there is a Z-depth that must also be matched and we haven’t even talked about the axial pitch and yaw of the holes in the barrel. So that is 5 axes that must be indicated per pin. That is a lot of indicating and fixturing. Now suppose we could do all that because it is technically possible, we are left with perhaps the most compelling reason that makes this a futile endeavor. Trying to drill holes in the concave interior bore of a hard WarBlock without the drill being fully supported in material. This will assuredly shatter every expensive carbide drill you point at it due to deflection. In the future we may develop a way to do this but for right now the cost of doing it would likely rival the cost of a new barrel anyway.
Q: Can you assemble my WarBlock pinned barrel onto my receiver, install my forearm rail, or install my muzzle device?
A: Yes absolutely! We can do any manner of assembly for very reasonable costs if any. Just contact us and tell what you want done.
Q: I can’t find it on the website do you offer the WarBlock by itself?
A: Yes and no. Since the WarBlock requires precise machine alignment and pinning to the barrel similar to the standard front sight base, we generally no longer offer the WarBlock by itself. We have had users order them only to contact us later asking, “how the heck do I attach this to my barrel.” This is completely understandable since most aftermarket gas blocks these days use the more convenient but less solid set screw or clamp-on method of attachment. Because of not only the functional bayonet lug, receiver level Picatinney rail, and sling attachment point of the WarBlock, (all constituting high stress applications), but also the WarBlock reputation of being a “war ready” gas block design, the use of taper pins are not something we can compromise on. However in an effort not to be totally exclusive but respectful of others abilities, if you contact us with this in mind and still desire to purchase a stand-alone WarBlock with the intentions of pinning it yourself we will make it available to you. Keep in mind we cannot control how you pin the WarBlock to your barrel if you choose to do so yourself, but understand that an improper alignment or pinning can ruin an otherwise perfectly good barrel assembly that we cannot be held responsible for. Alignment and pinning is not an easy do-it-yourself job especially when dealing with ultra hard Melonited parts, such as the WarBlock as well as many barrels, requiring specialized equipment, carbide tooling, and technique. We have developed our process and fixturing with blood, sweat, tears, and a lot of expensive tooling that even may be challenging for a seasoned machinist to attempt on the first try. Having said that, if you are set on doing it yourself and have the tools and the talent, we will help you in any way we can with technical data to ensure your pinning job is a success. For most users it is far easier to just let us do it to make certain it is done right especially since we offer this service free on barrels purchased from us or for a small fee on your own provided barrel you send us.
Q: Will the WarBlock work with other calibers like .308 barrels for the AR10?
A: Yes the WarBlock will work with other calibers including .308 but due to the larger geometry of the .308 barrel extension we don’t pin them at this time. All of our custom made work fixturing is designed around the AR15 barrel so that is what our focus is on. We are currently evaluating adding .308 AR10 barrels to our work flow but it won’t happen overnight. More fixturing needs to be designed and made and more testing needs to be done on the AR10 platform before we roll that out. We look forward to it as the WarBlock would be an ideal gas block for the AR10.
Q: What is the turn around time for having a barrel pinned with a WarBlock?
A: It depends but is generally very fast. Typically the pinning is done and the barrel sent out within a couple of days. What could make the wait longer is if there is a component that is back-ordered from our suppliers, in which case we will inform you of the delay. Sometimes we have the exact barrel configuration you desire in stock, and we can send it out the same day. We strive to make this process as fast as possible so we try to keep a good stock of everything that may go into a barrel assembly but special components and building complete uppers may take a little longer but generally no more than a week or so.
Q: Can you make the WarBlock with set screws or a clamp?
A: Can we? Yes. Will we? No. There are very real reasons that we do not use those methods of attachment for the WarBlock. We would invite you to read our Why WarBlock page for more details but in short. These attachments methods are not strong enough to withstand the rigors of a bayonet, a sling attachment point, and a tall Picatinney rail creating a greater leverage point for being susceptible to an impact shifting it out of alignment. A gross alignment shift could render the weapon useless by occluding the gas port, or ineffective by ruining your iron sight zero.
Q: Are the Luxor titanium dice balanced?
A: Yes the Luxor premium titanium dice are balanced. Cellulose casino dice have their pips filled in with a tinted material of a matching density so there are no weighting discrepancies between any given face. Unfortunately I’m not aware of a similar filler material that could be used that has the same density as titanium alloy so a different method was chosen to compensate for weighting that is almost as good. Since our method of machining the pips is done with a 0.125″ diameter ball mill instead of the less sophisticated, and in our opinion less aesthetic flat bottom end mill the method chosen to compensate for the balance issue is by using the partially filled sphere equation to calculate the actual volume removed during the machining process as follows:
v = (π * h² * r) – (π * h³ / 3)
Here we can fix the volume of the deepest pip, the 1 face, to all the other faces and solve for h, which in this case would be the depth of the pip. This is more complicated but required when using the tip of a ball mill since you cannot simply linearly scale the depth of the pips proportional to the number of pips as you could if using a regular flat bottom end mill when simply removing a cylinder of material that has a fixed proportional volumetric relationship to the depth. An additional verification step was taken to insure the validity of the calculation by modeling the 0.0625 radius pips and their corresponding depths among the 6 sides in CAD then using the program to measure the remaining volume of each side to ensure that they are the same. It is also important to note that the depth of the deepest pip, the 1 face, cannot exceed the radius of the ball mill or the partially filled sphere equation becomes invalid as then the Boolean difference of the geometry removed is no longer a semi-sphere as is demanded by π in the equation but rather a combination half-sphere plus a cylinder. The end result is each face consisting of the exact same volume/mass while the pip depth as well as the diameter decreases as the pip number increases. In other words the material mass removed from each side is exactly the same.