OK, so I purchased a TSR100 Tech Sight for my Ruger 10-22, and on the advice of several posts
I've seen, also purchased a DPMS windage knob to replace the factory wheel on the rear sight.
I finally got the thing installed, but it sure put up a fight. I'm by no means a skilled gunsmith,
so I'm sure I made a bunch of rookie mistakes that made this a more complicated process than
it needed to be. So the challenge, for you accomplished amateur or professional gunsmiths,
what should I have done differently? (Or, if you're someone planning on doing the same install,
maybe here's a few lessons to learn from my mistakes.)
1. I started with trying to find a punch to drive out the roll pin. I didn't have anything nearly
that small. A 1/16" drill bit looked promising. I suspect it may be a 1/16" roll pin, but the drill
bit wouldn't easily slide into the roll pin hole. It would start to go in, but then snugged up.
I had visions of getting the thing about half-way in there and then having it jam up, or even
worse, breaking off inside the hole. After a while of more searching, I found a straight dental
pick in my gun cleaning supplies that fit nicely. I cut off the tapered portion of the pick and
ended up with a very servicable punch. (Guess I now need to buy a new pick.)
2. A hand-screw wood clamp worked nicely to hold the sight without marring up the finish.
(Probably about the only thing I did right on all this.)
3. Next I needed to turn the rear wheel on the sight so that the roll pin was aligned vertically
for the puposes of driving it out. Wow. That little wheel sure doesn't like to turn without the
special tool that Tech Sights sells. Note -- if you're planning on using the sight as-is, buy the
damm tool. You'll need it. Without it, I fumbled around, trying to depress the detent while
at the same time turning the wheel. I finally managed that trick by pressing the detent down
with a drill bit, and turning the wheel with another bit inserted through a second hole for
leverage. Added a few battle scars to the sight, but most of them were on the adjustment
wheel, which is (hopefully) coming off anyway. Starting to sense a challenge though...
4. Got the wheel turned like I wanted it, and start trying to drive out the pin. Eventually got
it, but it sure put up a fight.
5. As I suspected, the detent mechanism (spring and metal plunger) consists of TINY little parts.
Fortunately, they behaved themselves and didn't shoot across the room when I pulled off the
wheel. Keep an eye on them though. They're very small and easily lost in the clutter.
6. Test-fitting the new DPMS adjustment knob onto the shaft, and probing with my home-made
punch, I found that the knob won't go far enough onto the shaft to align the roll pin with the
corresponding hole in the center shaft with the Tech Sights spring washer in place. (This is a
paper-thin washer, bent in a slight U-shape. I assume it helps to keep uniform tension and
alignment of the wheel on the shaft.) Anyway, I removed that and then the DPMS knob
could be aligned with the roll-pin hole in the shaft. (It seems to work fine, by the way,
without the spring washer.)
7. It took a bit of patience and fiddling, but eventually I got the detent plunger and spring
back in place, and slid the new DPMS knob onto the shaft. A really small pair of needle-nose
pliers proved essential in this part of the install.
8. Making sure the DPMS knob roll-pin hole was aligned with the hole in the Tech Sight windage
shaft, I clamped the hole sight assembly back into the wood clamp to hold it all together.
Again, the wood clamp was a life-saver and worked great.
9. Now it gets ugly and I exhibit my inexperience in gun-smithing. Time to drive the roll pin
down into the DPMS knob and through the Tech Sights windage shaft. USE A WOODEN DOWEL!!
I didn't. I tapped on it lightly with a steel hammer. It went in quite nicely, but apparently using a
metal hammer on the end of the roll pin caused it to mushroom out. Once it seated up flush
with the edge of the DPMS knob, it was DONE. Not going any further. I worked and worked
at it, and managed to bend my punch a couple of times, but it was absolutely not going any
further. !@#) I finally drove the punch in from the opposite side, drove the pin back out, and
filed off the expanded mushroom head. With that removed, I was able to properly install the
pin with only a minimal fight.
10. That's it. Got it on there, but wow -- took about an hour. Not a pleasant job. So
for you experts out there -- what should I have done differently?
But regardless, now that I'm done being irritated about it, the DPMS knob is a nice upgrade.
It's got twice as many detent settings as the factory Tech Sights wheel (10 vs. 5), so you
can get twice the "fine-tuning" on your windage settings. It turns easily by hand, yet locks
securely in place on each detent. A nice upgrade, assuming you have the patience and
skills to get it installed without going clinically insane.
Good Post- I met many of the same problems and solved them similarly.
-Longer roll pin for the new adjustment "wheel"
-Use rounded roll pin punch for setting new pin
-Throw out the "U" shaped tension disk from underneath old adjustment wheel
-Use grease to hold spring and ball in place while installing new wheel
It was a pain to install the A2 style windage "wheel" but that is what I like and makes it easier for others to use as a loaner (don't have to keep track of 2 sight tools).
Big John
Also remember that the new windage adjustment now has 10 clicks instead of 5
So that makes it roughly 0.5 minute per click (depending on barrel length) ;)
Good job way to stick with it O0
BTW
you should still get the tool for the front sight @)
>>Longer roll pin for the new adjustment "wheel"
I was wondering about that. I went ahead and used the orginal pin
(mainly because that's all I had on hand and didn't want a trip to the
hardware store to buy a 3-cent roll pin.) I "probed" with my punch
until it sort of looked like I had the pin driven to a depth that approximately
centered in in the wheel.
>>Use rounded roll pin punch for setting new pin
Right tool for the right job. Probably more effective than a chopped off
dental pick. I keep meaning to buy a punch set. Just never worked its
way to the top of the "to-do" pile.
>>Use grease to hold spring and ball in place while installing new wheel
Neat trick. I'll have to remember that one.
>>BTW you should still get the tool for the front sight
I just got done installing the front sight, and tried to tinker with adjusting
the elevation. But I don't need to buy the tool -- I've already got one for
my AR. Same tool, right? Buzz! Wrong Answer. AR tool (at least mine)
has four prongs. The Tech Sight is looking for a five prong tool.
Sigh... What's the tool cost? About 8 bucks? That's the most frustrating
8 dollars I've "saved" in a long time. Oh well. I think some friends of mine
are going to order some Tech Sights as well. I'll have them order the
tool for me.
(I felt pretty secure in not needing the adjustment tool. The Tech Sights
web site states that the front sight post is an "AR/M16 type front sight post"
How come my AR front sight tool doesn't match up?)
>>Also remember that the new windage adjustment now has 10 clicks instead of 5
So that makes it roughly 0.5 minute per click (depending on barrel length)
Thanks. I was just going to go try to track that info down.
Hey, somewhat off-topic, but I seem to recall that the flip apeture sight on the TSR100
has a 50 yard and 100 yard setting. Which one is which? I didn't see in the Tech Sights
instructions any info on that.
Anyway, thanks for the input. Kind of glad to hear that other people found the DPMS
wheel swap somewhat challenging also. I would have felt like a real idiot if everyone
else managed to cruise through the job in two minutes flat. :)
The Tech front sight uses the M16A2 front sight tool so you have to buy the correct one. This was one reason I changed the windage wheel since I had to have 2 different sight tools (M16A1 rear and M16A2 front ) to easily adjust the sights ( a special tool is not required to change the sight ,I'm just set in my ways).
I put a square A2 front sight post in my tech sights. The A2 four prong tool works and the replacement sight was wider and easyer for this blind ole codger to see.
If the front sight is loose and wobbels, wrap the threads with teflon tape. That idea was the brainchild of Mrs. Shootimus Maximus
Went thru the whole scenario a couple years ago putting them on SKS's. After the second one I got some GOOD tools. Not much to do differently, at least you DIDN'T break the punch in the hole!
LS
Quote from: Varmit on March 15, 2009, 10:16:20 PM
>> I've already got one for
my AR. Same tool, right? Buzz! Wrong Answer. AR tool (at least mine) has four prongs. The Tech Sight is looking for a five prong tool.
The 4 prong tool is for AR-A2 sight (square post) the 5 prong is for AR-A1 sights (round post)
A2 front sights are 1.5 MOA adjustments and A1 front sights are 1MOA adjustments (depending on sight radius)
you will want to drill a hole through the tool when you get it so it can adjust taller posts ;)
Get the roll pin punch set from midway (cheap) well worth it http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=191653
You will need both A1 and A2 tools when you become and
instructor anyway O0
just keep getting the correct tools and add them to your bag/box-O-Stuff that you take to the range
Appleseed is very good at sorting out what works and does not work
(you will readjust a lot of stuff from you bag/box-o-stuff you bring to the range) <:)