It is time for me to fess up since I cannot solve this problem myself. I have a .30 cal, user-serviceable Thompson Machine THIRTY stainless steel suppressor. I have never taken it apart to clean it and now the time has come. Alas, I cannot get it apart. I can get the exit-end cap off, but the threaded muzzle end I just cannot get loose.
I have probably somewhere around 1,000 rounds of .22 LR through it and probably less than 200 .223, so I did not think it was going to be impossible; so far it has proved to be.
I have tried putting the muzzle cap in a vice and using strap wrenches. I have put PB blaster inside the cap and let it soak. I have stuck that end in boiling water and then tried to get it free. I have also cut suppressor-sized holes in pieces of wood and cut a relief channel to clamp the body of the suppressor in a vice while I wrench on the cap (the suppressor spins in the wood even at the max clamping pressure with which I am comfortable). All of this to no avail. The only things I have not yet tried are shooting it to heat it up and then try to remove it while hot, and the Internet also recommends Kroil as a penetrating oil but I do not have easy access to that.
Any additional thoughts as to how to get this thing apart? Thanks for any input.
I have probably somewhere around 1,000 rounds of .22 LR through it and probably less than 200 .223, so I did not think it was going to be impossible; so far it has proved to be.
I have tried putting the muzzle cap in a vice and using strap wrenches. I have put PB blaster inside the cap and let it soak. I have stuck that end in boiling water and then tried to get it free. I have also cut suppressor-sized holes in pieces of wood and cut a relief channel to clamp the body of the suppressor in a vice while I wrench on the cap (the suppressor spins in the wood even at the max clamping pressure with which I am comfortable). All of this to no avail. The only things I have not yet tried are shooting it to heat it up and then try to remove it while hot, and the Internet also recommends Kroil as a penetrating oil but I do not have easy access to that.
Any additional thoughts as to how to get this thing apart? Thanks for any input.