My removal tool arrived yesterday, I will say that was fast shipping.
Last night I played with the attachments to familiarize myself with the rig. I was not impressed with the fit of them when it came to my XDm. It did fit better on my XD though.
I was not impressed with the bolt used on the ram. A coarse thread was used, where I feel a fine threaded bolt should have ben used for better control of movement of the pusher/ram.
I was also not impressed with the amount of fiddling around with the slide "shimming" that is required. One must "shim" it to get proper slide/sight placement so that the sight lines up with the sight pusher on the tool. Since this is custom made tool to fit XD's I feel the shimming shit should not be needed, it should be a perfect fit. I also feel the finger of the sight pusher that contacts the sight is far to small.
So next I soaked the front sight over night and just went up and tried to remove it, No Go. It still wont budge. In fact I fear that I will damage either the slide or the tool because the slide tries to rotate in the tool when I start moving the pusher. I feal that if I tighten the clamp holding the slide any harder I will deform the slide.
All in all I would rate this tool a 5, or less, out of 10. Fit, finish and performance are all lacking in my opinion.
In the end I fear I will end up breaking out Mr Dremmel and cutting the sight out then replacing it the old fashion way.
This tool might end up working on other firearms though. That is after I make a few arbors to accommodate different slide shapes and or round barrels.
If I end up actually being able to get this tool to work I will be sure and make a post saying so.
JB