I'm not necessarilly recommending this to the OP, but back in the day me and all my USMC buds used to just grab the front sight post, and torque the things off with a big flat head screw driver, and back on, the same way (and, we even used the same crush washer!!
).
That's not to say this wasn't a big screw up in some way (like wrist-flipping a cylinder closed on a revolver), but back then, and in the decades since, I (and several freinds) have never had or observed a problem.