Suggestion: Sell Type 81 Side Rails As Separate SKU
- Thread starter Ustauk
- Start date
I sent an e-mail asking him how much as ti told me they wouldn't sell me one without buying the kobra red dot sight. Even though I bought the rifle optic ready kit. So essentially they want me to spend 600 dollars to get a mount to install a 400 dollar optic onto when an ak mount is 20 bucks everywhere.
Well, that sucks. I can understand them wanting to get some of the R&D costs for modding the Kobra side rail mount design to fit their drill-less pin setup, even if $200 is steep compared to the standardized, incredibly mass produced AK side rail, but they should still be willing to sell you an extra for the premium price without purchasing an extra red dot. I guess you're left modding another rail , or seeing if you can split the price of a Kobra with mount with someone who needs the Kobra for something else that already has a rail, like an SKS. Good luck!
Let us know what you hear back. I don't mind TI but I feel that my obligation to them has ceased with the number of their guns in my safe.
Don't really need a scanner. Creating the raw model is a 20 minute job max (horizontal and vertical cam grooves included). Actually using a scanner might just be a bad idea, since you usually need to clean the final result extensively. It's good for gross, complex shapes, not something you need to reproduce to specs.
The real issue is machining, it's not as cheap as people expect. I have some experience creating gcode (.nc) to run on the machine at my workplace but I wouldn't pay for someone with as little expertise as me. Time, material, setup, operation, it all adds up quickly. Especially if you're looking to make an integrated mount like TI, which include threaded pins (which are different from one another and also turned down in a spot for the spring plate).
There is money to be made, just not a whole lot.
Quick, Easy, Cheap. Pick two.
The optic ready version does not constitute with the side mount rail. What it does come with is the custom TI trigger group pins that have a threaded portion sticking out of the side of the receiver, along with the right side safety, both pre-installed. Installing these two components takes the most onerous part of installing the mount out of the equation; installing the side mount is the relatively painless portion of the procedure.
It would probably enough to have the AK Universal Mount side plate either sold by TI or fabricated by someone. The market would be anyone who bought a Picatinny/1913 kit from TI already, or anyone who bought an "optic ready" side mount ready Special Edition.
