I always cringe when I see someone touting something being made from "billet" aluminum as their buzzword of choice for sales marketing. In years previous, the buzzword was often "aircraft aluminum".
I guess they think it makes it sound impressively built out of something super advanced or something. In reality, they are making this receiver out of simple rectangular bar stock to reduce waste, probably a 2024-T3 (aircraft aluminum
), 6061-T651, or if they absolutely need the strength and fatigue isn't high on their list of worries, 7075-T6.
If they were really on their game, this thing would be forged to near net shape with minimal finishing needed and the cost would be down sub $1k.
I like that the market gets to determine whether stuff like this succeeds or fails. For every idea that takes off, 10 others similar to it crash and burn.
I wish these guys the best, but putting this out there:
...designed the rifle’s parts so that they were easier and cheaper to manufacture. Parts for the AK-21 don’t require a firearm-specific machine shop, which means they can manufacture the parts anywhere in the country.
“With our design, it's a simple milling of aluminum, which is easier on machines and tooling,’’ Potter said. “With how simplistic we've made the design, we can also do high quantities. Making it out of aluminum cuts down on cost and on the weight carried by a soldier, while cutting down on waste and the time spent producing them.”
and then pricing it at $4k probably ain't going to get her done...
(any commodity machine shop can pretty much make anything these days, but if the shop is finish machining a receiver, they better darn well have their ITAR registration, BATF manufacturer's license current and up to date, and a S/N stamped on that sucker!)