Lets Talk About Our Light Mounts

So, you have been wondering about our Light Mounts.  Well, we can’t blame you.  They are pretty sweet.  At least we like to think so.  And yes, our kids are the best looking and most well behaved kids ever.  Anyway, let us talk about our light mounts:

The Basics

All of our light mounts are designed with 3 things in mind.  The first is for them to be robust, strong like bull, but not overly porky.  We always strive for a happy medium, so we make sure we always pay our fortune teller.  The second, is for our light mounts to be as snag free as possible.  Sharp, pointy pieces of metal are the bane of many a person’s existence the world over.  Smooth light mounts make for smooth operators.  Thirdly, we want them to look good.  Why would one bother with stylizing such a utilitarian piece of equipment you may ask?  Simple, we hate butt ugly light mounts.  And usually when a light mount is as ugly as skinny jeans mixed with flannel, it tends to violate the first two principles that we strive for.  Fourthly, even though we are somewhat prejudiced against those-who-shoot-with-the-wrong-hand, we make sure every one of our light mounts and adapters is 107% ambidextrous. This way we can sleep well knowing that those that shoot wrong handed can still own the night. The other advantage here, is that it gives the user multiple light placement options to refine the fit and feel to their preference. To do this, we created a simple interface that is strong but allows for much modularity.

The System

Our Light Mount system is simple and strait forward, like a peanut butter and honey sammich or running over your neighbor’s cat.  We start with the Base.  Each Base was designed taking styling cues from the host platform so it can blend into the rail, handguard or weapon system it will be slapped on to as much as possible.  This also helps to be able to distinguish one base from another.  While this isn’t the most ideal way to make things in a manufacturing environment, taking the cookie cutter approach to design would just end up making us slow and fat from all the cookies.  Currently we offer bases in the Keymod, M-LOK, MOE (older slot style), Troy TRX/Alpha flavors with 1913 Picatinny bases in the works as well as some weapon specific mounts in the future.  Every Base that which we make has the same interface to attach your light via an Adaptor with.  This way, should you swap your handguard or light system out for something else that is shinier or has a lower drag coefficient, you would only need to swap the Base or Adaptor to be back in business again thus saving you some hard earned ducats in the process.  The Bases are all ambidextrous as well so they can be run on either side of the handguard with no effort at all.

The next part of the system is the Adaptor.  These come in several shapes and sizes.  As with our spice cabinet, variety and modularity is key.  We designed all of our Adaptors and Rings to work when mounted above or below the base (when mounted on the 90° sides of most handguard systems) as well as on both sides of the weapon.  We also created several methods for attachment.  There is the regular old 1″ ring which will work with lights from 1.010″ down to 0.985″ in outer diameter (if you are looking for a different diameter contact us at info@arsonmachine.com), there is the 90° SureFire Scout Adaptor for the M300 and M600 series lights, and there is the Offset Light Mount for more flexibility in mounting pistol or WML style lights to your rifle using an offset 1913 Picatinny rail.  We will also be releasing more adaptors of varying kinds in the not so distant future so stay tuned.  The interface is the same between all of our Adaptors and rings, so any base will work with any Ring or Adaptor we make.  One bonus feature is that the 1913/Picatinny rails that we make for our Offset Light Mount will also bolt directly to any of our bases to further expand their usefulness in solving your mounting woes.

The Materials

All of the screws we use are black oxide coated stainless steel.  While others may just simply opt for inexpensive alloy steel screws, we put our money were our mouth is (which is kind of nasty given all the stuff on dollar bills anymore) and go the extra mile to ensure that you get the finest mount possible.  Nothing is worse than having a rusted head on a screw or some other unsightly blemish caused by oxidization.  With our mounts this is a non-issue.  All of our other hardware is also stainless steel, where ever possible.  Currently, the only exception to this is the M-LOK nuts.  These are parkerized alloy steel and we get these directly from Magpul Industries.

The Bases, Rings and Adaptors are all made from high quality, domestically sourced 6061-T6 aluminum.  Once machined we deburr all parts to ensure maximum smoothness, then send them to one of our local vendors to get Type III Hardcoat Anodized in black.  And be it known that with our mounts you can have any color you want, as long as its black.

Until next time…