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Posted: 8/11/2010 1:10:40 PM EDT
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I ordered the RAD-NV2 Night Vision Mount to put on my D-740. I use the rifle for both day and night so I thought a QD mount would come in handy.
But I'm having a little problem with mounting it. The instructions mention the screws on the original mount may be glued in and MEK may be required to take them out. On my unit, the screws were held in with something that resembled a glue, but it was relatively easy to back them out without using anything other then the allen wrench. But it appears the original base is glued on. So my question is has anyone else run into this problem, and if so, how did you resolve it? Also, I'll show my ignorance here and ask what MEK is? The instructions also have a warning that MEK can dissolve some plastics, so I'm a little concerned about putting it on my scope...whatever MEK is. Any help would be appreciated! |
| I know that MEK is a strong paint thinner, stripper. It ate the plastic on my sport bike when I tried to remove the old paint. Advanced Armorment also warns against using it on there Scarmore baked on finish. I would not let it come in contact with anything other than bare metal. I cant help you with the mount though. |
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MEK = Methyl Ethyl Ketone. It's a STRONG industrial solvent and cleaner. Very high VOC, and it evaporates EXTREMELY fast and leaves no residue. It'll viciously attack any type of plastic, polycarbonate and paint. I used to use a lot of it cleaning engine parts when building race car engines. Don't get it on your skin because it will suck all the moisture, and don't sniff it (bad headache).
You can buy it at hardware stores. |
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The way that I removed the factory mount from my D-740 was:
1) Remove the mounting screws with an allen wrench. 2) Spray a little carburetor cleaner [petroleum distillate] into a small container, like a WD-40 cap. 3) Dip a Q-tip into the liquid petroleum distillate. 4) Using the Q-tip, SPARINGLY apply the petroleum distillate to the seam where the mount meets the optic to soften the epoxy. 5) Mount a piece of rail to the optic mount so that it extends past the objective lens. 6) One LIGHT tap with a soft hammer on the rail, and the mount came right off. Be advised that the surface finish on the optic will be removed wherever you apply the solvent. Also, be advised that the surface finish on the optic will be gone where the epoxy had previously been applied to the factory mount. As others have stated, MEK is some really nasty stuff. You should like the RAD mount; they are quite nice. Hope this helps. |
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Quick update on the RD mount...
The mount is really well constructed and looks like it would work great. But I have been unable to get the original factory mount off the D-740 to put the new one on. I worked on that mount for 3 days. I first tried Murderman's approach, but it didn't seem to loosen the epoxy so I went ahead and picked up some MEK. While the MEK did a good job at removing the paint and did loosen the surface epoxy some, it didn't get to the epoxy under the mount, so I seem to be stuck (pun intended  ).
A recommendation if you are thinking of picking one of these mounts up is to see if you can get the original factory mount off before you put your money down on the RD. No doubt it's a fine mount and worth the cash, but it's a pretty expensive option to purchase and just leave sitting in your safe...get the original off before you place your order so you know you're good to go 
This is not a slam on TNVC so please don't flame me. They offered to put the mount on for $25 plus shipping, but I just don't have the cash right now to cover the additional cost of getting it to them (shipping plus insurance). |
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It's not the $25 so much as the shipping costs with insurance...I'm sure not going to send something this expensive without insurance
I just wanted to make sure those that are looking into picking one up make sure they can remove the original first. It will save them a lot of problems and additional cost. |
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What are you using to gain leverage after you applied the solvent to loosen the epoxy?
Mine was initially a little tough to get off, and I did indeed call both Randy and Vic to make sure that I wasn't doing anything wrong, but it did come off fairly easily with the "proper" tools/method as described above. ETA: whereabouts in TX are you? IM if you'd prefer to keep that info offline. |
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I used the approach you mentioned above...
I mounted a section of rail that stuck out over the end of the scope and tapped it lightly. I then put on more MEK, let it work for a little while and then tapped it again. I increased how hard I was hitting it until I was afraid of damaging the scope...I figure I was definitely exceeding any recoil it received from the 308 I had it mounted on. I did not have the scope mounted in anything. I was hand holding it while hitting the rail. I also used a screw driver and tried to pry at both ends, again to no avail, but you can see the pry marks on the scope. I used a blade and scraped off as much of the epoxy as I could see around the mount. This sucker seems to be on pretty good. I'm in Bastrop Co, roughly east of Austin. Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I hate the idea of giving up without taking at least one more run at it. I dropped a note to TNVC to see if they had anymore suggestions, but I figure they must be out of the office since I didn't get any responses. |
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This may sound like a silly question, but how many screws did you remove between the mount and the optic?
The reason that I ask is there are THREE total; the heads of two of them are exposed when looking from the bottom, but the third will be "concealed" by the rear mounting lug if it is in either of the two most rearward positions, and can only be accessed by removing the rear [lateral] rail mount screw and the little "puck" that it screws into. Hope this helps. |
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Yep, removed all three. All the holes on the original mount are clear. But that's a good point, it would be easy to miss the third screw.
At first, I was expecting the epoxy to be basically a bead around the edge of the mount. But I now suspect, at least on my scope, the epoxy extends a considerable distance under the mount. I doubt the MEK can penetrate far enough to get all the glue loosened. Maybe it's time to get the plasma cutter fired up 
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Damn, I was really hoping that the "third" screw might be an easy answer to the problems which you have been encountering, but you have that one figured out.
The epoxy does indeed extend in between the mount and the optic. Here is a pic of the interface for my removed factory mount: 
Maybe, you can sparingly try to work some solvent through the original mounting fastener holes to get some enhanced contact of same with the epoxy? I can pull my aftermarket mount off the optic if necessary to get a pic of that interface, but would prefer not to just yet. I am in far NW Harris County just off 290 about 100 miles from the city of Bastrop, if you'd like to get together sometime to work on it? |
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