That makes you lucky as well. A cast front trunnion with an undetectable void in the casting will work until one day it doesn't anymore.
That's not a risk I'm willing to take when there are plenty of options available (many costing no more than the IO rifles) with proper forged trunnions.
Fishbed77 and WinThePennant,
I actually have something to contribute to this "discussion inside a discussion" as I purchased one of the newer IO AKs approximately 1 year ago.
The good things about the IO are that it is fairly well put together and does "technically" work as advertised. I've shot over 1000 rounds through it and put it through its paces for a portion of a recent carbine class I took and it performed without issue. It is quite accurate, takes mags good, no canted sights, receiver seems well done. Internals look good and the rifle seems well put together
Now on to the bad things. This is not a longevity-oriented firearm. I thought that this could have been a gun to shoot for many years and pass on to my eventual kids...yeah right! First, as you mentioned Fishbed...critical parts in high stress areas are cast and I do absolutely worry about this in the long run, no doubt about it. I wish I would have been more informed about this at the time of purchase but I did not, which is my fault.
Additionally, the rifle comes with a recoil buffer installed. What IO does NOT tell you is that the recoil buffer is actually mandatory in their design. I had this discussion about this over the phone with the IO CS manager about a month ago. Even though they are using nitride barrels, my understanding is that they are knowingly and deliberately drilling the gas port hole in the barrel too large, causing the bolt carrier assembly to slam into the rear trunnion (cast part) harder than it needed to be, hence the "need" for the recoil buffer. My understanding as well is that if the recoil buffer is taken out the bolt carrier will jump the internal receiver rails because of the overgassing issue mentioned above.
I do not think it is right to have a recoil buffer as a "mandatory" part to mitigate the effects of an oversized gas port hole. IOs quality control is fine, but all the quality control in the world is moot if they are deliberate design flaws and/or cast parts used for high-stress areas.
As mentioned above, while my IO AK does work my plan is to somehow sell it soon and purchase a better, foreign-made AK. I may get the draco AK pistol + arm brace that Girodin mentioned but I'm still pondering the issue as I don't want to get this wrong a second time. I think it's true...ARs are a much better deal than AKs these days. Oh well...