Has anyone here had experience with building their own guns?

I happened across a website for a guy who manufactures his own guns as a hobby using CNC milling equipment, and finishing them out with parts kits. Anyone done this themselves? It seems kind of like a cool thing to do, particularly for somebody like me who doesn't have the cash at the moment to invest in higher-end guns. Of course I've got zero machining experience, so this is more a thought experiment.

What they actually do is mill out a receiver (or if you're making a pistol, the frame) using a computer-aided design 3D model and a computer controlled mill. Then they use standard parts for all the rest like a barrel, magazine, grips, trigger, etcetera. It's apparently something of a hobbyist niche now.

The milling equipment is far more expensive that even a bunch of retail guns.
People just do it as hobby to do it rather than to save money.

If you just want to save money then buy guns and reload ammo.

At most I was thinking about what I might do if I had access to one for a little while.

with a black powder pistol kit.

but certainly more expensive, and possibly dangerous... this conjures up images of "zip guns" but I'm sure this is different...with a CNC machine sounds like a step up

http://www.cncguns.com/

He's doing direct 100% copies of existing firearms receivers/frames: AR-15s, AR-10s, Colt 1911s, and some 9mm pistols. The finished products all look pretty good and he's fired them all.

about doing it yourself.

A small board, a spring action clothes pin, small nails, wood glue, and a box of rubber bands = bwahahahaha.

The AR's were from stripped lowers.

I used "Bushie" forged lowers and assembled one into an A2 configuration and the other into an M4gery ... that I can't get my wife to let me use at the range. She decided, with the adjustable stock, that it was "built for her". I guess she didn't know that the adjustable stock was designed so she could hide it easier under her coat to rob 7-11s. Poor benighted woman.

The Long Rifle was a kit from Traditions, .50 caliber with a 1 in 48 twist.

Building from scratch? Don't have the machining skills or tools for anything legal (e.g. closed bolt).

Those traditions kits look like a lot of fun. Did you hot blue at home or send it off?

Probably the easiest "gun" to make from almost scratch at home would be small field pieces I imagine (using some thick walled pipe). Safety and legal concerns aside.

The Traditions kit is pretty basic but you wind up with a very nice looking and surprisingly accurate shooter. A 1 in 48 twist lets you use patched round ball or conicals (minnie). They have one that is a 1 in 60 and that's only good for ball.

The trickiest part is fitting the lock into the stock without cutting away too much wood.

You really have to fit it carefully with sharp pocketknife - never use anything like a Dremel tool, no matter how tempting it seems to save time. (Don't ask how I know that)

The Casey brand home bluing kit worked really well. I just took a lot of time to make sure it was totally clean before I started and set up a stand to hold the barrel from both ends before I started applying the bluing.

The bluing won't look like a classic old S&W and it will have some inconsistencies, but that's the way they all used to look back in the day. A lot of folks choose browning it for a more historically accurate look too.

Used my metal lathe to make replacement firing pins, and such minor repairs for friends. I also made a couple of rifle scopes from scratch with lenses from Edmond Scientific (For those old-time astronomy buffs who remember that company). Turned the parts from aluminum and sent them out to be anodized black.

Never made any barrels or stocks, though I always wanted to.

However it's a medium-level machining challenge at best and a passable journeyman machinist could make a functional gun from stainless steel stock and a few standard springs. It would take a craftsman to make a fine handmade gun, and such people are not rare in the gunsmithing world (my favorite is Ed Brown, who makes 1911's from bare stock stainless - including all the fiddly parts most people cast instead. Admittedly they cost $2K+ but man they are sweet), but anybody past apprentice level could make a functional gun.

This of course being another wrinkle in the "ban them all" suggestion.

Never from scratch. 3 AR-15 pistols (two in .223, one in 22LR). The AR pistols were fun range toys, but I sold the 223s to finance the purchase of a taurus 1911 and a springfield XD subcompact.

If a buddy of mine hadn't sold his machining business, he was going to let me load the CNC program and mill an AR-15 receiver, and then use his tanks to anodize them. I kept meaning to get over there with a floppy, but never found the time. Shame, really.

Here are a few pics-

All he made himself was the frames, of course; the barrels, grips, mags, and other parts are all professionally manufactured.

A matched pair of Beretta 92s:



A Colt M1911:

That is a serious machinist. Mere mortals couldn't hope to do that. In some parts of the world you can find guys making AK receivers with an old hammer and some files, so never say never.

You can make whatever you want, short of NFA stuff, as long as you don't sell it.

The guy definitely puts a lot of time into creating the 3D models for the machine, though, as well as guiding it through the steps. You can see the step-by-step building of the 1911 here:

http://www.cncguns.com/projects/1911a1frame.html

I've built an AR-15 and am working on a 1911 pistol.

eight AR15s using stripped lowers and one ar15 from and 80% lower. I enjoy putting them together but that 80% lower was a little bit more of a challenge. I enjoyed it but the cost of an 80% lower is higher than a normal stripped lower so why bother. The only benefit would be that there is no paper trail since there is no serial number on the lower as it is basically just a block of aluminium.