building your own AEG (price cost)

[shot3gun]

can anyone give me an approx price if i wanna make my own aeg?

(M4 Model)

[immortalundead]

the price of a new tm m4 its a little over 560, and the classic army m15a4 is around 630 with metal body, those are already built and working
take a look at all the internals and pieces you will need on sites like airsoftparts.ca it should have everything you need to make one, if you know what your looking for, but from the looks of it, its gonna cost you well over 630, and i think its suggested to not do this unless you know what your doing

[kalnaren]

A lot. Like 2-3 times as much.

[Donster]

ya i priced out building a complete G&P zombie M4. all the parts b4 tax, conversion and shipping worked out to around 1050. then i multiplied the body and the silencer by 2.5 (they are restricted items) to get a Canadian price then i added tax and i was already at like $1240.93 and this is before shipping and duty. on top of that, it turns out i forgot to add a motor. that being said, with the systema complete mechbox, is a motor included?

Long story short, its gonna cost you ALOT even with most of the parts not being affected by canadian red tape. the only ones that will would be the receiver and a silencer if you choose to get one.

[Taito]

Can you be more specific? Which M4 model are you looking at? Do you intend to have a custom M4A1 or have something at the other end of the "High Speed" spectrum, with something like a URX or MRE rail system? Are you looking for reliability, a high rate of fire, or a high fps? I don't know where you're located, which doesn't help for calculating shipping or availability. There's a lot of questions that need to be answered before I can answer yours, unfortunately. However, I would suggest going onto WGC or Redwolfairsoft and building a gun via their shopping cart, starting with a good quality donor such as a TM or G&P or WGC Custom (G&P with different body) and adding what you would like.

Cheers,
Vic.

[Omi-san]

It would be cheaper to start with a complete M4 based on what you want and then replace some parts.

[Beazer]

...or just buy used parts...it can easily be done for under $500.
but from buying straight from unc or somethin, over that by miles.

[Styrak]

I'm building an M4A1 with a CTR stock and upgraded mechbox, barrel, hopup, metal body, and it's costing me less than or near a TM M4.
I had the stock mechbox to begin with, though.

[kalnaren]

I imagine if you can get some of the more expensive parts (like the body) for cheap it could be done for an acceptable cost.

[TrueTGN]

If you had a base to work from it might be a bit easier/cheaper. For example, having a gun with messed up externals/broken body with good internals or a gun with the internals completely garbage but with great externals to work off of. Then buying certain parts to upgrade depending on what kind of look/type you're going for.

If you want a gun built out of 100% after market parts to suit your need then its going to be expensive no matter what. But if you're wanting to build a gun from the ground up to look like a gun that can already be purchased pre-built then I don't see much of a point in that.

Its all going to depend on what you want to do to the gun.

[Pip]

If you are really set on building from scratch, check out Huang, he's selling some awsome cosmetic parts for a really good price.

All in all its a great idea, you get exactly what you want, but at the same time it will cost you an arm and a leg, not to mention the time it will take to put together...and this is assuming you can put it all together properly...

[mcguyver]

I don't recommend to anyone to build their own gun from parts, unless you've built lots of them before. Just because you see a part that looks good, does what you think you need it to, does not mean it will work well with other parts.

And building a gun that will last and perform well takes a little trickery and experience that the first time builder doesn't have. And no matter how hard you try, you can't build one with new, quality parts for anywhere near the cost of a pre-assembled gun.

And Styrak, tell me how you can build a gun from scratch with a $200 Magpul stock and have it be near or less than a Marui in cost? Unless you are using old, used inferior parts scavenged from a crappy Chinese clone gun?

Trust me, buy a prebuilt gun, then add on whatever you want to make it your own.

[Styrak]

mcguyver, it's a huang replica. His $60 CTR stock.

[Greylocks]

Another way to look at that question: if it made sense, we'd all do it and tell you how.

We dont, so....

[eel one]

I think most of you are missing a point. It is fun to build something from scratch. It's like playing with Lego's, except that the parts usually need more or less modification to fit properly. Yes, it takes time and money to do so, but considering the many hours you are occupied with an interesting process of creating something unique, are well spend. If you (like me) like to challenge yourself and keep yourself entertained by your hands, go for it, even if you know you are likely to buy parts that in the end are wrong for the project.

I do not agree with using a donor gun is the cheapest way to make a custom build. In the end you will end up with parts enough for 2 separate guns. I made an M4-SD model and there are only 4 parts left of the original gun (springs included in this count), everything else has been changed. I could have saved US$270 on that build by not having used a donor gun.

The price of a build are as others write correlated to the parts used. I'll give you an example of my last build that was done from scratch. I'll keep the price in US$ as that is what the Hong Kong stores charge you in. But do note that you are likely to pay shipping from 2-3 different stores if you need your parts fast or need something special that not all stores stocks. Also you will need to add all fees to the equation as I do not know the Canadian system. I Denmark where I come from, we are charged around an additional 28.4% on top of the price including shipping and I really hope the Canadian customs lets you guys of cheaper than this.

Anyway here is an example of a build based on my latest project that I have adapted to a team mate that wanted some similar.

Front end kit: 130$
Ace stock:47$
Metal body: 212.50$
Grip: 30$
Trigger guard: 25$
Compleate gearbox: 220$
Motor: 55$
Inner barrel: 35$
Hop-up unit 30$
Hop-up rubber 8$
Accessories set 37$
Battery pack (9.6v on ELITE1500 2/3A cells (special made to order)): 30$
MP-Jet 3.5mm connectors: 4$
1.5mm^2 wires: 10$
------------------------------
total: 873.50$
------------------------------

There are always things to fiddle around with when building from scratch, just finding the right parts alone take hours. Modifying parts to go together are a nightmare and troubleshooting takes forever. You can always makes things more complicated by building the gearbox from scratch etc.

If you really have the guts to take on a 3 dimensional puzzle that does more than looking nice, go ahead. But be prepared to accept that you make expensive mistakes, from time to time. You will learn from it and you have the opputunity to get a true one of a kind gun.