Ballpark Pricing for a From Scratch Body & Rail

[The Dawg]

I am thinking about becoming a born again non-gunwhore, and using the money to make just one or two crazy tricked out guns. Can anyone give me a ballpark of what to expect for a custom body and rail? I realize I'm leaving this extremely vague, but humor me if at all possible. Feel free to recommend an air smith, and or anodizer.

[OPBN]

I would say that without at least some basic specifics you are being too vague for anyone to really make a guess. Are you talking completely custom? As in having someone make you a one off custom milled body and rail or unibody? If this is the case, I would guess in the neighborhood of at least $1000 starting point depending on the complexity. If you are talking about an existing "custom" body like a Dallara, Phoenix or other simply look through the BST's, gather going prices for the parts you want, use simply arithmetic and bang! You have your answer. Prices can vary wildly depending on whether you are going with a Classic or X valve, single or double frame. Heck even the double frames can vary from $35-40 to over $4-500.

Not trying to damper your project, but you have to at least give some basics and/or do a little homework.

* Edit, I see now that you are asking for a "from scratch" body and rail. Contact XMT as he seems to be about the only one I am aware of making bodies from scratch. If you get a slug there are possibly one or two others that may be able to help you. Maybe they will chime in.

[zulubravo44]

Are you talking about a completely original, from scratch body and rail with a run of just one piece each? There are quite a few options for not-quite-so-rare bodies and rails out there.

XMT's XULE or ripper bodies are one example (will run you about 250) and Luke's custom rails might be a good complement (they run 80-100, depending on options like airline milling, pump milling, etc.).

I don't think there are many machinists that you could convince to mill a completely custom body and rail from original drawings, though. You may be able to get some fancy work done to a slug body that would come out looking like a completely custom job, but even that would probably be prohibitively expensive (slug bodies on their own are pretty steep, much less setting up the machining to really make it custom). I do know that there are a few people on here who have done stuff like this, so maybe they can speak to the actual costs.

[The Dawg]

It would be awesome to start with a slug body, but I haven't seen one for sale for ages. I would like to make a rail to mate up with a star frame, and use it for an egomag. It may need to be abnormally long to accomplish this. It will have a X-valve and eyes. I will probably run a lvl7 for efficiency sake.

[OPBN]

For Rails, contact Luke. He is usually very amenable to custom rail work. Slug bodies actually come up every once in awhile, but you may be best off contacting XMT. He makes bodies and may be able to work something custom up for you. I would still imagine its going to be $$$ for a one off.

[going_home]

https://www.automags.org/forums/showt...highlight=Slug


There's your slug body....

[The Dawg]

And pm sent on sluggo. Thanks going_home

How can I get ahold of XMT? I think he's made some vert feed minimag bodies and things like that, but I'm as familiar with him as I am Luke.

[zulubravo44]

And pm sent on sluggo. Thanks going_home

How can I get ahold of XMT? I think he's made some vert feed minimag bodies and things like that, but I'm as familiar with him as I am Luke.

He's on here, SN=Xmagterror. Check out his bodies in the Dealer's Forum section.

[SummaryJudgement]

Unfortunately, that's not a full length slug.

A full length slug would overlap the valve far to the rear and even have a decent amount of length over the front end (overlapping the barrel even). That appears to be a slug for a ULED style body.

And a full length slug rail is even harder to come by. I know, I sold a set of both a while back for over $400....

One-off CNC machine work is expensive, UNLESS you can provide the materials and a flawless CNC file that no one has to spend hours cleaning up. And there is always "tool ware" costs as dictated by the place or person running the job.

My input:
It ain't cheap...

EDIT:
I have dealt with XmagTerror on at least a handful of occasions dealing with HIGH END sales and trades, custom bodies, and custom frames. He has always been great to deal with and provides amazing products. Top-notch work! I'd do business with him anytime

[Nobody]

The key to 1 offs is they are really never 1 offs. Unless you have very good design skills as well as programing skills, you will skill have the need to sacrifice either wood(which one machinist did for me on a design of mine) or multiple slugs just to make sure the design works with specs.

So you need to decide if you want the design done for you or have it made for you my the machinist. The former is easiest but is a long process of going back & forth with what you want and what the machinist can design for you, as well as expensive. You will be paying for his time on the design.

So if anything make a list of what you want on/for the mag. Whether it is unibody or rail and body set. Using aready made parts or padts that could be repurposed will certainly save on the costs. But as i see it, expect 4 figures on payment when you are done with the design & milling. Then you will pay for the anno, which depending on what you want done and who you go with can be somewhere in the $500 range.

It is a great endeavor but can be very expensive.

[The Dawg]

I want you all to know that I really appreciate the input. I have never done anything like this and I need all the help I can get. Your forefather would be proud n' stuff.

I have a couple things going for me. first, I'm single, with no kids. Which means I can be as selfish and stupid as I want and no one can tell me otherwise. Second, I'm an engineer, and can do some preliminary cad work myself. I might even be able to get my design into mastercam, or some other cnc program through my friends from school an co workers. I'm feeling pretty good about this. Paintball gun family heirloom? Maybe, it certainly doesn't happen often enough.

[SummaryJudgement]

I want you all to know that I really appreciate the input. I have never done anything like this and I need all the help I can get. Your forefather would be proud n' stuff.

I have a couple things going for me. first, I'm single, with no kids. Which means I can be as selfish and stupid as I want and no one can tell me otherwise. Second, I'm an engineer, and can do some preliminary cad work myself. I might even be able to get my design into mastercam, or some other cnc program through my friends from school an co workers. I'm feeling pretty good about this. Paintball gun family heirloom? Maybe, it certainly doesn't happen often enough.

And.....who's to say that if you come up with a design that's proven to work without issues you couldn't trade/sell/partner it with someone and do a batch run for the community?

Prepays may be easier to come by than other past projects if you can show an "off-the-mill" product that works from the get go. People have invested more in projects that weren't proven at the start in the past. If the milling file for CNC met specs and produced a viable product, you'd be farther along than others who have made successful runs based off of only a cool design and pre-order funds. Just saying...

[Nobody]

I want you all to know that I really appreciate the input. I have never done anything like this and I need all the help I can get. Your forefather would be proud n' stuff.

I have a couple things going for me. first, I'm single, with no kids. Which means I can be as selfish and stupid as I want and no one can tell me otherwise. Second, I'm an engineer, and can do some preliminary cad work myself. I might even be able to get my design into mastercam, or some other cnc program through my friends from school an co workers. I'm feeling pretty good about this. Paintball gun family heirloom? Maybe, it certainly doesn't happen often enough.

Well, before you do anything, secure the machinist first. No sense drawing it up first and not being able to send him files he can not use. Not all CAD programs are the same. If you are going to do the design, ask them for a preliminary base, so you are(not only working with what the machinist knows) able to have a base which you can work from. This is the most difficult part, as you will have to trade files back and forth. I am sure that they will have some input on what they can do or how it could look better. This will be time consuming, to say the least.

You also have to have someone that can tumble it and polish it. Do not assume that everyone does do this.

Do as much leg work as you can on every aspect you can think of.