After pricing out some components it seems you don't save any money by building your own unless you have a lathe and can do all the work yourself.
Does that sound correct?

A lot of the benefit of the form 1 route is the joy of doing it yourself. Originally in 2013/2014 when form 1 wait times were <30 days it was a route to avoid the form 4 wait. Now you can build a really nice can for still less than some of the commercial offerings but when you look at YHM’s Turbo and Resonator pricing, in my opinion, they negate a form 1 benefit.

Reason I mentioned it was I found Omega 300's for sub $650

These days, there are off-the-shelf components that anyone with a twist drill and a means to rotate it can finish a quality F1 build. For the highest quality, expect to pay $20 per baffle "blank" for things like 17-4 1150, plus the cost of the tube.

If you have a lathe, the general cost to build a high quality example is $200 plus the cost of the materials, and very little past that. Personally I enjoy the process, so I don't count my time as cost in this instance. If I can get suitable scrap materials, all the better... you'd be surprised what you can find on ebay now and then. 2" dia x 4" long sections of 17-4PH, 20 for $30 shipped, was my most recent deal.

That’s a good deal on a great can with many different options for mounts, caps, etc.

If I only had a lathe or access to one......
I know how to use one just don't own one.
I have checked eBay and there are some smoking deals on tubes if you have a way to turn them.
I'll be about $400 in parts/materials into a ti and ss can not including my time to finish for pre made stuff.

If a commercially available silencer will work for you, and you're happy with the specs and price, then it sounds like that's the route you should go.

ETA: I feel as though I should point out the large number of used metal lathes available just in the Denver area alone...

Form 1 silencers are like reloading, in that, if you got into it to save money than you did it for the wrong reasons. The form 1 allows you to build to suit. I have approx. 2 cans that move hosts. The rest are all firearm specific. Were they cheaper than a commercial? Sure, but I have how many thousands of  $$ into machinery. Nowadays, it seems a quality mount costs almost as much as a tax stamp. So, if you have the capability, why not simply make another can?

The selection is pretty much crap right now, mostly overpriced import junk and overpriced large machines.  I'm always watching for nice antique machines at decent prices, love pre-WWII stuff.

I do have a Heavy 10L for sale if anyone is interested, though!

Are you anywhere near CO by chance?

I estimate $105 for a DM ASR tube, $170 for spacers and radial cones (1 SS, 7 Ti), $65 for a front cap and $70 for Howards Ti direct thread unless you already have a SiCo mount.  So $410 for a 12-13 ounce all titanium except blast baffle 1.5" X 8" .30 cal rifle suppressor.  That you can take apart or change mounts on.  That you can up-bore to 9mm and still get decent performance out of.

However, you need some tooling and skills, maybe 20-30$ of perishable cobalt drills and/or end mill cutter.  You need to add in cost of engraving (25-50$) for anything decent looking.  A vibrating pen engraver is hard to get deep enough on titanium and will look like crap.  If you don't flame or acid anodize you can discolor the Ti with OxyClean or coat it with Moly Resin or Cerakote for more $.  Or leave it raw.

That's still a savings over commercial titanium builds, not including your labor and/or mistakes and scrapped parts if any.

Or just buy a YHM Resonator.  Mass production is a proven winner since the industrial revolution.  Craft built items can provide value.  Compare your home grilled burgers to a Big Mac.  But the value may not be in dollars saved.  I don't recommend a Form 1 build until you have enough commercial cans to know where a custom build might fill in a niche.

Even someone with machines, tooling and significant experience might look at something like a VOX or a Trash Panda and recognize its not worth trying to replicate a one-off.  Other items like rimfire and subgun cans it's stupid easy to get good performance out of even freeze plugs, where a little extra weight is no big deal.  Something with a booster or integral it doesn't pay unless you have a lathe and welding skill.

An Omega 300 for $650 is a smoking deal.

I have built a few form one cans. Almost all of my completed ones are all stainless except for the spacers, so they were a little cheaper then the ti builds above. I also have access to a buddy who works for an SOT in a machine shop, so I get my machining, engraving and coating all really cheap. Even with all of that once my next few form one cans are done I will probably buy commercial for a while because of the awesome deals you can get on them now.

I currently have built:

5.5in 5.56 can that mounts to a yankee hill flashider. It's all stainless except for the ti spacers. It is loud, but I can shoot my 10.5 without ears and it only adds a few inches to the weapon.

10in 5.56 can that mounts to a 2.5in reflex mount. It's all stainless except for the ti spacers. It sounds really good for a 5.56. Kinda like a wanna be ops spr can.

6in 9mm 3lug, all stainless except for the ti spacers. Kinda like an omega 9k before they were available.

8in 30 cal can with 2.5in reflex that lives on my 8in blackout sbr. Sounds great and adds less then 6in to the weapon.

10/22 intergal. Stainless bull barrel was machined into a mono core with a ti tube slid over and secured with a thread protector. Sounds good, but I am gonna tweak the way the mono core is cut. A gemtec mist would have been cheaper.

I also helped my gf with a 6.5in 5.56 can for her 10.5 ar. It mounts to a yankee hill mount and sounds pretty good, noticeably better than my 5.5in.

I have stamps pending for an 8in 30 cal using a ti tube, end cap, yankee hill mount, spacers, and stainless baffles. This was built with left over parts and stuff I got used. It will be fun to shoot head to head against my sdn6. Also two large 1.625x 10in 2.5in reflex 9mm cans to live on my gf and I two 5in barrel 9mm AR sbrs. These have stainless reflex mounts, aluminum tubes and ends caps, ti spacers and stainless baffles. I am hoping they are stupid quiet.

I have other parts for a few possible future projects, but IDK if I will do anymore after these. As you can tell they are all for a specific roll and some when I started them did not really have a good or inexpensive commercial option. But now you could get a commercial version of anything I built and probably not spend much more and might even perform better, but then you could lot tell people you made them.

James

$250 tube, caps and spacers.

$150 cones.

$100 Griffin Paladin (fucking BS expensive for what it is)

$200 Stamp.

All Ti except two spacers and Paladin.

This is what I have budgeted if the next Form 1 is approved and I do all of the work myself.

Why not go with the Ti minimalist brake?

I don't really see the issue with the cost of the Paladin, most similar mounts from other companies are priced the same

Plus griffin runs a pretty consistent 10% off coupon so the paladin ends up closer to $85

I wanted the longer brake to have a larger blast chamber and to get the first baffle close to the end of the brake.

Other than the taper, what makes their brake better than the $35 devices you can get off of eBay.  Especially when being used with a can.  Now that I have the P2 in hand, I can tell you....nothing!  I could have special ordered a cap to fit the cheaper device, but I've waited long enough for the paper form to be approved and I'm anxious.  Next time though!

10% off doesn't mean squat when they don't have 5/8"x24 in stock.

Where did you find the YHM Mounts?  I recall seeing them a year or two ago but I cannot find them anymore.  I'm looking for one the would fit the Apogee/SDTac style tubes.  Thanks!

I got money from diversified machine. Mine are for his tubes, but I think he might make them for the maglite pattern tubes. SD tactical made them for a little while but I do t think theirs ever worked right so they stopped making them.

James

Building a quality can isn't cheap.  Before 41F I went crazy with a bunch of stamps and collected parts to build several cans during the wait.  I have a lathe and mill but prefer to use quality components from DM, Venom etc. I have yet to build a couple of them.  Busy with other projects but the stamps aren't going anywhere.

So do I and a can usually costs me $25-50.
Are you saying my builds aren't quality?

17-4 isn't expensive. It's quite cheap, actually. I got a bar of drop (H1150 - 1.75x36) for $40.
I have an eBay seller I go to for Ti. Picked up 5 (6Al-4V - 1.75x4.5")pcs for about $65 shipped.

Is there a reason you don't use your own equipment, start to finish?

I was wondering the same thing.  I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay $20-$30 ea for baffles, $50+ for mounts & caps and somewhere in the $100 range for a pre-threaded Ti tube when you have the ability to make those parts for a fraction of that.  Shipping is often the worst part, but if you're amortizing that by ordering enough for more than one build, it's less painful.  You can order 18" of .070" wall gr. 9 Ti from Tiger metals for about $90 shipped, enough to do 2 or even 3 rifle cans, depending on what you're building.

I have anywhere from $10-$100 in materials per can, with most rifle models landing in the $60-$80 range.   And I don't buy in large quantities, not more than 24' of Ti tube and anywhere from 24'-48' of SS or Al at a time, so what I pay isn't really any less than a F1 builder would.  Heck, buying drops as mentioned above can come in even cheaper.  I just don't like working with a bunch of little pieces, too much hassle and waste when I can feed 6' bars and only lose the last 1.5" or so.

I hear you, but I can't pass-through anything reasonable.
The drops aren't too bad and I'm pretty good about using up small pieces.
Sometimes they're nicer than running the steady.

Care to share? It's difficult to find a consistent supply without paying top dollar through larger supply houses. DiscountMetals (or is it discount-metal-sales?) on eBay is my go-to for drops and small quantities of other metals, but they rarely offer Ti.