AR Sponsor
Posted: 1/28/2014 3:16:58 PM EDT
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Hi i'm thinking about getting a FFL and buying a CNC mill and lathe and start a business manufacturing my own rifles. I know it's going to cost a lot but i'm young and single and have the money right now. Does anyone know if all the parts from the upper and lower receivers down to the springs are patented? And if they are, how are all mill spec. and commercial parts the same size and interchangable? How can other companies manufacture these parts with them being patented? I guess my main question here is am I going to have to write my own blueprints and get them patented to manufacture a new rifle without have to worry about getting sued by another company?
Sorry for the long post, I just don't know much about that kind of stuff. |
| I'm hoping you have a minimum of $750,000 to invest, and are skilled in the use of solidworks and mastercam...........and are a skilled programmer/machinist. If you are building AR style rifles......patents on standard design have expired......specific things like how a handguard is attached can be propriatery and patented. |
| I have been doing just that for the last 10 years. I have several patents, and they are not cheap. A minimum of $10,000 each buy the time you are all done. As a rule it takes over 3 years to receive one, that is if they allow it. I only build stuff for the local market. About 20-30 completes a year. It is not my main source of income. If it were I would probably starve. The market is so saturated with manufacturers today(and a lot of good ones) I have no desire to try and compete in the national market. That takes some serious coin, and quality control starts to slip away when you do those kind of numbers. You can start out small for a couple hundred thousand and take care of the local area. Local guys like to deal with someone that they can have a eyeball relationship with. If something goes wrong, they know right where to go. That has been my experience. You do not have to redesign the rifle, you just have to build a quality and reliable one, at a reasonable price. Even if you build the best rifle ever, you are not LaRue, Colt, Noveski, DD. You will not get those kind of numbers , normally. The biggest thing is the rifle needs to work first time right out of the gate. Not trying to discourage you, just start out small and see where it takes you.Craig |
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Quoted:
I'm hoping you have a minimum of $750,000 to invest, and are skilled in the use of solidworks and mastercam...........and are a skilled programmer/machinist. If you are building AR style rifles......patents on standard design have expired......specific things like how a handguard is attached can be propriatery and patented. I've owned my own tool shop for 15 years, and worked in others for 25 years before that. I'm very good with Mastercam, and reasonably proficient with solidworks. It's MUCH cheaper and easier to buy parts than it is to build your own. If the OP wants to get into the gun business, he'd be much better off trying to come up with something new that the big boys haven't thought of yet than to try and compete with them on standard parts. Don't believe the hype that you hear. It's more than just pressing the green button, and 3d printers are not going to be replacing any real manufacturing in our lifetimes. |
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I have a small shop. CNC mill, SolidWorks, and a CAM program for creating the programs for my CNC.
I can tell you that if you don't have the network in the industry is is going to be a very slow uptick in your income per month. Don't quit your day job!! Moon light your desire to be a business owner on the side. Save lots of $$ to pay cash outright for your equipment so you are not locked into producing to supplement a $2000 a month machine payment or shop rent. Some months are profitable and others are not. The NOT is more common. Don't ever let anyone tell you it CANT be done. It can be. Just take your time and don't just manufacture firearm parts. Diversify what you will take on for work. |
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I have a small shop. CNC mill, SolidWorks, and a CAM program for creating the programs for my CNC. I can tell you that if you don't have the network in the industry is is going to be a very slow uptick in your income per month. Don't quit your day job!! Moon light your desire to be a business owner on the side. Save lots of $$ to pay cash outright for your equipment so you are not locked into producing to supplement a $2000 a month machine payment or shop rent. Some months are profitable and others are not. The NOT is more common. Don't ever let anyone tell you it CANT be done. It can be. Just take your time and don't just manufacture firearm parts. Diversify what you will take on for work. ^^ This is good advise. My family has a small machine shop. We make mostly do one off custom parts, tooling, jigs, with some smaller orders in between. It's our hobby. We all have different full-time jobs in manufacturing, Mostly in the aerospace industry. You should never take loans out for equipment or at least until the shop is established. Ive seen some guys really dig them selves into holes they couldn't get out of doing it that way. The first thing you should do if your interested in getting into manufacturing and machining. Is find some machine shops that are hiring and give them your resume. Usually the smaller shops are where you will end up learning the most ,thats been my experience anyway. It's the kind of business you learn by doing and being involved in. Then build your own personal shop while you're working. |
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Don't forget your liability insurance costs and have you done a business plan yet? Projected investment, expenses and profit.
IF you just have money you want to invest burning a hole in your pocket go to someone in the financial planning , investment field. Or like someone else here suggested, build a better mouse trap, in this case something for the firearms business where there is a real need. Just from my very limited experience there are a bunch of AR manufactures out there already. Yes I have been down this route not with firearms but with tools, a couple of provisional patents but no market... not much invested but a learning lesson. |
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i been machining for a few yrs now and i hate cam i use conversational controls. i can upload the ,dfx and program it on the console of my hurco vmx42 Having time on your hands and a machine is nice, but unless its a hobby... somewhere along the line you need to make money to pay the bills, if your in business. The "real" world of CNC uses CAD/CAM, Solidworks or whatever for generating the machine G code. Had a CNC machines for years and finally sold the last one a month ago. |
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