Local(Oklahoma) suppressor manufacturers/silencersmiths?

[CAR-AR-M16]

Just wondering, being a machinist myself I dont see the reason why some cost so much more than others. Especialy if most the work is done CNC. But then Ive never made one. I understand some are better than others but what is the reason for a 500 to 600 or way more dollar differance? So what does drive the cost up?

Some of the cheaper models are made with plain aluminum or carbon steel. Your higher dollar cans are made with inconel and titanium which are more expensive and harder to machine (therefore more expensive). That is one of the reason why some cans are rated for full-auto and others are not. Also, like dustin mentioned earlier, you may have to go through several different variations to come up with the maximum sound reduction. All of that R&D costs money.

 

[mr ed]

Some think they are way better than everyone else so they must cost more... Sometimes like cars your paying a lot just for the name.

No! some spend big bucks on research and developement and need to recoup that expense.
others just steal the design and copy.
some buy insurance for their business and have a good warranty. some are fly by night and will disappear at the first sign of trouble.

ask Honeybee, he was going to make them until he found out about the insurance costs and didn't want to lose everything he had by not having insurance.

also you get what you pay for, $200 gets you a 15-20db reduction in a can you can't disassemble and service.
$800 gets you 40+db reduction in a totally servicable can with a good warranty.

 

[NikatKimber]

The cost of the materials and machine time are just part of the cost. R&D is probably as much or more than the raw cost of the suppressor. Also, the precision machines these *should* be made with are not cheap either. "Sticker shock" would probably aptly describe most people's reaction if they saw how much a full CNC lathe or mill costs. Many manufacturers also offer warranties, and then there is the all important profit.

If you don't count your time, and are ok with not having the research and testing that is done by suppressor manufacturers, then sure, you can build one cheaper.

I want to build my own someday, but not because I think I can build it cheaper overall, or because I think I can have something better; I want to do it just because I can.

 

[Seadog]

Some of the cheaper models are made with plain aluminum or carbon steel. Your higher dollar cans are made with inconel and titanium which are more expensive and harder to machine (therefore more expensive). That is one of the reason why some cans are rated for full-auto and others are not. Also, like dustin mentioned earlier, you may have to go through several different variations to come up with the maximum sound reduction. All of that R&D costs money.

I gotcha. I wasnt thinking of special metals but that can drive up the price. I was also just assuming that there was a good blue print one would be going off or reverse enginering. Wasnt thinking of R&D or the whole trial and error. I understand your points.

It be nice if there was company that could mass produce good quality cans that also had a realy good decimal reducing rate that didnt cost more than a good sidearm. Im not knocking any of the high end cans, just wishing they were more affordable to the average working man. I guess it all comes down to you got to pay to play

 

[NikatKimber]

I gotcha. I wasnt thinking of special metals but that can drive up the price. I was also just assuming that there was a good blue print one would be going off or reverse enginering. Wasnt thinking of R&D or the whole trial and error. I understand your points.

It be nice if there was company that could mass produce good quality cans that also had a realy good decimal reducing rate that didnt cost more than a good sidearm. Im not knocking any of the high end cans, just wishing they were more affordable to the average working man. I guess it all comes down to you got to pay to play

There are suppressors that don't cost more than a good gun.

For example, the YHM Cobra is less around $500, which is around what an average handgun costs. The highest 9mm cans I know of are just in the $800 range, which is exceeded by quite a few 9mm handguns.

One of the top .223/5.56 cans is the M4-2000, which is in the $1000 neighborhood; but a high end AR can be well over $2000.

 

[Seth247]

I will ignore any personal attacks since i infact have my big boy pants on allready.

THis isn't a thread about the validity of form one suppressors versus comercial suppressors. It is a thread asking for local machinists who are dabling in suppressors and may be trying to start up a buisiness with whom I can possibly do buisiness.

As for material expense, titanium is more expensive than steel yes, but it's not gold. I would approximate that for a standard titanium tube/stainless baffle setup there would be approximately 100$ worth of material costs involved. Titanium, while rarer than steel is not the holy grail, and there isn't a while lot of it in a standard suppressor. stainless is stainless, it's not that expensive. Suppressors involving inconel are ofcourse the exeption as inconel is expensive and expensive to machine, just look at the triple tap break. This is why I said SOME supressors are overpriced. Not all.

I will guarantee right now that there is much less than 100$ worth of materials in a 500$ tac-16 or whatever model.

Supressors are much cheaper in european countries where they are unregulated. Us manufacturers know they can rip consumers off because the market is less saturated.

Once again. I am simply asking about local machinists.

 

[Seth247]

I gotcha. I wasnt thinking of special metals but that can drive up the price. I was also just assuming that there was a good blue print one would be going off or reverse enginering. Wasnt thinking of R&D or the whole trial and error. I understand your points.

It be nice if there was company that could mass produce good quality cans that also had a realy good decimal reducing rate that didnt cost more than a good sidearm. Im not knocking any of the high end cans, just wishing they were more affordable to the average working man. I guess it all comes down to you got to pay to play

Suppressors are not magic. It does not take years of nose to the grindstone research to figure out the shape of a baffle. Just trial and error. Someone has an idea, they try it, it works or not. People always try and justify the price of overpriced things by mentioning R&D. Alot of the time when refering to things that required little to no R&D.

It is perfectly possible to mass produce suppressor components cheaply. Once the design is finalized a baffle can be cnc'd in a matter of minutes. This is the whole point of computerized machining, to make things cheaper, faster, and more accurately. Cnc machines are very expensive, but major companies like AAC, knights, or ops Inc have them paid for many times over.

 

[338Shooter]

Just wondering, being a machinist myself I dont see the reason why some cost so much more than others. Especialy if most the work is done CNC. But then Ive never made one. I understand some are better than others but what is the reason for a 500 to 600 or way more dollar differance? So what does drive the cost up?

Construction materials is a big part of it. Machining 718 Inconel is expensive and hard on tools. The high dollar rifle cans have fully fusion welded cores which is expensive, but needed to help the suppressors battle the heat and pressure especially during full auto fire.

 

[shooterdave]

There is another real influence that needs to be considered, too. We are buying items that are a luxury. Manufacturers know that the prices reflect that to a certain extent. Also, there is a pretty decent mark up in these things. That is why guys like Dustin can discount pre-paid orders dramatically. They discount them to a marginal profit margin because being pre paid means none of their operating funds tied up for three to four months waiting for form 4's to come back. These big dealers that stock many different models have huge sums of money tied up for months if not years on items. No way they can do this with slim profit margins and make any money... Especially when they are getting started. Suppressive are just an item that you have to pay to play. Like many of you, I have spent a lot of time on silencertests.com looking at can design and thinking about building my own. The problem I have is that you have to give uncle sugar all of your specs when you put apply for the permit. Basically, you have to have it all worked out ...read no experimentation...before you make the first cut. I guess a guy better be pretty damned good at conceptualization. To me, I'd rather spend a few hundred bucks more and just buy one that someone else has worked out the bugs...

 

[djcorrell]

Do a form one if you are curious and want the fun. If you have no experience or machines (assumption please don't scream at me) there has been a couple of guys on here that have made some cool cans. Posts may be over a year old, so some digging is involved. Get the form one, and get with them to turn it out. You can make new friends and have fun. They would probably help so they don't have to buy a stamp. I saw an all stailess 22 can that could handle 556. Sweet good reduction over built and lots of time. If it is looked at like a hobby or adventure it is worth it. If not there are some great value in production cans. My advice is worth wat you pay for it.