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I am curious to know what the procedure would be to request a serial number for a home made gun. Is it free or do I have to pay for the request? Do you have to request a serial number before you start building a home made gun or after it is finished? How long can you have a finished gun before you have to make the request?

If it is free and the request is required before you start building a gun, everyone who believes in the 2A, should request a number. The number of guns in the US would appear to explode. If they come looking for that gun, you just changed your mind and never built it. Talk about ghost guns, these would be guns that exist on paper only.

I am curious to know what the procedure would be to request a serial number for a home made gun. Is it free or do I have to pay for the request? Do you have to request a serial number before you start building a home made gun or after it is finished? How long can you have a finished gun before you have to make the request?

There is no federal requirement for a serial number for a homemade gun.

Some states have a requirement, such as California. I have heard the bureaucratic requirements for obtaining a serial number in California, are so burdensome, that no one has been able to obtain such a number for a homemade gun.

Meanwhile Biden is sending thousands of man portable surface to air missiles to unvetted militants in Ukraine. What could go wrong?

If you create a regulated item (firearm receiver, short barreled rifle, "silencer") from raw materials with no existing serial number, you must submit a Form 1 to ATF describing your business, describing the part, identifying the manufacturer, model and serial number you have assigned. You can't manufacture it until the ATF approves the Form 1 and accepts the $200 tax. If you built using an already manufactured item e.g. an Anderson AR-15 stripped lower where the manufacturer, model and serial number are present, then you just enter that information on the Form 1. Again, you can't assemble the finished part until you have the approved ATF tax stamp in hand. If disapproved, the Anderson lower can still be assembled into a non-NFA regulated firearm e.g. a rifle with a 16 inch barrel on the upper.

If your Form 1 creation is part of an NFA trust, you need to engrave the trust identification on the part with engraving deep enough to meet ATF requirements. I paid a local FFL with a specialized CNC milling machine to engrave my lower (still stripped to ease placement in the CNC mill).

My comments are specifically relevant to create an ATF NFA regulated firearm. If you have a non-serialized, 80% lower (not a firearm) and finish it into working order AND create a non-NFA regulated finished device, then the serial number is not required, BUT it is for your own personal use. Not for sale.

Doing the finish work usually requires special tools, a fair bit of skill and time. I don't own those kind of tools, yet my tool investment for assembling an AR is still significant. Special torque wrenches, roll pin punches, jigs for holding parts in position for assembly, caliber specific go/no-go chamber gauges, lubricants, staking punches for BCG gas keys, a burring tool for securing a gas block on a barrel, specialized jig to hold the barrel while torquing the barrel nut on the upper receiver. It's a lot more work and expense than the average gang banger wants to do. It's easier for them to just steal one or buy a stolen weapon from another criminal.