building an AK is not as hard as a lot of people make it out to be. Practice does make perfect, though. I've been building them off of a bench vise, bolt cutters, and a few simple jigs. I buy my receivers 100% made from Nodak or 74uLLC. They are righteous receivers that do not disappoint.
The cheapest AK I've built was for $200, with compliance parts and the economy NDS receiver. I had a friend sell me a barrel assembly for decent money and then I used spare parts for the rest of the gun. So, in reality, it cost more than $200, but that's what I fronted for it. The rest was paid for my inability to stop buying AK crap.
I also put stickers all over it, covered it in motor oil and gasoline, and then lit it on fire.
as some people can attest to- not all of my guns run 100% out of the "shop door." It's not a plug-and-play process, sometimes, especially when you are dealing with parts kits. This one needed some ejector tweaking in order to get it running like a top. It's the second rifle built off of a NDS receiver that needed ejector tweaking.
A WASR will give you an AK on a receiver where the magazine dimples are substituted out for spot welded magazine guide plates. When people tell you to try out a magazine in a WASR, they are stupid and just repeating what they read on the internet like a talking head. Because all WASRs are the same- they all have magazine slop because of the spot welded magazine plates. I used to say the same shit until I realized every WASR has this.
The only thing you can/should check on a WASR is the front sight to rear sight alignment. Once again, people on the internet will tell you that Monkeys work at Century Arms and that they are responsible for these sight alignment problems. Wrong again, dummies. WASRs are built in Romania, and the barrel components are pressed onto their barrels over there, not in Vermont. There are a very few select CAI WASRs that have US barrels, but they are far and few between- those are the rifles where these supposed idiot monkeys aligned the barrel components for pressing.
And you know what? I've seen a few of them and they look great.
So- lesson of the story? Unless you are going to build a bunch of AKs, or are having a custom builder build you a collectible AK off of a rare parts kit, or you somehow have every tool needed to build one up, hunt down a used WASR for decent money, check the front sight to rear sight alignment, buy it, and enjoy your AK.