B/R for fun and profit, really just looking for a way around SI Options

[Frag-o Delux]

A few months ago, while playing a game of SR, my character needed an amp to really kick out some wattage. While being stuck in a one horse town, the best I could get was a few level 4 amps. Not knowing much about amps personally, my character is supposed to be a tech wiz. He had a fair bit of tools with us, so I hypothesised I could bash the 3 amps together and get something a little higher maybe a 7 or 8 rating amp. The GM wasn't sure and I didn't feel like pushing the issue, seeing that I am not that familiar with amps.

I had to come up with another plan so we dropped that angel. Later while flipping through books trying figure out what I wanted to buy with my hard earned cred, relising that I was far from getting a spiffy new toy, a maglock passkey, I have a 4 but things got dicy during the last run so I wanted something better. So I was curious I have and electronics B/R skill of 6, why couldn't I build one? I mean the a circuit diagram could be easily found on the Matrix, and I could hire a decker to write the software for it, I think my small computer skill of 4 would not let me get a high maglock program. So if I some how got my grubby hands on a circuit diagram, and the software to put into could I build Maglock Passkey of 7 or 8?

I can hear you guys already huffing at such a sugestion, but Build is the first word in B/R. I am a wierd person in our games, if I was allowed to build one, chances are I would not sell one to anyone else. So effectively I would build one for my self then just shelf the specs, to never see the light of day. The thing is our games sometimes have big winfalls, but usually 95% of that winfall goes back to Hospital bills or paying off the bookies. So I look to cut corners however possible. We also play with a lot of freedom in our games, some character very rarley go on traditional runs, most times they are doing off the wall stuff to supplement their real/legitamite jobs.

How would you handle building gear from scratch, my GM usually fights tooth and nail about not letting things into his game, but sometimes he lets me get away with murder, so much so I put restrictions on myself to maintain the fun level.

I would make some kind of availibility test for the parts, shouldn't be to hard to find generic parts, then do some major research test for the specs, then have a decker/progrmmer do a programing test for any software that maybe needed, then some sort of final assembly test. I would use a version of the bug chart in Matrix for the software and final assembly, I can't remember if the Rigger 3 has a prototype bug check, I think they do for turbo charging, but I would have make something like that. So everytime I use the key/whatever I built, I would have to do a check to see if it went buggy, but after so many uses and patches it basically has worked out all the bugs. I figure it should work something like the building tests for building a deck.

I believe something like this could be fun to have in the game, riggers build cars/drones, deckers build decks/software, mages build foci/spirits, what does the Tech Wiz build? They have rules for doing everything but building electronic gadgets. Unless I missed something? This could work for a lot of skills not just electronics, is there rules for making a sword in the game? I have a shaman that is looking at building his own sword, he is having a forge and everything built in his house, well back yard, so he can do all sorts of things.

Just curious as to how you would handle this. Am I off my rocker?