If bluing a barrel is your main worry, worry not! It's more tedious than difficult. If you take care and follow instructions, you can do it.
My first was a re-blue of a used FIE Kentucky rifle I got for a good price. The original 1970's finish was a splotchy brown; I was already working on the lock and trying to dress it up a bit, so I decided to reblue the bbl.
I already had a bench grinder, so I bought a brass wire wheel ($10?) and used that to both remove the old bluing and even up the metal surfaces. You could just use bluing remover solution if metal looks good, or, if carefull, a drill-mounted wire brush would work. Just be sure to get the finest, softest wire you can find. A coarse, hard wire will scratch up the surface badly.
I used acetone as a degreaser/cleaner. I bought Brownell's version of Pilkington's Bluing solution ($9 + shpg, I think), and a tiny crockpot (used for party dips & potporieaiux smelly stuff) for $3 at Goodwill. I put a coat hook I had lying around on the inside of a closet header trim board to hang the barrel from. I already had some steel wire, so I cut off 8" or so of that. I found a metric bolt in my collection that fit the nipple hole (mine is percussion), wrapped it with teflon tape, and plugged that hole. I got a pair of rubber stoppers at Lowes or HD for under $2, used that to plug the muzzle & seal the bore.
Other supplies were 0000 steel wool ($3- $4) (degreased with acetone) and some cotton make-up pads, little circles about 1-1/2" dia. I (ahem) borrowed a few cereamic ramekin-size bowls from the kitchen cabinets, but cleand-out pickle or olive or jelly jars would also work (and have lids, come to think of it). You'll need a small can of acetone and some oil to finish the barrel with.
The biggest expense for me was a rectangular boiling tank - but that was because I was doing a rifle barrel. If your kit has a 10" or shorter barrel, you might be able to find a large cook pot or maybe a metal baking pan that will work and fit on a stove burner.
So- this got long winded, sorry! My point is, if you read up on the bluing process, and get a handle on what the steps are, you can improvise "equipment" pretty dang cheaply and still get good to excellent results. Outside of the boiling tank, my whole bluing set up cost me maybe $40... and I've blued 3 barrels so far.
Dive in! The water's fine!
