I got bored and did the maths. Of course, this assumes a few things, and carries an oversight, so I may be a little wrong.
-Only using mist energy for levels
-CE costs 6000 crowns
-Recipes were only bought from NPCs.
And the oversight of mine:
Not using mist for crafting.
So, give or take a few thousand crowns, and some for the ever changing CE prices and AH, It costs 8-9 million crowns to craft up 1 weapon. Yikes.
My calculations say that it only cots 168150cr to craft from 2* to 5*, and that includes a very generous estimate of the material costs and the cost of the time spent getting heat for the upgrades. In practice, it will almost always cost you significantly less out of pocket.
Star CE Crowns Recipe Mats Heat Prev Total
2* 3000 + 400 + 250 + 750 + 0 + 0 = 4400 ( 73CE)
3* 12000 + 1000 + 1000 + 1500 + 0 + 4400 = 19900 ( 331CE)
4* 24000 + 2500 + 2500 + 5000 + 10000 + 19900 = 63900 ( 1065CE)
5* 48000 + 5000 + 6250 + 20000 + 25000 + 63900 = 168150 ( 2802CE)
Total 87000 + 8900 + 10000 + 27250 + 35000