While the price of the gears my be " pricey", consider what is involved making a machined gear. The OD of the gear must be turned, bore established, and as a guess reamed to size, as a guess a tolerance of .000, the helical gears cut, the shoulders cut, and finally cut to length. This can all be done on an engine lathe, but in all likelyhood done on a CNC lathe. Also consider the cost of the tooling, not counting the cost of the lathe, which ever you choose.
The cost of a gear cutter alone will cause most to reach for the botttle of nitro to jump start their heart.
Been there, done that !
herrinchoker