We had a discussion about this a few thousand post ago but i will explain a few things! There is a reason why the spur gears cost what they do, they are not east to machine, first of all they are made from a stock spur gear (4.00) and they are molded out of non machine able plastic (makes it very tough to clean up after machine work is done) while machining the material twist around the tool so about halfway through i have to program stop and pull material off of the tool. The ball holes you could probably drill the your self but would need an indexable super spacer to get the holes on the same B.C. and concentric with the center hole. If the holes are not on center you will not get a groove on the washers and that will also make a mess. Now the pin holes are a complete different animal, I know it looks like they are just holes stuck in there but if you read on the RCShox thread Cameron and i went through dozens of spur gears trying to get the right location of the pin holes. they are not on centerline and they have to be a certain distance away from the balls to work properly, also the ball holes are not a standard drill size, they are interpolated with an endmill, same with the pin holes. So in a nut shell and to answer your question, yes by all means you can drill the holes your self but it will not work properly. Machine work is a "by the hour" trade, take your 4.00 spur gear to a machine shop and see what they will charge to drill the holes for you. CNC rates are generally 80.00 per hour and i promise with programming and setup it would take about an hour to get the first one done and 8-10 minutes of cycle time to do the rest! so now you know why they are 13.00!!

Put the price thing in perspective for a minute, do you know how much it cost to make a lexan body, yet nobody complains about shelling out 50 bux for something that literally cost about 5.00, in fact the packaging cost almost as much as the body!! Tires, do you really think it cost 20.00 to make 2 tires, once again they are worth about 2.00 yet we all buy them every two weeks or so, sometime more than that! http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...Ballstud-Set-2

6.50 for something that cost the factory less than 25 cents but we all have them! I am just saying, a 13.00 spur gear is not that bad in the grand scheme of things especially if it works!