I saw these wheels when they were first listed. Seller wanted $800 for them. Who knows, if people wait another 5 years they may actually become affordable.
A word of caution with 3D printing. I got quotes on some Southern Cross plastic caps a while back. The prices ranged from $300 per cap from some guy on the Gold Coast who thought he was the world's top professional, to $20 per cap at the local photocopy place, to damn near FREE from a friend of a friend. Others may also ask for a "vectorizing" fee on the image or part that you supply, when really it takes someone with the right computer skills just a few minutes to vectorize the image. It pays to shop around. The printers are expensive but the plastic is not. I guess some people are just trying to pay off their machines when they charge exorbitant prices. The same applies with decal reproduction. Some people quote as much as $80 for a single sticker or decal, but you can find plenty more that only charge around $6 per sticker or decal, and often the quality is the same or better.
Yes even the CAD software is expensive. To buy the SolidWorks software costs between $5,000 & $10,000 per year. You don't have to upgrade each year but if you have say a 2010 version and decide you want to upgrade to a 2017 version to be able to open files that were created on the later system, SolidWorks require you to back pay to the first year version!
Then there is the cost of the printers. You can do basic wheels on a $1,000 printer but to do any accurate models with good repeatability you are looking at the $10,000 to $60,000 price range.
I'm only using the $100 per year student version of SolidWorks, which is ok for basic 3D & 2D projects but has a permanent watermark on any drawings and limited functionality. Still it can do a Victa wheel easily! However, I don't have any Victa 18 wheels to get measurements from, nor a 3D printer & no spare time!
The other option is free cloud based CAD software such as
OnshapeThere are also 3D printer companies that you can send a CAD file to so you don't have to have your own printer.
So yes, costs vary dramatically!
