Techydude

The steel axles you saw are at inanimatereason.com They also have a bricklink store under Inanimate Reason. I've talked to the the guy that runs this store and he has steel axles gallore. Sure some of his kits are about 100 bucks or less, which include some steel axles. But more importantly, he is a custom robotics builder, and will do custom orders on just about anything. If you need steel axles for Legos, he's your guy. I believe he has a steel axle pack with adapter hubs to Lego axles for about 40 bucks. If you just want a single steel axle at a particular length that will adapt to Lego axles you may get away with half that price. Just talk to the guy. TD

Apparently you can increase the gear ratio on that very spur gear kit from Inanimate Reason to 10:1 with the addition of a couple of small gears, for about 30 bucks. You can also increase it to 25:1 for about 60 bucks. Or combine both add-on kits and get 50:1 for about 90 bucks. I believe that both these add-on kits are available on special order only from Inanimate Reason. I hear they also have a simple linear actuator that have 4, 6, 9, and 12 inch travel, for relatively cheap, since it doesn't come with a motor. You can use an XL motor to drive it and gear the plastic Lego gears to any ratio you want since there is no backwards torque transmitted beyond this linear actuator's metal worm gears. I think this guy Bob Shaw will do custom anything for a decent price. Just contact him through his site. TD