Some time ago i took an IKEA FIXA (the cheapest little electric screwdriver) apart to find a nice little three stage planetary gearbox made of hardened steel. Obviously I had to use it for something.

So since I was looking for available ways to gear up some steppers for another build I thought it might be fun to try adapting the gearbox for my steppers.

Since the gearbox is three stage it reduces far too much for my application, somewhere in the order of 1:90 I reduced it to a single step for a ratio of approximately 1:4.5 which is perfect for my needs.

So far I've assembled a prototype with a 3d printed housing a 608z bearing and an 8mm shaft, which still has some alignment issues and a little bit of slop at the axis coupling. Other than that surprisingly the gear has pretty much no play as far as I can tell.