[modeleng] Re: are ye all trying to tell me something...

Peter, those fast pitch worm drives generate a lot of heat and wear quite 
rapidly.  Even a 10:1 ratio has high frictional losses.  Speaking from 
experience here as we had many worm drive boxes at the sawmill.  Most were 
20:1 on up to 60:1, but a few were 10:1 and those always wore out quickly 
and usually got hot enough that you didn't want to touch them. Spur gear 
boxes more expensive, but lasted forever.

Jesse in W. Tennessee.

I believe that you can reverse drive a worm under certain circumstances.
 From memory, you must have a very 'fast' worm i.e a big pitch, and the
 correct angles of the worm and the gear. It will then reverse drive but is
 horribly inefficient, and is of little (if any) practical use.
 Peter Chadwick
 Swindon

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