Greasing "open" gearboxes
 

So my team and I are working on a drive gearbox and it has pocketed face plates much like the WCP style (image below). What we were wondering is how to keep grease from flying off of the gears. We use white lithium and when the gears get to speed they will throw all of the grease off. This could be solved by not doing pockets all the way through (leaving a 1/16in) when milling the plates but I was wondering what other teams did to solve this issue that had WCP type gearboxes.

http://imgur.com/NAilpGr

Re: Greasing "open" gearboxes
 

try a dry graphite lubricant?

Re: Greasing "open" gearboxes
 

Most of the grease is going to come out of the sides of the gearbox; in the last few years I can't remember any grease coming out of the front or back. You can put something around the gearbox to keep debris out and grease in, or you can run grease through the gearbox for a while until it isn't spraying grease anywhere and then install it into the robot.

Re: Greasing "open" gearboxes
 

If a significant amount of grease is being thrown from your gearbox, you don't need it. You have too much grease. You only need to apply a fingertips-worth to a spot on each gear, and then spin the gears a bit to spread it evenly.

Re: Greasing "open" gearboxes
 

we cover ours with duct tape - this does two things - it keeps the grease in, and it keeps the dirt and other damaging materials out.

Re: Greasing "open" gearboxes
 

We did this with the KOP gearboxes lady year-round greased them then let them run for a couple of minutes before installing them on the robot. We ended up taping over the ends anyways to keep debris out as well.

Re: Greasing "open" gearboxes
 

We used this last year:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#8710t44/=uc2zsu

Had to reapply a couple of times, but it dried on and didn't 'fling' off the gears. We applied it a few times through the year, but it worked well.