pic: Mmm ... Greasy Worms :-P

[Tim Delles]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Nah, worm mating gears are almost exclusively bronze or brass, in order to permit the two gears to mush together a bit, creating a smoother running setup with less backlash.

That is what it is. I for some reason thought that they were made out of copper, but now that you say brass or bronze it all clicked.

Just to warn you, that these 2 metals are relatively soft. If to much force is exertaded onto them, it will strip the 2 gears.

This is our gearbox for our wings in 2003. However we started noticing severe wear at our first regional. By the time we got to nationals we new that it was pretty well gone. The brass gear that you can be seen (the gear that is cut to only 1/4 of a gear) was completely stripped.

Now i haven't thought about it in so long, and i don't know the exact force that was working against the gear, but im pretty sure that it is less than some robot will be pushing against you with.

Hopefully you thought it all out before deciding to do a worm gearbox.

Good luck and let me know how it turns out