# Worm gear repair



## 682bear (Jun 2, 2021)

I took a day off from working on the Hendey lathe today... my old Buffalo Forge 21" drill press had two broken teeth on the downfeed worm gear...




I built the teeth up using the TIG welder and silicon bronze filler.

I have a 12 DP gear tooth cutter... I realized it was close enough to use to rough out the worm gear teeth, so I set it up on the horizontal mill and machined most of the brazing back, then hand blended what was left.




There are still several teeth with small chips on the corners, but nothing that will affect the functioning... I hope. The worst one can be seen in the pictures.

-Bear


----------



## Janderso (Jun 2, 2021)

You have to feel good about that repair!!
Did you ask yourself, why did they break?


----------



## 682bear (Jun 2, 2021)

Janderso said:


> You have to feel good about that repair!!



I think it will work out pretty well...

-Bear


----------



## markba633csi (Jun 2, 2021)

Great repair!  Hope it lasts
-M


----------



## FOMOGO (Jun 2, 2021)

I'm betting the broken teeth were human error at some point, and that the repair will outlast most of us. Nice work.


----------



## hman (Jun 3, 2021)

Very nice looking repair!


----------



## 682bear (Jun 3, 2021)

Janderso said:


> Did you ask yourself, why did they break?



I haven't figured that out... I would think, being a worm gear, if it was overstressed or crashed, it would have broken the entire tooth off... Just a guess, maybe a heavy chip was dragged between the gear and worm? Or maybe someone was carrying a long, heavy piece of steel and ran into the gear with the end?

Idk...  all I can do is guess...

-Bear


----------



## fixit (Jun 3, 2021)

682bear said:


> I took a day off from working on the Hendey lathe today... my old Buffalo Forge 21" drill press had two broken teeth on the downfeed worm gear...
> 
> View attachment 367942
> 
> ...





682bear said:


> I took a day off from working on the Hendey lathe today... my old Buffalo Forge 21" drill press had two broken teeth on the downfeed worm gear...
> 
> View attachment 367942
> 
> ...


You did good!


----------

