Talk:Worm drive

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[edit] Pre-merge contents of Talk:Worm drive

[edit] Merge

I proposed a merge with worm gear, since that article is much more complete & the terms seem to be synomous. -- phoebe 20:14, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree. —Ben FrantzDale 22:21, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
I also agree. The two separate articles are confusing. [unsigned]
Note: the merge took place, and "Worm drive" was made a redirect to "Worm gear". However, in straightening out the terminology usage, I have now made "Worm gear" redirect to "Worm drive". (See discussion below.) — Lumbercutter 16:41, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Post-merge contents from Talk:Worm gear

[edit] Worm Gear -> Worm gear

Obvious. Dunno why this isn't there to begin with. --Quuxplusone 02:05, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

yeah. Gzuckier 16:05, 31 May 2005 (UTC)
Page move notice removed — Graibeard 05:37, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Rewrite

I set out to change the image but ended up doing a substantial rewrite as the original text was an unlisted {{copyvio}} of http://www.flying-pig.co.uk/mechanisms/pages/worm.html, and was still noticably so, even for the (then) current version.

I've also removed the phrase As the speed is reduced the torque to the drive increases correspondingly It doesn't seem to make sense - I must be standing at the wrong angle? — Graibeard 09:13, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Terminology

We definitely have a problem with terminology here. The opening definition seems to say that the "worm gear" is the ordinary radially-toothed gear (spur gear) that engages the "worm", which is the screw-threaded gear. Two sentences later we contradict ourselves by saying that a "worm gear" is a screw. There is quite a bit of confusion in other places, and in other articles that deal with this topic. The radially toothed gear is sometimes called a "spur gear" (see Gear→Spur gears) , a worm-wheel (see this article, section: Explanation) , or a "pinion" (see Gear→Worm gears). The screw-toothed gear is called a "worm gear" or a "worm". I don't know which is right. Possibly there is no real standard for these terms. Does anybody out there know anything about this?

It's just a matter of a pinion. Ha! Seriously, the screwy thing is the worm, the regular looking gear is not, in my half-vast experience. Gzuckier 17:04, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Related articles:
  • Here's the scoop on terminology: Gzuckier is correct—"the screwy thing" is the worm. The "regular looking gear" is the worm gear. HOWEVER, real people out in the world habitually call either one of them a "worm gear", and sometimes the pair together considered as a unit (which is better referred to as a worm drive) is also slathered with the "worm gear" name.
  • A worm gear is not simply a spur gear. The tooth form is different. However, a worm gear is similar to a spur gear.
— Lumbercutter 16:06, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Uses...

Errr... how about a wrench? I'd assume that's what most people associate them with.--24.91.161.79 07:19, 21 January 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Merge from

I have added a template suggesting various stub pages on worm drive terminology should be merged here, on the grounds that Wikipedia is not a dictionary and the individual pages are too specialized. I have found two of these so far. I am expecting more. I need a search that will find them. Bill F (talk) 00:30, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Actually this is turning out more pernicious than I feared. Searching on "ANSI/AGMA" turns up about 80 pages, and I suspect that the contents of most of them are to be found in Gear anyway. The whole lot probably wish to be deleted, but I am not doing it just right now. Bill F (talk) 00:51, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Nice work. They are overly forked as-is. They should be deforked, but alas, that takes TIME, precious time. At least this is identified now for future attention. — ¾-10 02:10, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Direction of transmission" section changed to "Backdrivability"?

A transmission is backdrivable if a force or torque on its output can move its input. An example of a backdrivable transmission is an automotive steering mechanism: when rock climbing in a 4WD vehicle, you should keep your thumbs on the outside of the steering wheel, because lateral torques on the front wheels can violently spin the steering wheel. An example of a non-backdrivable transmission is a machine head on a stringed musical instrument; although the worm can be turned to drive the worm wheel and tighten the strings, the enormous force on the worm wheel is unable to cause the worm to spin.

Non-backdrivable is synonymous with "self-locking".

The title of this section, "direction of transmission", sounds to me as if it is just a description of a behavior, with the section body written to describe that behavior. Because of this, I'm inclined to rename the section "Backdrivability" (reworking its contents appropriately) as this is a real term and should appear in this article. However, I'm concerned that "direction of transmission' may be a formal term that indeed should continue to be included and defined.

Do mechanical engineers working in this topic feel that "direction of transmission" should be preserved as part of this article? --Dan Griscom (talk) 12:40, 24 February 2008 (UTC)