Posted by BillS on October 30, 2018 at 12:59:24:
In Reply to: G&E Index gears posted by Tlueken on October 15, 2018 at 20:19:26:
If the recommended no. of teeth is 15, that is probably because the worm drive to the table would be overspeeding, and would be generating more heat than allowed by design. I would not expect the machine to handle a steady diet of sub-15T work pieces, but a few might not be a problem.
Of course that would depend on a number of factors such as wear between the index worm and gear, the amount of backlash allowed there, and the speed of the worm/shaft/bearings, etc.
If you try it, monitor how hot the worm housing gets as an indication of likely friction and possible wear and damage.
Also, the index ratio is going to be relatively high (Driver/driven) which puts strain on the index gear train and its bearings and shafts.
To get an idea of the work your G&E will do to index the work piece, try manually torquing the first driver of the index train to see how hard the machine is going to work.
So proceed at your own risk - and if you do please let us know your experience.