Smokehouse,
I develop and design consumer products (3D Cadd, degreed ME), mostly out of plastic, and a few things a class-a tool maker would have to learn before he was a good consumer product designer are:
Plastic material properites (regarding design, function, assembly, manufacturing...
My 6 cents...
1) IM is like a calculator - in order to be allowed to use one you should know the workings behind the machine. We'll all be out of job when PTC adds the "Design Widget", "Fix Widget" and "Produce Widget" icons - Oh, sorry missed "Package and...
We found white lithium grease to be useful... but you will want to test it, it may compound the problem. Are the gears wearing at the teeth or the bearing? Chris Grace
Product Development Engineer
Sterilite Corp.