worm gears

[scottmc88]

what are worm gears

[jimi]

fishoben,

Have a look at this exploded parts list from a Shimano Stradic http://www.nutterrodandreel.com/pdf/.../st1000mgf.pdf

Part 4819 is a worm drive gear. Basically a worm drive used when you want a fast gear to turn another gear very slowly (ie. big reduction ratio). You want the spool of a spinning reel to move up and down (oscilate) slowly when laying line. You can achieve this with a higher degree of precision using a worm drive. The kind of worm drive used in a reel is different to a worm gear you might find in other (non-fishing) situations.

Worm gears can be made so that they avoid the problem of line bunching up at end of each spool oscilation. This occurs to a certain extent in reels without worm drives. For the most part you probably won't notice a huge difference for day to day fishing, but some say that worm drives are better for braided line. Most high end reels will come with worm drive.

Cheers
James.