Our tip this month applies to the many older machines that are still producing acceptable gears. We know that there are many machines that were built in the 1940's and even earlier that are still cutting good gears. There is an area of maintenance on these machines that is often overlooked: the Main Drive Motor. After years of faithful operation, the motors are still "chugging away" and most times we ignore them until they begin to make more noise than we can stand, or fail completely. It is a simple task to check the bearings in these motors. This is almost always the last place we look for problems but it can be the source of chatter or other bad finishes on our parts. We would recommend that at least yearly you disconnect the drive belts and check the motor shaft for looseness or wobble. On most machines the belts connect directly to the main drive shaft and can transfer the problem to the drive.