[starbox] Blogging about gear training brings to mind the widely attended Illinois Tool Works Gear School that Bob Moderow operated on behalf of his employer. When I attended in 1979, ITW was one of the largest suppliers of gear cutting tools and gear inspection machines in the world. Times and technology have changed since then and most of ITW’s gearing assets are disbursed to other firms now. Coatings on hobs and shaper cutters greatly increased their useful life so the volume needed by industry declined. New computer assisted gear inspection machines displaced the analog devices ITW made while providing more accurate and reliable inspections. The ITW Gear School provided the first industry-wide instruction in gear theory, manufacturing, and inspection. We owe a big debt to Bob Moderow and his co-workers for standardizing the terminology used. Thousands of engineers, foremen, and operators “graduated” from the school with an understanding of what a “good” chart looked like on a lead or a profile. Perhaps more importantly, they also knew how to adjust the process to make a bad chart become a good chart. The training materials developed for the course are still being used in shops all over the world. With modern gear grinding equipment we don’t often have to know how a mis-sharpened hob changes the involute shape but I keep the diagrams in my personal “book of knowledge.” AGMA has picked up the torch on industry-wide gear training in recent years. Ray Drago and Bob Errichello provide top-notch courses in a wide variety of areas. Do yourself and your company a favor by attending an AGMA seminar soon. Both instructors are unsurpassed in their understanding of gear technology and are wonderful teachers as well. Those two attributes are not often found in the same person and their willingness to conduct these classes several times a year is laudable. I count myself lucky to have learned from them in the classroom. If you can’t attend a seminar in person you can find many contributions from these legends in the Gear Technology archives.