Worm Gear

The worm gear resembles a screw. The worm gear can provide a very large mechanical advantage. The Sargent and Foster quick return parer employs a worm gear to drive the paring mechanism (right). The worm gear is a type of helical gear; notice that it is engaged with a helical gear in the Sargent and Foster. The Success (shown below), the smallest commercial parer, made by Robert Buchi of Chicago uses a worm gear as the table drive-gear. The Success is a quick return apple parer. If you are interested in learning more about commercial parers we recommend Apple Parers by Don Thornton.