stone-proofing

[tymill]

Hi, today a small stone managed to slightly damage my B44's spur gear.

Is there much that can be done to help reduce the chance of damage with an open gearmesh like that in the B44?

I'm thinking that perhaps some sort of small lexan shield just near the meshing point might help. I think a full cover wouldn't really be feasible, but I'd imagine that most particles that come near the spur would just fly off harmlessly due to inertia - except for those unluckly enough to land on the spur just as it's meshing with the pinion. Would it make sense to make some sort of cover for just that point?

Or perhaps I just got terribly unlucky this afternoon, and this is a really uncommon problem...

Any feedback or suggestions are appreciated, thanks!

Regards,
Ty