the oil will still get to the drive gear, it doesn't need very much oil. The biggest reason to have a large volume of oil in a bearing surface, (gear tooth mesh being considered a bearing surface in this example) is to draw away the heat caused by pressure/friction between the surfaces. The actual lubrication takes very little oil. Two examples that I know someone will say is apples and oranges, but gonna do it anyway. We have centrifuges at work with approximately 8" diameter roller and ball bearings, the rotating assembly weighs 8400 lbs, and spins 2800 rpm. The bearings get 2 drops (.06 cc) of oil every 5 minutes, that takes care of the lubrication, the oil is transported with compressed air @ around 15 PSI, the air does the cooling. I used to work at a dairy processing plant, and everything was stainless steel, and you most likely know the trials of trying to work stainless, we tried every concoction on the face of the earth to prevent burning the tools, what we ended up that worked the best was just a jet of compressed air aimed directly at the contact point of the tool, as long as it was kept cool, you could cut all day long.
