Thanks to all for the warm welcome,
Picked up a 2 rpm gear-motor today for trials. Hope to get a 4 rpm gear-motor in 2 weeks for the qual-test unit. Already have a 8 rpm unit, but I'm not willing yet to hack a huge hole in my case just for this oversize motor.
Want to accelerate the wear of 1 year of service down to a matter of a few months so as to keep ahead of you guys with mods if anything pops up in the short term.