This sounds crazy enough to maybe work. 20 minutes would be a lot faster
than the 4-step pulley I just made. Mine took me about six hours on a
small lathe. I chucked up a piece of aluminum, then bored and reamed
its central bore. Then, in the same chucking, I mounted a specially
ground tool in a boring bar and stroked the keyway. Then I mounted it
on a mandrel and mounted it in the lathe and faced it fore
and aft then turned it round and then turned the steps and then took the
parting tool and turned all the corners and parted everything to depth
and then swiveled the compound and turned all the sides of the vees.
Then I took it to the mill and drilled and tapped the set screw.
It isn't too hard, just quite a bit of work. It doesn't have much
runout, especially when you compare it with die cast step pulleys.

Grant

frank wrote:

For a long time now I have been looking for a reasonably prices set of
primary pullies
for my Atlas 10" lathe. No luck for more than a year. It seems really dumb
to pay
$100 for two pullies since the lathe already has a set of usable, but
incorrect,
pullies.

So I have been thinking about making a set on the mill. I have a J-head
Bridgeport
and a 10" rotary table. Even better, I have all the parts to make a
variable speed
power feed for the rotary table. My goal is to make the pullies using as
few
passes as possible; this means getting a cutter to cut the pullies in one or
two passes.

After looking for a while I have not found a cutter for the job.

Since the material is 5/8 6061 T6 aluminum, I have been tempted to put the
mill in the highest speed, fill the mist system with WD40 and use a (wood)
router bit.
Come back in 20 minutes and the first groove is cut.

But if anybody can recommend a usable, if not pefect, cutter for this sort
of task, I am interested in hearing about it.