I have an ancient chain hoist which wasn't holding the hook. As fast as I
cranked it up, the hook would slip back down once I let go of the chain.
I tore it down and found that the friction clutch disc had worn to the point
where it hardly bore.

This is an awesome old chain hoist which Ernie gave me. I really want to make
it work correctly again. Has anyone else solved the problem of where to get
a custom one-off replacement friction disc?

For an explanation of how the friction clutch works in a chain hoist, see:
http://tinyurl.com/2nkh5j

I see lots of manufacturers of friction material listed on thomasnet.com, but
finding one which will make an affordable one-off part for me is totally another
thing. If I had to, I could buy the smallest sheet possible and make the disc
on a lathe, using a method about like this:

mount an X-acto knife in a boring tool on center height, parallel to lathe axis
put a lathe center in the lathe spindle
move the cross-slide until the knife point is on the lathe axis
i.e. pointing exactly at the lathe center
zero the cross-slide dial & remove lathe center
put the faceplate on the lathe spindle
cut a disk of plywood the size of the faceplate
cut a disk of the friction material the size of the plywood (or smaller)
punch identical bolt circles in the material and the plywood
bolt through to the faceplate, so its faceplate|plywood|friction material
crank the X-acto knife out the radius of the inner hole
start the lathe and feed the knife in, cutting out the ID
crank the X-acto knife out to the radius of the disc OD
cut out the disc

But I don't want to buy a whole sheet!

Anybody been through this?

Grant