Masthead 5" pully for Old Hobie Cat all aluminum mast

prusaprinters

<p>A friend of mine has a real old Hobie Cat sailboat with an all Aluminum mast. After many years of use, the masthead pulley (Nylon with a brass insert) just fell apart from weather &amp; use.</p><p>Since Hobie no longer makes or supplies this part, an extensive search turned up nothing suitable so my friend asked me to 3D print one for him. &nbsp;I did find the original Hobie specification sheet for the pulley so I used those dimensions and added a ¾ inch outer diameter, 3/8" inner diameter ball bearing to make operation much smoother when hoisting the mainsail. &nbsp;Tried various materials, but wound up using FilaCube's Pla2 and printed him several to test. &nbsp;He's been using it all summer on weekends and it's holding up nicely, no wear showing and the ball bearing makes it MUCH smoother raising and lowering the sail, he's a “happy camper”.</p><p>Decided to post it so others in the same situation might find it useful and I am also posting the Fusion 360 design file to allow for any modifications one might want to make.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Print it with .2mm/layer resulution, no supports and print it with the ball bearing pocket away from the print bed to eliminate supports for the stop layers (to keep the bearing in the pulley).</p><p>Any material may be used, but PLA2 has proven to be sufficient as it is pretty well protected at the masthead.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>