Thread: Material selection help

I am trying to repair my wifes Horn sewing cabinet.
There is a failed roller/pulley wheel that attaches to a gas lifter arm.
To me it is a poor design based on material selection. A plastic roller with steel cables rolling over it under tension, designed to wear?.
The roller is made of a tough black plastic/nylon (similar to say a glass sliding door roller). Around this runs two steel cables.
The roller has two grooves in it to support the cables. Over time the outside roller edges/lips have worn until they failed and the cables wrapped themselves around the roller shaft.

I would like to make a new roller but would like advice on material selection. I have room to make the pulley wider by a few mm and maybe it'll last us out.
Should I go to a metallic solution - mild steel, alloy???
Or am I overthinking and should stay with the black plastic/nylon/teflon??? (would like help in what it is and where to get it)?

Original pulley dimensions 11mm wide, 35mm OD, with 6mm shaft hole.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Those rollers are available as a spare part and are pretty cheap.
Not sure which State you are in, but they should be available at your local Horn dealer, or if you did a search you would be able to get them online.

Making 1 out of steel would be ok if you wanted to as an exercise, but I doubt it is needed. I think that most pulleys of this size used in domestic applications would be made from plastic. The only metal ones would be cheese alloy and pressed steel. I have a number of pulleys (sheaves) from a small catamaran (16ft) which are made of plastic. I think these would be under more stress in use than from lifting a sewing machine.

I would go with the replacement suggested by Bradford unless it is very difficult to replace it.

Dean