One of long time customers decided to branch out into antique aviation with a DIY ("do it yourself") full Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter kit plane. They came to us with several sheets of parts from the War Ordnance department of 1918 to see if we were interested in building them. Of course we were.
The Sopwith Pulley Project
There were only three to be made, so that meant we had to do these quickly to keep tooling and NRE (non-recurring engineering) costs down. Starting with a piece extruded rectangle, we used a circular interpolation to rough out the exterior, drill indexing holes, and then precisely bore a center hole. Once the basics were done, we set that on the lathe to do a finished profile and dish. While that was running, using Fusion 360, we quickly iterated a simple jig to hold the pulley in place on its return to the mill. Now that the center was clear and the pulley blank was nested neatly into the jig, the main milling went smoothly. To get the cable groove, we used a spare large threadmill to cut down on tooling costs. I'd say it came out very well.
If you're interested, Kip Aero now has not only the kit, but many vintage aero parts for sale. Go take a look at the link below!