On the subject of pulleys, for some reason, the hardware stores around here have horrible pulleys.
Home depot:
The pulleys where not straight in any way shape or form. The pins where in crooked on a lot of them, and the grooves for the rope where not centered or straight. This means you'll have problems with the rope sliding off the pulley. Just pure junk.
Ace hardware:
It says right on their pulleys that they are not rated to be used for lifting a load. I.E. they are not real pulleys.
Lowes:
Their pulleys seemed fine, except most of them have a problem with there being a big casting seam on the wheel which will make it chew through ropes. I opted for these as the lesser of evils, and just ground the seams smooth myself.
I have yet to check Mernards though.
So wtf? Where can you even get decent pulleys these days? Someone mentioned sailing shops, but there's not much call for those for us land locked state people.