Wow what a find sash weights use to be quite common but are now quite rare, I was given one by a friend that I've more or less consummed on engine builds.

Carron iron works was in Scotland Lanarkshire I think it was famous for casting Cannon barrels.

You have to be carfull with the eye end of the weight that was the top end when they were cast and is where the rubish collects, also be carfull you don't end up with a cast steel weight they are as tuff as old boots and next to imposible to machine with light home machinery.

Stew

You jammy git Raymond!

The only sash weight I've been able to get my claws on was so badly chilled starret hacksaw blades bounced clean off

Neil

Carron Iron Foundry, Falkirk, Scotland.

Casters of the carronade, a small 19th century naval cannon. A sort of swivel gun.

And a horde of other items.

All gone, like so many others.

Hi all

Winter is the time to fix the weights if you have a fireplace.

A while back I acquired a large 45mm shaft differential pinion wheel about 250mm long it had a chipped tooth but otherwise was fine. Trouble was it was really hard, even at the slowest speed and feed and carbide tooling using a heavy lathe I could not turn it. clearly it was heat treated alloy steel, really tough. It needed to be annealed. Not having a furnace I wondered if it could be heat treated in the family fire place! Its been cold of late; time for a nice fire. I simply put the piece on the fire and let it soak, I left it there over 3 separate burns. I don't know what temperature it reached although one time i noted it was a dark red. I just let it cool down in the ashes each time.

Now it turns well, with the mirror finish you sometimes get with alloy steel. Soon it will find its way into a spindle.

I assume the same will apply with chilled cast Iron sash weights or the like.

Cheers

John

The last lot of weights I got were about the same size as yours (38 mm), when I was collecting them , I dropped one on top of the rest of them, and bang, it snapped in half, a silvery white fracture. I tried it in the lathe with a carbide tool, the outer skin came off OK, then the bar took the edge of the tool offas if it were a bit of mild steel. The rest of the weights are OK, but I like the fatter ones if I can get them, I'v had some about 60/65 mm dia., never seen a foundry name on any yet. Must get to a demolition yard, there are plenty of demo bits in Christchurch, they have that much that the stuff is being sold at half its usual price. Ian S C

Don't try and soften chilled flywheel castings in the fire, if you want them to come out remotely circular afterwards

My 'invulnerable' sash weight is destined to become a counter weight for the head of my mill to replace the spring arrangement (which reduces travel and isn't very good).

Neil

Yes – coal; very much so! There is a significant connection, of course, with James Watt. John Roebuck, one of the Carron Foundry's co-founders, was one of Watt's earliest patrons as he required one of the 'new' type engines to drain his coal mine. Without Roebuck, Watt may never have progressed beyond 'model' engineering!

Diane

Easist way to see if you are wasting your time is to bang one on the floor and snap it.

If it's dull grey then save it, if its shiny silver it's chilled. Remember sash weights were cast out of the last run of the ladle to use all the iron up, early victorian recycling.

Hi there, all,

Many years ago, my neighbours got a new piano. They could neither sell nor give away their previous piano, an upright model, to anyone who would play it so they gave it to me.

The piano had a cast iron frame, mostly of a cross section that would be a good starting point for anyone making an engineer's level. It machines beautifully and I still have a few bits under the bench.

The iron frame was supported on a wooden frame of yellow pine, about 4" x 3" section and without a single knot in it anywhere. I've kept that pine out of the rain for about 40 years (and three house-moves) but recently gave it to a young wood-working enthusiast as I was unlikely to use it.

The board with the tuning pegs was beech – most of that is now the front apron of the woodworking side of my workbench and the jaw of the woodwork vice.

I hope this wasn't too far off-topic, the thread is about recycling!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Here's a couple of photos of a sash weight with a "problem"!!

I cut this in half hoping to get a couple of cylinder covers out of it but I'll have to get another one. The hole goes almost right down to the end!

Probably not completely ruined as I can still see a slide valve cylinder in there.

Regards to all

Peter