On 2010-10-14, Jordan wrote:
Old sash window counterweights have iron bars of about one inch diam.
They aren't carefully made and could have blowholes but should be
alright for lots of jobs. I made some valve guides for a vintage
motorcycle and they work fine.

The one time I tried machining an old sash counterweight (saved
when the house was remodeled), it was full of hard carbide inclusions
and tore up the brazed carbide tool which I was using on it. I never
tried the others from the same source.

I think that you need to heat them up red hot and anneal them if
you want to do reasonable machining with that as a material.

Of course -- the sash weights were typically the last things to
be poured for each melt (to use up what was left from whatever else was
being made) and tended to be highly variable.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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