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We currently replaced 15 windows in our old home. I would like to do something with the leftover window weights rather than throw them away. Any suggestions on who may take them: buy, give or recycle?
Thanks. Sandi
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Maybe an old house salvage yard would want them. If not, put em on the treelawn and they should be gone soon. Scrappers or someone with an "idea" will scarf em up.
*There is a swap and sale board at Old House Journal if you'd like to make them available to old house folks.
*Sandi, you may have generated a thread which will lead to a listing of uses for old sash weights. Here's hoping you'll find a home for them, although it is unlikely you'll generate much in the way of revenues.(1) Renovators and restorers either have too many or not enough of these items for repair of old windows.(2) I like them to use as weights to tie hold down tarps.(3) Marinas use them with a pulley system to pull small boats away from piers. They've served as anchors, too.(4) Surely someone at Breaktime will confess to using a sash weight as an anvil, a hammer, and perhaps even as a chisel. Don't count anything out around here!Good luck, Steve
*On a recent fishing trip I ran into a rather odd fellow using them as weights on a down rigger with some sort of blade clamped on. We laughed and then later saw him in our area pulling up fish. 100 to 125 feet (Lake Superior)I dunno, paint the weight some brillant color and say you caught some large fish on such a rig and there is someone who will part with $50.........One born every minute....
*If those fish were 100 to 125 feet long, Sandi can probably get better than $50 for those sash weights!Fishticiously, Steve
*I know what you're getting at Steve, but how do you get em off the bottom?M
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I presume you are talking about weights made of lead?
Give them to a gun club. They should have people that do reloading and cast their own slugs.
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"Deep that is" 100-125 feet deep......If you don't spell it out, they just don't get it.
*Oh... Steve
*Excellent idea, Charles.The ones I've had seemed to be made out of cast iron. If they're made of lead, someone will be glad to have 'em!Steve
*And who was I kidding when - on seeing this thread I thought to myself - oh boy - someone is going to have a nifty idea for that pile of old sash weights laying next to the garage. They aren't even worth the effort to heave them across my driveway into the neighbors field - so there they lay - next to the garage - still.Buz
*Buz, I think I might try to make some sort of wind chimes out of sash weights. Most wind chimes blow around and hit one another, making an irritating chime noise. The sash weights would not be affected much by winds, and if they struck one another, they'd make a satisfying "clunk" or "clank" noise rather than an annoying tinkle.(I tried making wind chimes out of foam rubber. They were nice and silent, but got twisted up in strong breezes.)Chiming in with new ideas, Steve
*How do you think they would work as the weights on the end of those chains in your grandfather clock?Or, how about a real monster set of bolas? You could take down a bear with that.Grind down the end to a point and you have plumb bob, totally unaffected by the wind. Good for when the batteries in your laser tools fail.There used to be a neat dart-like toy called Jarts. A nice sharp steel tipped, plastic feathered dart about a foot long you tossed at a lawn target (or whatever). Window weights most likely won't fly true but they won't roll very far from the target like horse shoes do. Another great lawn game to play at Pete Fest in August. Please replace your divots.Bocce Rolls, another fine lawn game, originally developed by the Italians using round balls but reengineered to provide a more challenging sport. A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING...For you pilots - forget those flour bombs, hit your target with a resounding thud. (Real bombs are illegal). (This probably is too).AD in your local paper: FREE - Missles for your homemade catapult. Steve, I like the idea of making chimes out of them. Sell them at craft shows. Strange things often sell at a good price. But I would call them knockers, instead. Sell them as a matched pair.Next. Ralph
*Ralph,I think you're spending too much time in front of the radiation CRT. You don't want to end up like me do ya?LOL on the wind chimes! Mine are so noisy, but at least I know when the wind's blowing, otherwise I couldn't tell.I've got some of those old weights too, always thought I'd find some use for them but never have. Just too cool a piece of junk to throw out, I guess.
*So the fish were 100 to 150 feet and they were 100 to 150 feet deep as well ?? I guess that answers the question about how they were brought up from the bottom. Kinda convenient when they are big enough to be within easy reach. LOLSeriously, though, a couple suggestions for the weights. Find someone with one of those old garage doors that swing up in one solid piece. Attach the weights in such a way as to balance the door for easier closing and opening. Use them as removeable weights on your semi-stationary tools. You wouldn't believe the difference a bit of weight applied to the base of your tools can make in getting a smooth cut, or roundel. Having the weight on certain tools can make a big difference in safety as well.
*If, on the one hand, these weights will make a plumb bob "totally unaffected by the wind", how, on the other hand, can they be used to make chimes or "knockers"?:-)Rich Beckman
*1 picture = 1 thousand wordsPlus - tie them to your tarp grommets. Keeps the tarp in place and your powder dry.Here boy, here boy.... fetch, fetch.In a pinch - wheel chocks ( for you guys who must park on hills) Don't forget to refigure weight and balance if you use them on your airplanes.Slice them up and try to pass them off as the new dollar coin. Note to the Secret Service lurkers: IT's a JOKE!Carry a handfull of slices around to level the table legs in your favorite greasy spoon.Next? Ralph
*It just dawned on me that when you hire Window Wonders out of the Sunday paper ad to replace your old double hungs with their new graphite-titanium framed, krypton low-e Thermal Whoppers, that they just cut the cords and leave the weights in their chambers. What goes on with these cast-off, no longer needed sash weights? Do they brood over their lost function and importance? Do they conspire to rust and destroy framing? Will they some night burst through their entrapments and fly toward your bed? Boy, I better stay here all night -- going to sleep just doesn't appeal to me right now.
*Then how do you get them off the hook? Skip
*After that famous book "100 Things To Do With a Dead Cat"' I'm thinking we could calaborate here with"100 Things To Do With Discarded Sash Weights". Maybe someone a Taunton will pick up on this and help with the settup and publishing. The first twenty people with 5 uses each are in. 1.Attach a short leather thonge and use it during collections of past due accounts 2.Bury them side by side half way into the yard as attractive edging for drives and gardens 3.Use them as paper weights in high wind areas (recommend flat surfaces only). 4.Lay flat in an attractive basketweave pattern for walks and drives. 5. Padlocked to your steering wheel they are superior anti-theft devices. I know that some of you have used them in imaginative and resourceful ways so let's see some here. Skip
*Skip, here's two more for a total of 15 from me. Catch up and we won't have to share the book royalties with so many others.Use several, with chains, tied behind any car painted with "JUST MARRIED". Guaranteed to raise a lot of dust and attract more attention to the happy couple. It will develop into a fantastic celebratory procession, complete with lights, sirens and police escort.Use them as Awards. First category: EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNICATION. Ship an equal amount to both Fusco and Lugano - I'm really enjoying (perversely, I think) their WEIGHTED discourses.Weighting for more replies, Ralph
*Ralph , Ditto on the awards! Couple more ideas, insert into scrap copper pipe and rake it in at the scrap yard.With a short piece of rope between two You have a bionic jump rope.Great for those pesky cotton cords on ceiling lights.Place a couple in the dryer instead of those little foam antistatic things, they really soften up those new Levi's.Welded to a nice piece of spring steel and mounted on the lower quarter panel of your car or truck they make good curb feelers.Well I'm tapped out now but there have to be many more uses. skip
*>Whatever you do, don't try to use 'em as a screwdriver Bob
*Even if they are cast iron, the gun club idea is a good one. My brother has a hunting/fishing guide service. I give him mine to use for his duck decoy lines. He runs 20-25 decoys to a line with the sash weights on each end.Of course the chances are good you will accumulate more than one person needs, so I leave them in the pockets now.
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Attach to small children, makes them slow enough to catch. Lay in wet concrete to create speed bumps for the neighbors teenagers. Give them to distant relatives for Christmas, hint that they are from some archaeolical dig.
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Cleaned well and seasoned properly, as in cast-iron cookware. Market them as upscale products over at Cooktime. Anything to do with cooking that bunch will buy at a premium price.
For instance: still hanging from their original ropes, dip into your favorite batter, insert into hot oil and out comes a tube you can stuff with whatever your heart or stomach desires. No more rolling up those crepes. Cannoli shells with a closed end. YUM!
Also great as a rolling pin or a meat tenderizer. FLATTEN those chicken breasts in a heartbeat.
For all you exercise fanatics. You don't need those expensive, highly polished and cushioned mini-dumbells to carry as you run around the neighborhood in your spandex and sweatbands. Be a real man, or woman, and rough it with a matched pair of rusty window weights. If it gets to be too much for you to handle (wimp) just toss them in the nearest trash can, no great monetary loss at all.
Macho swimming aids...How long can YOU tread water?
Cheap replacements for your SCUBA weights.
Negatively buoyant, Ralph
*HEY, youse guys wit da winda wates. I got dis hear big rush ordr for a cupalatree duzon frum Louie an Angelo.Day said sumpin bout cement gettin to be costin to much.
*Use them as they were intended. I have seen them rigged to sliding patio doors so that the weight is raised as the door is opened and when you pass through and let go the door closes. They work great in shops for suspending handtools...say like a drill motor. A little cable, some pulleys and when you let go of that drill you don't have to look around for something to lay it down on. Personally I have a bunch piled on the base of my pedestal grinder to hold it down.
*I just had to respond to this one...my dad would take them. He must have at least a hundred, all stacked up in a corner in his garage. Says he is going to use them as trot line weights. Problem is he only uses about three!! Definitely from the dont throw anything away school. Reminds me, where did I pile that last set of weights......
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In doing some of the restoration work that I do very often I have to build the old style windows with weight boxes, weights and pulleys. I am always looking for some weights and pulleys to remake these windows. Perhaps there is a restoration carpenter in your area that would like to have these for the same purpose.
I do also use one of the weights for a canoe anchor while I fish and to weight my tarps to keep them from blowing of wood piles and buildings that I have to dryin temporaraly.
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Hasn't any one from Maine read this post? Window wieghts used to be a real commodity as they made perfect Lobster trap weights. Maybe the demand is down now that wooden traps are fast becoming coffee tables and metal traps are all the rage. But then again what do I know,being from "out West" (NY) ayuh.
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We currently replaced 15 windows in our old home. I would like to do something with the leftover window weights rather than throw them away. Any suggestions on who may take them: buy, give or recycle?
Thanks. Sandi
To the guest who wondered what becomes of the weights left In The boxes.... yes they do rust and rot the window sill they sit on. I’m in the process of replacing a sill that rotted out this way. My windows were replaced 9 years ago and they didn’t remove them.
Your window replacement installation probably had more to do with the moisture that caused the rot.