What do I have??

[Grampie not Grumpie]

Over Christmas I was melting down some wheel weights. As usual I was using a propane "turkey fryer" burner with a ladle that holds about 4 lbs of lead. When I finished I remembered some scrap that a friend had given me some months ago. He said it was some bearing metal that he had scrounged up from his job.

I melted it down and it had a different consistency than the wheel weights. It was "thicker" than the WWs. You couldn't skim it to get a "shiney" surface. When I poured it into my Lee ignot mold it had a yellow gold cast. Several days later when they cooled I measured the BHN and it was 27.2 while the WW I melted down the same day was 14. I cast them on a chilly day with tempature in the 30's. When I weighed the ignots the WW weighed about 3 oz. more per lb. than the unknown alloy.

Any suggestions as to what I have, and what I can use it for?? I have about 10-15 lbs of the stuff. (I know what to do with the WW :bigsmyl2:)

Thanks, Grampie not Grumpie,

[targetshootr]

Sounds like the zinc fairy mighta paid you a visit.

[leadman]

Sounds like some kind of babbit alloy. If it is still in bars it may have some letters or numbers on it.
Could be high in tin and have other metals like copper in it. I have used some babbit and made some nice usable alloys mixing it with soft lead.
Do you have any pictures of it?

I think pure zinc would be harder than 27BHN, but have never measured any. I do know you can barely mar zinc with cutters while use can cut lino.

[Mk42gunner]

Bearing metal equals some type of babbit, to me.

I would use it to toughen your WW, if needed.

Robert

[Trapaddict]

Ditto on the babbit metal. Very common material used in bearings.

Jeff

[troy_mclure]

pewter has a goldish tinge when cast.

[lwknight]

I bet it got really soft , started leaching tin , slumped , then started melting. I bet it was thick and then like magic as it got a little hotter , it got really liquid.

How am I doing so far?

I bet that you did not check the temperature to notice that it was around 450 degrees or so before it got fully solid.

If its a very grainy finish , you will have a high antimony/tin alloy with only a little lead.

[songdog53]

Have been using Babbit that once was used to pour old saw mill bearing.....makes for some nice hard bullets just remember it melts at a lot high temp than lead but i make small ingots and add to my lead and it does have a yellowish tint to it. Little tends to go long way unless want super hard bullets. As i mix it with WW's so it turns out some fairly hard bullets.

[lwknight]

Tin babbit melts at lower temperature than lead. Around 450 for most.

[prs]

Wut I wanna know is how'n 'tarnation can it weight 3 oz less per pound than a pound o' some other alloy?

First we tolerated drams equivalent.
Then it was grains by volume!
Now, is it pounds by volume?

Just go ahead and shoot me. ;-)

prs

[home in oz]

Density may be a partial answer.

The volume of a pound of lead is less than the volume of a pound of feathers.

However, both weigh a pound

[Grampie not Grumpie]

I guess I wasn't clear on that part. I pouredthem into a Lee Ignot mold and WW ignot weighed about 3 oz more than the "mystery" ignot weighed. The Lee ignot mold was marked 1 lb.

Hope that helps,

Grampie not Grumpie,

[Cadillo]

Wut I wanna know is how'n 'tarnation can it weight 3 oz less per pound than a pound o' some other alloy?First we tolerated drams equivalent.
Then it was grains by volume!
Now, is it pounds by volume?

Just go ahead and shoot me. ;-)

prs

Wow! That shot went right over some heads unnoticed.

Shazam! :lol:

[bigjake]

I used bearing babbit to make a ton of boolits. I even water dropped them. I tried shooting hot loaded 44 mags without lube and guess what? after 50 shots, 0 lead in the barrel.