Babbit

[7 MM]

I'm sure this has been asked a couple of dozen timed , but will ask anyway.
Has anyone used babbit for casting? As W?W become harder to find could it be used?
My brother is in the oilfield repair business and I remember him dumping some babbit as it was cheaper to use new than rerefine the old stuf taken out of pumpjack bearings.
I do not know the percent of lead in what he was using but can ask or get a sample to test.

7 MM

I will lite a candle and say your Name

[grumpy one]

I can't imagine using straight tin babbitt to make bullets, but some types of lead babbitt could make usable bullets. More importantly, tin babbitt is a good source of alloying elements for bullet metal, and is quite valuable. You do have to watch the copper content with tin babbitt though - practical bullet casting probably requires no more than say 1% copper in the final alloy, unless you want to make a laboratory job of the casting process. This isn't likely to be a problem if you stick to sensible tin levels in your alloy (no more than 4% of either tin or antimony, and tin should not exceed antimony).

You can get some data on composition of various babbitts and what each type is used for here:
http://www.alchemycastings.com/lead-products/babbitt.htm

[Lloyd Smale]

it depends on what kind of babbit your talking about. High speed babbit is mostly tin and a waste to use for casting. but low speed babbit is mostly lead and probably will work fine.

[Tom W.]

I've used Nickle Babbit for years, mostly because i could get a free supply of it. It had no lead, per OSHA regs, and it made some mighty hard, and light, bullets. I have since begin to hoard my Babbitt and now use it as a source of tin, but Back in the day I used it for 30/30 and .44Mag bullets without a thought. Worked good on deer, too.

[beagle]

Check on castpics. There's an article by felix on using babbitt. It depends on what type babbit you have. Tin rich babbitt is better used to alloy pure lead. Makes it go farther.

Using it staright is a waste./beagle

[JIMinPHX]

More info here -

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=32409