Is this a babbitt bearing?

That is an 11 pound block of something a guy is selling as lead. Although I have no hands-on experience with babbitt bearings, I suspect that is a babbitt bearing that was cut/split off a shaft of some type. Roto-Metals is selling various babbitt grades for $27 a pound and from what I have read, adding a bit of babbitt to a coww alloy can make for some seriously hard bullets. I don't currently have the need, but would snag it for the right price assuming it could have future use/value and is in fact babbitt.

Any babbitt bearing experts out there have an opinion?

That's a complete maybe. All the Babbitt bearings I worked with were in old engines. I can't tell much froma picture.

Sorry not much help.

It doesn't look like a bearing to me, because it is so large to have been on a shaft. Babbit was expensive then, as it is now days. I think I would only offer him lead price, and hope its got some tin in it.

It's hard to tell. The only Babbitt I ever worked with was in bronze bushings that had a pocket turned in them and were Babbitt lined, they were for the traction motors in the street cars in New Orleans and San Francisco. The Babbitt was shiny and looked just like pure lead even though the alloy we used only contained something like 2% lead, I swear they told us the company who did the Babbitt was the last in the U.S. that worked with it. My employer received the contract for them in 2014-2015. The guy next to me had to turn and bore them all including the pocket on a CNC lathe, we then sent them out to a company to pour the Babbitt. They came back and were finish machined, I drilled all the flanges and had to cut a rectangular hole for oil in the body of the bushing on a CNC mill. Some of the more interesting machining work I've done, right up there with the Campbells soup pressure cooker bushings and bushings for pre 1900 Cincinatti machines. We also did 100% of the bushings for new Minster presses along with all of the factory supplied replacement bushings. We could machine any bronze bushing from 1/2" I.D. to a 48" O.D. and 36" length on mostly pre WWII machinery in 2017.

Used to operate old steam turbine driven oil pumps. Brass or bronze shells with babbit poured in them and then lathe turned to specified dimensions. Usually two pieces split down the middle. May be a counter weight for something. Frank

Good info guys, Not babbitt material. It was on flea-bay and sold for $10 plus $15 shipping. WAY over my price threshold!

many thanks.........

babbitt most time has a slight copper color , manly in the sun light

Looks like a weight for a rubber pick up tube. They were made with a steel tube and kept the hose from floating in a drum.

Looks like a weight for a rubber pick up tube. They were made with a steel tube and kept the hose from floating in a drum.

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Originally Posted by samari46

Used to operate old steam turbine driven oil pumps. Brass or bronze shells with babbit poured in them and then lathe turned to specified dimensions. Usually two pieces split down the middle. May be a counter weight for something. Frank

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Looked seriously like a counterweight for an antique scale that I have.

Glad you weren't suckered into buying that as Babbitt metal!. Never seen a bearing made like that. Waaaay too much material for the small shaft contact area......total waste of an expensive alloy....then and now.

It does appear like a weight of some kind. All the scales I have use slotted cast iron weights (very clean and precise shape) stamped with the weight value right in the casting, so I doubt it is from an antique scale. I have MANY MANY of them!

Glad you have the greenbacks still in your pocket. Gotta be VERY cautious of most clowns on evilbay. Buy your alloys on here from people we all know and trust, not some jerk that found a hunk of metal along the road and wants to turn a quick buck for beer.

And I have many pounds of various Babbitt alloys and none looks like that piece of "whatever"! Color is off.

banger

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Originally Posted by bangerjim

Glad you weren't suckered into buying that as Babbitt metal!. Never seen a bearing made like that. Waaaay too much material for the small shaft contact area......total waste of an expensive alloy....then and now.

It does appear like a weight of some kind. All the scales I have use slotted cast iron weights (very clean and precise shape) stamped with the weight value right in the casting, so I doubt it is from an antique scale. I have MANY MANY of them!

Glad you have the greenbacks still in your pocket. Gotta be VERY cautious of most clowns on evilbay. Buy your alloys on here from people we all know and trust, not some jerk that found a hunk of metal along the road and wants to turn a quick buck for beer.

And I have many pounds of various Babbitt alloys and none looks like that piece of "whatever"! Color is off.

banger

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Nah, it's all on me. The seller presented it as simply 11 pounds of lead. Me not knowing what a babbitt bearing looked like, jumped to the conclusion that it was possibly a babbitt bearing. If it was, I saw it as one of those situations where the evilbayer was mostly clueless and did not realize the what or the value of the item.

Good thing I checked here before making an 'assume' of myself.

Babbitt bearings are poured into a steel 'shell' and the babbitt is a relatively thin layer even in BIG rotating shafts.

My uncle work with a guy that poured and machined babbit bearings for railroad cars. He would sweep up the shavings from the machining and use it to harden his cast boolits. I even have an old babbit that the guy gave him. Never seen a picture of a finished bearing but I would think they were good sized based on the size of the railroad car wheels.

The bearings are a good size. But.................the Babbitt alloy was poured into the bearing form and was relatively thin, not thick & bulky as the pictures shows above. Remember, if there is but a teeny few thousands clearance in the bearing, it was removed melted down and/or cast again to bring the tolerances back into spec. Babbitt still provides a good bearing surface . . . if kept clean and well lubricated. If dirty, the dirt embeds itself in the alloy and forms sand paper! Modern sealed ball and roller / Timkin bearings are far superior. But we cannot shoot those!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :groner: