Babbit from a rock crusher; a bar of antimony?

[Kim]

1. I was given a batch of salvagings from a rock crusher bearing replacement. I ended up with about 7 pounds of ingots with a noticeable golden coloring to them when I smelted them. They melted easily in my RCBS furnace and are pretty hard and make a nice clink when bumped together. I suspect they have a high tin content and would like to use it to make hard alloy BN20+/-. Anyone have an idea on what I have content-wise?
2. I was also given two small bars of what the donor thought was antimony. They are very shiny, hard, and heavy and don't seem to be affected by dampness. The number 888 is cast into them and they don't want to melt in my RCBS furnace. Does any one have an idea as to what it might be? A science teacher friend thinks he can get a density value for them but he says it is a PITA to do. Thanks for any help you can give!

[RogerDat]

bearings are generally made from Babbitt, which is generally a high tin alloy. Exact alloy can vary a good bit but I expect from your color description it is one of the high tin versions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_(alloy)

Worth noting all the alloys of Babbitt that would have enough tin to give the gold color you noted are better than 80% tin with a decent amount of antimony. Also that touch of copper in the alloy helps to make a bullet "tougher" less likely to fragment in a hollow point or hunting round that hits a bone.

[RogerDat]

This might help with the 888 bar but the inability to melt at normal lead melting temperatures argues that it isn't this type of solder.

https://www.briarpress.org/37163

antimony has a melting point of 1,167 F so it would be at the extreme high end of what our lead melters might reach. Probably out of reach for many melters. If you have a melt thermometer with a range that high and a burner that can deliver enough heat to melt it you could get some confirmation by melting and noting the temperature at which becomes liquid. I believe this is best measured as molten metal cools by recording the temperature every couple of minutes as it cools. It will plateau for a few readings right as it transitions from liquid to solid which gives you a good idea of its melting point.

Of course if it is an alloy of antimony... that would be expected to influence melting point. Rotometals sells 30% antimony already alloyed with lead because the alloy then melts at 750* which is more useful for use as a hardener for lead. If you have a way to melt it you might want to melt it with a measured amount of lead to yield something like the Super Hard at Rotometals. Just remember don't add cold lead to a hot melt.

https://www.rotometals.com/antimony/

[Tripplebeards]

Shiny lead “to me” is almost pure. I’d tell you buy a lee hardness tester. They are around $60 when I bought mine. When I melt 40/1 it looks like shiny Mercury. Clip on wheel weight lead is frosty silverfish grey in color. When I melt pewter down iIts frosty silver colored as well.

[jsizemore]

old castboolits post:

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...Boy-888-solder

[Kim]

Thank you for your responses gentlemen, they are deeply appreciated. I have a smelting setup inside my wood stove where it will get way over 1500 degrees. From your information, I will try melting the 888 with an equal amount of lead and see if it will melt and mix. A friend is going to bring his LBT hardness tester and we will check the 888 and ingots before we do the melt and (hopefully) after. It seems like it won't take much of this to harden a batch of lead.

[dverna]

I clicked on this thinking..."Wow, must be really important or interesting for a new thread with 6 posts to become a sticky"

I was wrong...again...LOL

[Rickf1985]

I was also a bit curious why this was made a sticky? This is all info that has been hashed over on the forum before. And over, and over. But no solid data is presented here.

[YippyKiYay]

The moderators are human as well... ok, most are human��. I can say this because I am one on another site... lol.

[YippyKiYay]

Btw, 44 years ago, when I got my first muzzleloader a friend of dad's brought over 20 lbs of Babbitt. I cast it all into .440 RB and shot it.