How to tell types of babbitt apart?

[fatelk]

A friend gave me some babbitt today. He works in a sawmill. He said the millwright who gave it to him called it "nickel babbitt", but some of what he gave me had been discarded because it was "inferior". There is one ingot that is 8 lbs and segmented, marked "Non-Ferrous AA Packing".

I understand that some babbitt is lead based, and some is tin based. Is there an easy way to tell the difference? I made ingots out of the smaller chunks, and they weigh about 15 oz per ingot; close to the same as WW lead, perhaps a tiny bit lighter.

[lwknight]

A specific gravity test is your best starter tool.

[bushwack]

Grade 2 babbit is silver in color(tin base) grade 7 is grey in color(lead base).

[felix]

That is true! Both should break your ear drums with a sharp ring when dropped onto concrete. Especially, pay attention to the pitch of the sound when comparing samples. Higher the frequency, more tin is present. Also, lead babbit has a much higher melting point. Be leery of a very low melting point of any lead product. Chances are that stuff would have too much cadmium to be useful and would weaken a pot full of WW when applied. ... felix

[Tom W.]

#4 nickle Babbitt is what we used in the sawmill for guide plates for the double arbor gang saw. As per OSHA regs it could not have any lead in it, and was composed of mostly tin with a very small percentage of nickle and copper. The stuff makes exceptionally hard boolits, and they come out a lot lighter than what the mold says that they are supposed to be.Every now and again I used to get a box from the supplier, as a freebie so we would continue doing business with him.
I melted it down into small ingots to blend with my W/W material and the big lead ingots that showed up in the bed of my pickup every so often.
Alas, the mill shut down and so did the supplier, so I'm on my last few pounds of the stuff.

[John Boy]

http://www.frymetals.com/products/babbitt.html?product=babbitt
Click on Babbitt Reference Guide. At the end is a complete description of all babbitt types and their properties

[fatelk]

I'm guessing that this stuff is lead based. I would expect the ingot to be lighter if tin. The marked ingot is silvery-gray, and the ingots I cast ring when dropped, but not real sharp and loud. It actually feels similar to lino to me. The ingots did take a long time to cool. Maybe I'll make a few bullets out of it just to see how they look.

I'll probably just mark it and set it aside. I have a lot more hard lead than soft right now, so I really don't need it to sweeten the pot.

Regarding low-melt alloy with cadmium; some of you probably remember my thread about the mystery metal that turned out to be low-melt 158 alloy. At first I was bummed that it wasn't good bullet metal. After all, I did pay 35 cents/lb for it as scrap a couple years ago.

Currently I'm selling it on ebay for almost $9/lb, and have sold 35 pounds! If I can sell all 75 pounds, I figure the profits after ebay's fees will more than pay for the half-ton of lino I bought last summer, so I guess I really can't complain after all.:)

[lwknight]

Anyone who has half a ton of line could not complain about much.
I only have about 400 pounds of lino so I can still complain about stuff.

[Tom W.]

OSHA wouldn't let us have any cadmium anything, either..

[waco]

im sitting on about 400-500 #s of lino as well. got it from my uncle when he passed back in 1999.he had a friend who worked at our local newspaper.i use the stuff pretty spairingly though.hard to find around here anymore.:lovebooli