Grade 8 Babbitt

[Pitchnit]

I have got a line on maybe 2000-3000#s of grade 8 babbitt. Anyone know what the scrap yards would pay for it. I would have to buy it from the company I work for but they would just sell it as scrap. Each bar is segmented and consist of 5 truncated pyramids just guessing they are 2X2X10" long. There is a letter on each segment that would rear "WLPCO" Here's the composition:

4.5-5.5% tin
14.0-16.0% antimony
remainder lead (approx 80%)
0.5% copper
0.10% iron
0.3-0.6% arsenic
0.10 bismuth
.005 zinc
.005 aluminium
0.05 cadmium

I'm new at this and really just started scrounging lead. Would this stuff be good to get. From what i have been reading it seems as it would be used as a pure lead sweetener. The arsenic bothers me. Would any special precautions be needed. Thanks for any info you can give me,

[felix]

Excellent stuff. Use it as an antimony sweetener. Medically, cadmium is worse than arsenic, however, but neither is enough when the babbit is used as suggested. ... felix

[Aloxite]

That seems like it would make a very hard bullet alloy. With that much antimony you could dilute it with range lead and still have a fairly hard alloy. Would those trace amounts of other metals cause any problems?

ETA - The arsenic would be a good thing. It allows the alloy to harden when water dropped.

[bumpo628]

I have got a line on maybe 2000-3000#s of grade 8 babbitt. Anyone know what the scrap yards would pay for it. I would have to buy it from the company I work for but they would just sell it as scrap. Each bar is segmented and consist of 5 truncated pyramids just guessing they are 2X2X10" long. There is a letter on each segment that would rear "WLPCO" Here's the composition:

4.5-5.5% tin
14.0-16.0% antimony
remainder lead (approx 80%)
0.5% copper
0.10% iron
0.3-0.6% arsenic
0.10 bismuth
.005 zinc
.005 aluminium
0.05 cadmium

I'm new at this and really just started scrounging lead. Would this stuff be good to get. From what i have been reading it seems as it would be used as a pure lead sweetener. The arsenic bothers me. Would any special precautions be needed. Thanks for any info you can give me,

That looks pretty close to Linotype (4% tin, 12% antimony, 84% lead)

[tomme boy]

Call the scrap yard and ask what they pay for "hard" lead. It is always less than soft. In your case, hard is good as you can get it cheaper.

[mktacop]

I'd say jump all over that deal. You could always portion it up and sell it on the forum to folks looking to harden up some soft lead.

[Pitchnit]

The company I work for is pretty particular. I'll have to play it out and see where it goes. If it is a good alloy that others in this forum would be interested in then I will persue it. It looks like way, way more than I would ever use. Anyone want to venture a guess as to what I should offer them. Thanks again.

[tomme boy]

Hard lead here is 25 cent a pound. If they are going to scrap it, offer a couple of cents higher than your local yard will pay.

[Longwood]

Paying double what the scrap yards will pay would be good in my opinion.
No reason to be greedy if you are going to resell it for a huge profit.