What do you think this is?

[jgh4445]

A friend gave me this today. Heowns a scrap yard and the guy he got it from called it babbit. The weight of all 5 is 24.8 lbs. Each ingot is 3 inches across and one and a half inches high. A search on Google for Overland I & M Co. turns up nothing. No other marks. Its pretty soft, my pocket knife made the shiny mark with no trouble. Mt thumbnail scratches it. Any ideas? Any tests I could do to find out?http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_45494f7d036c36164.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=4709)http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_45494f7d036c6ff2f.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=4710)http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_45494f7d036bf0a50.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=4708)

[Defcon-One]

Babbit is really hard. My guess is that it is pure plumbers lead used for sealing cast iron pipe joints.

There is no way to be sure without testing!

[darkroommike]

Overland, probably refers to the Overland Motor Car Company. Started about 1905 it was bought by a guy named Willys, yeah THAT Willys, their most famous product was the Jeep. It is babbitt, of the kind that was used for internal combustion engines main bearings and rod bearings. They used to melt babbitt and cast replacement bearings in place.

It's probably worth more as a collectible than as lead.

[evan price]

There's two kinds of babbitt (more or less) High speed babbitt which is mostly tin, and low speed babbitt which is mostly lead. Looks like plumbing lead to me, but might be lead babbitt. Tin babbitt is hard as banker's hearts and is great for sweetening alloy.

[dale2242]

My guess is that it is plumbers lead.
If it`s that soft , consider it pure.....dale

[Revolver]

I picked up some similar looking stuff recently. It looks like muffins connected together like yours. Got them from a fella who works at a boatyard, they were weights removed from the inside of an old boat. I've been wondering about their consistency but haven't investigated yet. I'll post a pic when I get home later for comparison...

here are the pics...

http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j407/mainejunker/eb926718.jpg

[jgh4445]

UPDATE: Bought a set of the Staedler Mars pecils and the first pencil to shave a tiny curl from a filed out flat spot was 3B. According to "the chart" that equals a 20-1 lead to tin. Is this a good alloy to cast as is? Better to mix with WW? Better to mix with pure?

[AndyC]

20-1 is a hair over 10 Bhn and fairly soft (and rich in tin at 5%), so it would depend what you need the bullets to do.

If you blend 50% clip-on WW and 50% 20-1, you'll get around 10.8 Bhn because of the addition of antimony from the WW, according to bumpo's alloy-calculator (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=105952). Man, I lurrrve that thing :D

50% 20-1 and 50% pure would drop the Bhn way down to 9.3

[jgh4445]

Thanks Andy. Just wanted to get in Lyman #2's neighborhood. Might wanna shoot a coyote with my 45LC.

[AndyC]

Lyman #2, huh..... ok, then 5 lbs of Rotometals' Superhard alloy added to your 24.8lbs would get you pretty dang close to that - you'd get 4.16% tin, 5.03% antimony and 90.8% lead.

Add a 1/2 lb of 50-50 solder to that and you'd be right there.