Anyone Cast With This Stuff??

[billt]

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/7272/babbitmetal0032py.th.jpg (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=babbitmetal0032py.jpg) http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/5692/babbitmetal0014iq.th.jpg (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=babbitmetal0014iq.jpg)

I've aquired about 200 pounds of this stuff and wondered how it would work out for magnum rifle loads in the .458 Win. Mag., .460 Weatherby range? I've heard Babbit has several different formulas, and contains Copper. I just wondered if anyone's cast with it in any compacity?? Bill T.

[redgum]

I've used it in the past alloyed with wheel weights (50/50). very hard almost like linotype but not sure of it's make up. It's used for holding chipper blades in place in the sawmill and as bearings in windmills also

[felix]

Windmill bearings would be lead based. Other option is tin based. Tin based stuff is for high rotating speeds, with reasonably light weight capability. Lead based stuff is for heavy weight, low speed stuff. Don't know what the characteristics of a chipper blade are.

Make a boolit out of each babbit bar. Compare to known weight, such as WW. If SIGNIFICANTLY lighter, the babbit in question is tin based. No babbit to my knowledge has any bismuth, so no babbit will produce a heavier boolit than WW. Use a tin based babbit as an augmenter of tin; use a lead based babbit as an augmenter of antimony. There is no guarantee that either babbit will have copper. If so, the amount will be quite low and should be ignored when the babbit is used as an augmentation. When making the trial boolits out of the straight stuff, use the hottest temps possible, just in case of copper interference when making the trial boolit(s). Arsenic can be included in any babbit, so be careful of any garlic smell. If so, stay upwind. ... felix

[John Boy]

http://www.aimalloys.com/solder_products/babbitt_metal.htm

I was gifted 53# of #4 Tin based babbitt that has a Bhn of 14.3. Still sitting on the garage floor

[Namerifrats]

I was wondering about this stuff too. My dad works at a sawmill and says he can get me quite a bit of this stuff they use on the blades.

[looseprojectile]

Made pink or gold colored boolits. Could have been gold for all I know.
Sent several thousand downrange never knowing. This was at a time when all handgun projectiles in factory loads were pure lead, or nearly so.
I went on a quest in the mid fifties to solve the ever present bad leading in my then new .357 blackhawk. Found out you can make boolits that don't lead. In 1960 I was shot with one of my own boolits--it held together rather well [hard].The idiot that shot me had never learned not to point a gun at anyone.
I'd say ifn you can cast em out of it and it works what else do you need. Cast some, shoot some, enjoy.

[gray wolf]

I just had a friend give me about 5 pounds of what looks like dead soft lead.
He is a machinest and said it was babbit metal. This stuff is very,very soft.
Fingernail sinks right into it. Also is very dark looking deep gray in color. I said it was pure lead
he said no man it is babbit for bearings. He used it for decoy weights.
I would not use this except for R/b or mini balls, or perhaps some conicals.
Am I missing something here?

[felix]

You are missing the definition of Babbit. This is a person's name only. Generally speaking, he is the "inventor" of many alloys for many specific purposes, mainly bearing applications. The odds are good that the lead you have is not a typical babbit metal because it lacks the hardness required for bearing applications. If the metal does not have sufficient antimony to withstand major punishment, then it is not a babbit type. The keyword for babbit is high antimony composition. ... felix

[Bass Ackward]

Not only that Felix, but if it is not new, then you are counting on the people who used it to understand what they were doing. I got lots of babbitt .... impurities ( :grin: ) because the guys at the local steel plant didn't know to flux it.

So I would only trust babbitt to be the mix specified if it was handed to me new. Otherwise .........

[ssn vet]

tin based Babbit is 90% tin and is used in steam turbine bearings.

all the steam propulsion turbines and steam electric plan turbines on the submarine had babbit bearings.

hard stuff!

seems like it would mix with pure lead to make some good casting metal....but I'm a nube so what do I know :roll:

[felix]

You got that right, John. Most high antimony alloys contain toughening metals, like an amount of copper that will not stay put without special heating and without a certain prescribed flux. The only hope we have is that we can safely salvage the "junk" to augment that in our pots. Making a boolit at home with straight-up babbit is a pure crap shoot. ... felix

[leftiye]

Any clues available as to what flux might keep 1 or 2 % copper in good solution?