How to use babbit?

[crabo]

I have been told to use babbit as tin, so please tell me if my thinking is correct.

My WW ingots are 3#. If I want to add 2% tin, I would add 420 grains of babbit.
(3x7,000 X .02= 420) I guess I would also need to know how much tin weighs in relation to lead, I am sure they are not the same.

I would like to simplify things so when I add an ingot of WW, I can easily add a little tin. My thought is to melt the babbit and cast it into boolits so I can add a boolit or two of tin, to every ingot of wheel weights.

The ideal situation would be to have a mold that I don't use, like a round ball and keep a can of them on the casting bench. One ingot goes in and one or two boolits of babbit goes in, and stir.

Do I need to mix the babbit into some lead to make it melt better? Seems like I heard that some where. (I'm sure it was here) I know I would need to rework my formula if I mixed them.

What do you think of this idea?

Crabo

[Tom W.]

I can't help with the porportions, as I just add babbitt as the mood hits me. Haven't had a problem with it. There was a time that babbit was all I used for alloy, it made some light but mighty hard bullets. I know that I add too much, as my boolits are a bit on the light side, but it doesn't seem to affect anything...They still shoot well.
The stuff melts just fine. When I worked at the sawmill I worked with it on a daily basis and I kept the pot ( I believe the pot held 500 pounds ) at 550 degrees. That was plenty hot, probably a bit too hot for what I needed, but I had a schedule to keep...

[oneokie]

Specific gravity of Tin is 7.418
Specific gravity of Lead is 11.4

[JIMinPHX]

There are different flavors of babbitt. McMaster lists the following 3 as being currently available -
Tin babbitt: 89% tin, 7.5% antimony, 3.5% copper - pour temp = 725°

Lead babbitt: 80.25% lead, 14.75% antimony, 5% tin - pour temp = 650°

lead/copper babbitt: 74.5% lead, 14.75% antimony, 10% tin, .25% copper, .5% arsenic - pour temp = 700°

As you can see, tin content varies.

[Tom W.]

The stuff we had at the mill was nickle Babbitt. No lead allowed. OSHA regs. We used it for saw guides on the gang saw.

[grouch]

I can only say that Dad & I tried babbitt about '62 and got huge groups @ 25yds. If I didn't know which babbitt it was, I'd trade it to a scrap yard for something usable rather than risk contaminating my alloy.

[crabo]

How did you try the babbit? I have been advised here to use it as tin, or an enrichment material.

Crabo

[felix]

Only if it is tin based. If not tin based, use it as a straight-up antimony additive. ... felix

[Pepe Ray]

At one time someone posted a link to a babbit mfgr web-s where I found a list of the available babbits and there content. Once I established what my supply contained I dumped (regretfully) the site/resource. I'm sorry. BUT I can tell you this much.
1st. establish the type of use the babbit was for, High speed or Low speed.
for ex. if it came from a saw mill as did mine, it would have been multi purpose ie High speed.
2nd , All babbit has much tin. Your problem comes because of the remaining metals in the alloy. You can't separate them. The antimony, copper,lead, and possibly minute amounts of other minor ingredients, will remain w/you.
To make a soft alloy forget using the babbit. You'll need to get some solder or strait tin. For ordinary alloys for hand gun or rifle boolets the babbit is a great resource.
Have patience! Good luck to you, Pepe Ray

[crabo]

Maybe I should explain what I am trying to do. I would take a piece of 95/5 solder of the roll about 12-14" long and add it to my melt everytime I added a 3 pound ingot for better fillout. It seemed to help. That is why I was thinking about casting the babbit into boolit or round balls, so I could throw one or two in when I added an ingot. Right now it is in muffin tin pieces. A little prep now would make it a lot easier later when I am casting.

Does that make sense?

Crabo

[Pepe Ray]

It would make perfect sense IF the babbit were the same alloy as the solder. NOT SO. No matter if the babbit is Hi or LO speed it still has more OTHER hardening materials than you want for your end alloy. The %'s don't change with the size of your ball.
Pepe Ray P.S. At some point I thought you were attempting to maintain a low BHN. I apologize if this is in error.