Making Bearings

[Half Dog]

I had a chance to visit a machinist that I know at his shop. We got around to talking about shooting and I asked if he knew any tire shops where I could get old wheel weights. He said no but you can have this. He handed me a chunk (almost 25#) of lead and said here you go. He and his dad had an order to pour some bearings for a company several years ago and this is left over.

Has anyone had an opportunity to pour bearings using lead? If so, what was the make-up of the lead?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[M-Tecs]

The alloy varies per application.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_(alloy)

http://wiki.vintagemachinery.org/BabbittWhatIsIt.ashx

https://rotometals.com/babbitt-bearing-alloys/

[Bama]

You can get an idea of the different types by clicking on Rotometals at top of page. In younger days, I went through about 600 lbs shooting it unaloyed (THAT was a waste) If you can check hardness you should be able to use charts on Rotometals site to determine what type you have. It will be easy to add pure lead to soften it up for any pistol application. You will get a good idea of price on their web site also.

[w5pv]

line shafts in the last paper mill all used poured bearings,the engineers always had the formula made up for us peons.

[seagiant]

Hi,
You don't really use "lead", you use Bearing Metal.

Admittedly it looks like "lead"!,

[Gewehr-Guy]

Half Dog, see if you can find a local junkyard with an XRF analyzer to test it for you, or send a sample to the person on this forum that keeps the sample ingot and tells you the test results. Someone help me out here I forgot his name. If your piece of lead is hi-tin babbitt you could trade for much more WW or lead!

[Wolfer]

My 1894 Porter Machine works lathe runs on poured bearings.

[seagiant]

http://www.frenchriverland.com/pouring_a_babbitt_bearing.htm

[Pavogrande]

chevie 216 till 1953 had poured rods - buicks had poured mains til about 52 -

rather important you id the babbitt

[Jeff Michel]

You probably have "Babbit" metal. You might be better off selling it than shooting down the barrel of your guns. That stuff isn't nearly as cheap as lead It usually contains different types of metals in the alloy to reduce wear, copper and or tin plus lead and antimony. It was used at one time for everything that had a shaft or wheel that turned. https://www.mcmaster.com/#babbitt-metal/=162yh8g

[gnoahhh]

I helped my grandfather pour babbitt bearings in a few Model T engines many years ago. Quite an art to doing it. I have his bearing scrapers and a bunch of ingots of the babbitt metal in my stash. Problem is, he poured his leftover babbitt metal into a Model T hub cap to make the ingots. They all have the "Ford" script cast into them and I can't bring myself to melt them down!

[Half Dog]

Thanks so much for sharing memories and information. I think I'll try to find an XRF in the Dallas area then try to trade.

What is a reasonable fee for an XRF?

[popper]

PM me if you find somebody that does the XRF.

[John 242]

Keith Rucker pouring a babbit bearing for a 1917 planer/matcher-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v2ivoLkxVw

Keith Fenner doing a babbit pour-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZh2VZbqQiI

PS...

Keith Rucker is a member of the Vintage Machinery page that M-Tecs linked to.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Babbit metals can run from about 90% tin (you should be so lucky!) to about 80% lead. The XRF tester is the best method of finding out, and a junkyard shouldn't charge you much for a couple of minutes with a machine they have anyway. I should think plenty will do it free, especially if you have been a customer or look like you might. After all, the chances are that you will need extra lead.

Failing that, finding out the specific gravity would be of some use, since lead is heavy (13.6), and all the Not Lead things are in the 6 to 8 range. The specific gravity is simply the number of times the metal is heavier than the same volume of water, and there are two good ways of measuring it.

If you can suspend a chunk of it from a scale, weight it first dry, and then suspended in water. The dry weight divided by the weight when immersed is the specific gravity.

If it is too big for that, weigh it dry. Then weigh a vessel of water, filled right up to the brim. Lower the metal in, too slowly to make a splash. Weigh the vessel again, minus the water that has slopped over the top. The dry weight of the metal, divided by the weight of water the vessel has lost, is the specific gravity.

In the Wikipedia table the chemical symbols for the metals are links that will give you the specific gravities. I don't believe any of the non-lead and non-tin components will be a serious obstacle to further alloying, or to casting at temperatures that won't damage your mould. But if you use aluminium moulds it might be useful to have a cheapo eBay infra-red thermometer.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_(alloy)

[castalott]

I have a lathe that has poured bearings ( dad did it 55 years ago. If I save the lathe, i think you can buy standard bearing to fit now.)

Second use for babbit is attaching tools to wire rope. On the spudder with 6000 feet of wire rope to reach the bottom of the local wells, there must be a way to attach the tool ends.

You feed the wire rope ( cable to you guys) in one end of the tool and out the other. You then 'unwrap' the cable and pull the end back into the tool. You wrap 'soft rope' (twine) around the cable at the end of the tool to make a seal of sorts. Hold the tool upside down and pour in some motor oil. Then pour it full of molten babbit....Done!

Properly done, the cable will pull in two before the cable will pull out of the tool.


Sorry for the thread drift...

[castalott]

Second post to add...

The most I can remember pulling off the bottom with a tool like this was 1000 feet of fluid ( usually saltwater or oil) in 4.5 casing. Very rough guess = .7 gallons per foot in 4.5 inch casing.

.7 times 9 pounds per gallon = 6.3 pounds per foot..... times 1000 foot = 6300 pounds pull on the tool. Of course oil or gassy oil would weigh a lot less. And good gas pressure on the bottom would help push it up just like a cylinder...

All from memory...so I may have it wrong...