how to identify babbit

[mac1911]

How do you do it?

I melted down a few pounds in my small pot. They where large wheel weights from big trucks. All where well oxidized and dark grey. The started melting @ 500'F
I noticed a few things

Compared to my regular WW ignots there is a smoother consistant sheen to them

My regular wheel weight ignots all seem to have a duller frosted hue with what looks like metalic flakes ?

[beagle]

Kinda depends on the form it's in. If its in ingots, they may be stamped with a number/manufacturer and you can ID off a table on the internet or here by posting the numbers.

If it's been melted, cast some bullets and see how hard they are. Pure babbitt is usually pretty hard (at least what was used for bearings) but there are many kinds.

I use it for hardening pure lead as usually it's pretty high in tin content.

You'll just have to cast and see if it's been melted. I once made a batch of Lyman 429360 out of what turned out to be babbitt and couldn't size them with my old Lyman #45 sizer so I remelted and added pure lead.

It will make bullets so don't give up./beagle

[mac1911]

in the form of WWs

[deltaenterprizes]

Babbitt wheel weights?

[jr81452]

Babbitt wheel weights? No such thing that I'm aware of. If it's hard and a WW then it's zinc or steel.

[mac1911]

These are off the large trucks, was told they are babbitt based ? He cant get anyone to buy them so he offered them to me for free.

[jr81452]

You could smelt some down into a 1lb ingot and send it to rotometals for assay.

Most likely just standard truck weights. They have a little higher tin and antimony content than car weights, but nothing drastic. I melt truck weight ingots 50/50 with WW ingots and an extra % of tin and get really nice 200gr 30cal boolits. Come out of the mold at 198gr +/- .5 and .002" over my bore. Group .67" @ 100yrds out of my 308win hunting rig running at 2050fps. Don't know the hardness as I have no tester, but they dent lino. They are my uncles preferred boolit for moose hunting. His testimony: "The one I recovered last year expanded well after breaking the shoulder and dropped him where he stood" FWIW.

YMMV, but I doubt you have some special alloy on your hands.

[mac1911]

well, I will just have to pick them up then

[arkypete]

I was licky enough to find two types of babbit at my local scrap yard. Both had been used as a bearing of some sort. They were greasy, crude covered, about 20 inches long, 1 inch grooves on the inside and weighed 50 - 60 pounds.
Lacking any other discription I have blue babbit and red babbit. The light reflected from a 100% babbit bullet reflects red or blue. Both alloys makes great bullets, hard as heck.
I use it to sweeten my wheel weights.

Jim

[glicerin]

Check www for babbit, lots of info. Babbit used in modern heavy industry(including nickel babbit), is usually 80% tin(rings like a bell), 12% antimony(dents with difficulty) and even old ingots will corrode or oxidize very little. Nickel or copper contained is very likely in a compound form, causes no harm when added in small amounts to up your tin to 2%. Bullets of pure babbit may be very light, and foul your barrel(solder).

[jr81452]

well, I will just have to pick them up then

I'd have done that the second he said "free" :razz:

[mac1911]

see Original post

[jr81452]

It's the extra tin. makes them melt at a lower temp, and tin has a lower surface tension than lead so it flows better. Like I said, if you want to know the exact alloy, you could sell an ingot to rotometals.