Is it Babbit

[Stephen Cohen]

A mate turned up yesterday with 75lb of wheel weight ingots and some 50lb of unknown material that originally come from the railways, it is very hard and sounds like Lino when two pieces are hit together. I will try and melt some later today and see if it melts at low temp. Regards Stephen

[NyFirefighter357]

Do an acid test on a piece see if it bubbles if so it has zinc in it, prob doesn't but check it. The most likely answer is babbitt for bearings. I don't know any other use for lead in the rail road except maybe old wire splices and that would be pretty soft.

[Iowa Fox]

The old rail axles used Babbitt. If that's what it is you hit the jack pot. I have about 50 pounds of it left and it is great stuff for sweetening alloy. About 4-6 years ago there were some posts on here about the guys using it. Its almost impossible to find these days.

[Tom W.]

Sawmill supply businesses have it.
I used to get a box for free from the local dealer because I ordered so much of it. I also got a few 60 pound ingots of pure lead. It was good to be the guy who made the orders !

[Stephen Cohen]

Thanks for the comments guys, I checked for a reaction with acid and got none, I decided to melt it down into ingots and it was the easiest and cleanest alloy I have ever worked with. I had some range scrap that I had been casting light 38 loads with and put a little piece of the babbit in a Lee 20lb pot with the range scrap and boy did it improve casting speed no end, yes I am on a winner here. Regards Stephen

[daloper]

My uncle who cast his own for years gave me his casting gear. With it was a lot of hardener that was babbit material. He said that a friend of his made the babbit bearings for the railroad. Not sure what the make up is but it makes for hard cast with pure lead. You will get alot of good hard cast from it.

[jgh4445]

Is there a way to test and see if it's babbit? Years ago, I posted about 5 joined round ingots I have, that weigh a total of about 25 lbs. Each ingot is marked on top with the words Overland Motor Co. embossed on on it. Never did identify the metal as lead or babitt. Overland is the original Willis Jeep motor company I think.

[Tom W.]

Usually the round ones are lead and the long ingots are Babbitt. Don't quote me on that though.....

[Dusty Bannister]

Is there a way to test and see if it's babbit? Years ago, I posted about 5 joined round ingots I have, that weigh a total of about 25 lbs. Each ingot is marked on top with the words Overland Motor Co. embossed on on it. Never did identify the metal as lead or babitt. Overland is the original Willis Jeep motor company I think.

A forum member "BNE" is a good contact to test unknown alloys to determine what they are made of. Good reliable, and speedy turn around time to get a PM reply as to what you have mailed to him. Best to send PM for his instructions for sample prep, and his fee is only a pound of lead per sample tested. If you have a friend in the scrap metal business, some of them will also have a similar test tool, but I have not had that luck locally. Dusty

[Stephen Cohen]

Sadly before I joined this group I had some 2 hundred lb of babbit given to me to make fishing sinkers and gave nearly all of it away, it was not till I was educated here that I found the error of my ways and the lead Gods gave me another chance. Regards Stephen

[NyFirefighter357]

Hey, Babbitt!

[Rooster]

Who's on first?

[Echo]

Hey, Babbitt!

Got it...