Babbit

[Cheesehead]

What is "babbit" alloy. I have came across an amount of this and am unsure about it.

Cheese

[twoshooter]

the only place I have heard the term "Babbit" used was for lead melted out of old batteries, and it is supposed to have strontium or something pretty nasty in it. I would check it out pretty thoroughly before I used it in casting.

[flintman]

 I was given 22 pounds of it a few years back,it could be almost pure tin.DON'T DO NOTHING with it until you find out for sure!I mean,don't discard it or trash it!
 What shape is it in?

[Graybeard]

There are several different formulas for babbit and they actually have little in common. Some have lead as the primary component and some don't even have lead in them. Zinc, tin and copper I think are the other most common metals found in the various babbit formulations.

Long ago I got a large supply of babbit my dad had been using and it was primarily lead and zinc and made excellent bullets. I've heard many folks say zinc ruins your allow but I never found a problem with it in that batch of babbit and used it up long ago with no problems whatsoever.

[Cheesehead]

It is in 10 pound ingots and is harder than pure lead, similar to wheel weight in hardness.

Cheese

[Graybeard]

If it isn't properly marked as to what it is then a lab analysis is the ONLY way to really know what it is. As I said there are just too many different formulations to be able to know.

[jhalcott]

 Babbit is used in large bearings usually. As Bill said there are MANY recipes for babbit, I used tin and copper babbit to cast bullets and fishing sinkers when I worked in the steel mill. IF you can't afford ananalysis of the stuff you CAN melt a small sample in a separate pot. Cast a few bullets using a cheap mold that can be replaced and weigh them, check for fill out and roundness and hardness. If things go all right you can start producing bullets that you need from the babbit. All you will lose is an old pot and a cheap mold IF things go wrong!!
  I can't even guess how much "MYSTERY METAL" i've made bullets from.Some of those bullets were VERY accurate,many were just plinking slugs!

[Lloyd Smale]

jhallcott has the right answer. While theres a mulitude of differnt babbits out there most are of two types. High speed and low speed. Both are excellent materials for casters. Low speed babbit is mostly lead. It doesnt contain much tin but contains a good quanity of antimony. It can be used as is or mixed 5050 with ww and add a little tin and youve got #2. High speed babbit is mostly tin. It can contain a bit of copper and antimony and other materials but theres not enough of them in it to effect casting. You can for the most part consider it tin. Best way to tell which is which is by taking a chunk of it and melting it. Tin melts at a lower temp then lead. Another way ive done it at scrap yards when i had to make a decission whether to buy it or not is to take a ingot of it and prop one end up and smack it with a hammer. If it breaks its usually tin if it doesnt its lead or low speed babbit. Like I said any of its good stuff. I dont know what you paid but tin babbit is selling for about 6 bucks a lb right now. the only thing that can bite you is that zinc ingots look just like babbit. I once had someon come over to the house and give me about a 100 lbs of what he thought was babbit. It was in 20 lb ingots. I took one and melted it and it was a grainy sluggy mess. I knew right away it was zinc. Its good advice to melt that babbit and make smaller ingots out of it. there easier to use for alloying and it gives you a chance to melt some to make sure you dont have zinc before you screw up a hole batch of lead. 

Babbit is used in large bearings usually. As Bill said there are MANY recipes for babbit, I used tin and copper babbit to cast bullets and fishing sinkers when I worked in the steel mill. IF you can't afford ananalysis of the stuff you CAN melt a small sample in a separate pot. Cast a few bullets using a cheap mold that can be replaced and weigh them, check for fill out and roundness and hardness. If things go all right you can start producing bullets that you need from the babbit. All you will lose is an old pot and a cheap mold IF things go wrong!!
  I can't even guess how much "MYSTERY METAL" i've made bullets from.Some of those bullets were VERY accurate,many were just plinking slugs!

[Cheesehead]

I does not break when hit with a hammer and is some what malleable, yet fairly hard. The price was right, 50 pounds for free, someones spring cleaning debris. Thanks for the replies guys!

Cheese

[Tom W.]

I've used it for years, both straight, and later on as my supply dried up a bit,as a source of tin. I had nickle babbitt, with no lead in it as per OSHA regs, and it made a light and very hard bullet.

[Steve P]

I don't know what is in it, but a friend of a friend got some at a lumber mill he works at.  This stuff is THE BEST thing I have ever seen poured in a fishing jig mold.  They gave me 4 diamond jigs made with it.  They were much shinier than lead, a little bit lighter, and caught fish probably 2-3 to 1 over exact lure made with lead.  Because it is soooo rocky, they are easy to lose, and I am down to my last one.

I have several molds and if I could find a source for babbit, I would be in Jig heaven for halibut and cod season coming up.  Don't throw it away, it is definitely good for something!!  If you decide to sell it, look me up!

Steve 

[Tom W.]

I can give an address of a supplier. He's the guy that supplied the sawmill with nickle babbitt while it was opened... Southern Accusaw and Supply, in Abbeville, Alabama...

[Lloyd Smale]

SteveP the stuff i once got from a sawmill was low speed babit that was used for saw guides. Cheese head if you propped one up and wacked it hard with a sledge hammer and it didnt break its no doubt low speed babbit you have too. Theres nothing wrong with it. it makes a good alloy as is to cast with. Its not pure tin but has quite a bit of tin in it. Actually to much to waste casting as is. What i usually do with low speed is mix it 5050 with wheelweights. I once was give a whole pallet of it. Ive since used it all up but that 5050 alloy made real nice bullets for years.

[Cheesehead]

I did mix some 50/50 with pure lead and made a few 44 bullets. Have not tried the bullets yet, but they look good.

Cheese

[jhalcott]

http://www.castpics.net/
 Sorry to take so long finding this again but here it is. As LLoyd said it is way too valuable to cast as is, but makes a dandy "sweetener" for WW and pure lead alloys!

[oldandslow]

If you know the number, look it up in the "Machinery's Handbook". The only babbit I'm familar with is #4 and it is pretty hard for bullets. I used to cast round balls from #4 and adjusted my patch thickness for the hardness. It worked just fine but the balls were so hard they would shatter instead of expanding when shooting caliche rocks for "test" results. I've used it to alloy with pure lead for casting bullets and it has been entirely satisfactory. A little bit goes a long way for alloying. I try to add 10-12% #4 to pure lead.

If you live around an oil producing area you should be able to find #4. It's used to pour bridles for pumpjacks. I used to save the melt from re-pouring a bridle and I poured a bunch of them.

I just picked up 50# of pure lead and my #4 supply is getting low since I've been retired for years and my supply stopped when I retired. I checked with a local supplier last week and an 8# bar of #4 babbit is $34.50. The lead only cost $22.50.

[Cheesehead]

This babbit came from a retired steam pipe fitter.

Cheese

[Lloyd Smale]

i cant imagine what a steam pipe welder woud use it for. Is possible that they got it from a power plant that they were welding boiler tube for. I work 10 years in power plants and we had both low speed and high speed babbit there.

This babbit came from a retired steam pipe fitter.

Cheese