Lab analysis may not be as expensive as one may think. The lab analysis that I had done on the recovery of babbitt from old car bearings was only $50.00. Check with John Smatlak as he has the lab report I sent him for his reuse at OERM.

I was thinking of the difficulty of adjusting the alloy once the analysis is in hand. I seem to recall that un-alloyed antimony is not altogether common, and it's melting point, at 1167*F, is almost twice that of lead, and more than twice that of tin. Then again, maybe that indicates that the alloy would become tin deficient first, which may be easier to deal with.

Either way, it sounds like sending a sample out for analysis is a good idea, at least for high speed items like motor bearings.

"Toning" metal is also sold, generally containing just antimony and tin. Keeping the metal agitated is of utmost importance, or the tin/antimony will separate to the top.

Find it odd that the recipe given for babbitt is awfully close to that used as the metal in Linotype machines. I always thought babbitt was supposed to contain a higher amount of tin--though that may be for different bearing applications with less shock loads.

Michael Seitz
Missoula MT