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Babbit Bar For Correcting Sight Alignment ?
- Thread starter Nick B
- Start date
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OFT II
US Veteran
You tweak the front sight by whacking the barrel, thereby bending it until the gun shoots to point of aim. It sounds crude but I guess it works.
Peter M. Eick
SWCA Member
Great stuff if you can find it. It used to be very common for the railroad to make bearings but that was a long time ago. I have not seen any for sale in many years so where are you getting the stuff?
Internet I suppose?
Internet I suppose?
scooter123
Member
Babbit metal is commonly an alloy of Lead and Tin. One common mix was 75% lead and 10% tin with the remaining 5% basically being impurities. Common use for this allow was for shaft bearings and at one time all plain bearings in an automobile engine were babbit metal that was cast in place. Today most crankshaft and connecting rod bearings are composed of a steel shell that is first plated with bronze and then plated with a babbit alloy.
Because it casts so well and doesn't require a very high temperature hammers made from babbit metal were once common in some industrial operation where a non marring hammer was needed. Once the hammer head became too deformed to be useful it was dropped in a melting post and the steel wire frame that formed the base was extracted from the melting pot once all the babbit metal had melted. After that the "scum" would be scraped from the melted alloy, disposed of, and the cleaned alloy ladled into forms containing those recovered hammer frames. All in all a very economical method of obtaining non marring hammers that has pretty much disappeared due to concern over exposure to lead.
Because it casts so well and doesn't require a very high temperature hammers made from babbit metal were once common in some industrial operation where a non marring hammer was needed. Once the hammer head became too deformed to be useful it was dropped in a melting post and the steel wire frame that formed the base was extracted from the melting pot once all the babbit metal had melted. After that the "scum" would be scraped from the melted alloy, disposed of, and the cleaned alloy ladled into forms containing those recovered hammer frames. All in all a very economical method of obtaining non marring hammers that has pretty much disappeared due to concern over exposure to lead.
rck281
Member
In the mid 1970's, I saw Ron Power (Power Custom) straighten a bent S&W revolver frame with several good whack with a babbitt bar. He is a great gunsmith and made some outstanding PPC revolvers and accurized 1911's. Until that time, I had never seen someone beat on a gun with a metal bar.
Good description Scooter.
One of my first jobs in high school while working part time for a machine shop was recasting the lead/babbit hammers that they used regularly.
Kind of odd in that it was fun and interesting work at the time. But now have no interest in casting bullets.
One of my first jobs in high school while working part time for a machine shop was recasting the lead/babbit hammers that they used regularly.
Kind of odd in that it was fun and interesting work at the time. But now have no interest in casting bullets.
