What lead or babbit material do I use?

I am repairing an old paper pulping machine (a Valley Hollander beater). It had a group of carbon steel blades about 7" long x 1/8" x 5/8 high that were stacked and rivited together with wooden spacers between each blade and then retained in a cast iron block with either lead or some type of babbit material. I have made a new set of stainless steel blades and am ready to install them in the cast iron holder. Does anyone have a recommendation as to what type of low melting temperature metal will work best? I have a supply of lead left from old plumbing pipes but am concerned it may be too soft.

I'm not sure my pictures will post OK but if they do the top of the picture shows my new blades which haven't been trimmed from the sides and the lower part of the photo show the old blades.

Dave

I think the lead might be too soft for that application. You should be able to use the original material that came out of the holders. I'm sure that there a a number of vendors that have babbit bearing material. We used to set chipper knives in babbit, but I'm not sure what alloy. Worst case, I'm pretty sure McMaster has it.

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your answer. That is what I was wondering, whether the lead would be too soft. I'll look up babbit sources and see if one is recommended as a retaining material.

Regards,
Dave

Dave, try this stuff “fixturing alloy”. It’s very hard/dense, not like lead that is soft and can leave a finger nail impression. I make pocket watch case dies with it and hammer on the material with no problems...Good Luck.

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?PMPAGE=841&PMITEM=505-3877

Check out Rotometals - they list several types of lead and babbitt. I believe McMaster has some information on choosing the right alloy and I seem to remember seeing a pretty good article on Wikipedia about the different alloys.

http://www.rotometals.com/Babbit-Bearing-Alloys-s/2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_(metal)

Hi Chips&more and Dan,

Thanks for all that good information. I guess what came out of the old blades is a type of low temperature fixturing alloy. In the end we were able to remelt the original material. Surprisingly I hadn't lost any material and we had enough for the pour. First we tried melting and pouring from a ladle. I think it was holding my new blades but it wasn't a pretty pour, mostly because the cast iron blade holder cooled it too quickly. Tonight I made a new pouring dam around the part and I put the whole piece on a good hotplate and let it heat up for about 20 minutes. Everything remelted and I feel more confident it got into all the nooks and crannies. I am going to learn more about this material as well as the babbitt. I have an old Buffalo Forge drill press that needs a babbitt bearing.
Below is a pic of tonights remelt on the hotplate. I made a hardwood frame around the piece to keep the material from running off. Again thanks for the advise. I was a little concerned about being able to do this.

Dave