What is babbitt and why is it in every home?
Hello everyone! Despite the fact that I have been interested in construction and repair for more than one decade, the other day, in a conversation with a familiar welder, I came across the term "babbit".
The welder made swing gates for our summer cottage and asked why I chose not fashionable sliding gates. In conversation, he said that the best guides for sliding gates are covered with babbit.
Then I fell into a stupor.
It turned out that babbitt is a special alloy of antimony, tin and lead. Melts at a temperature of 300-350 degrees. Babbitt is good because it is made of soft metals (not always hard means reliable).
Babbit costs 900 rubles per kilogram!
I found a video on the Internet with a gorgeous instrument that determines in 5 seconds what kind of metal or alloy is in front of it. Look, this is interesting:
Why does the title say that there is babbitt in every home?
You may not know this, but you still have babbitt. Especially if there are a lot of Soviet things in the house.
- centrifuges;
- submersible pumps;
- your car's crankshaft!
- meat grinders, mixers, sewing machines.
Here are just some of the instruments that use babbitt.