Technical ***August 2019 Banger Thread Hot August Nights***

@railcarmover you just opened up a can of viewing works for me. Thanks. This is the stuff I love watching!!!

 

It's a good enough overview, but as I said there is no real detail......

 

97 , are you reading it upside down ? sorry just had to say that ………… steve

 

Im not a babbit guy,but I do understand some stuff from 40 years of being a mechanic/welder..temperature control is critical when tinning and pouring babbit,guys years ago worked by feel,but today you can use an infra red temp gun and get a spot on reading.The guys in the video wave a rosebud and pour from a pot without checking temp,at least in the video.I've got an engine that someone sunk a lot of money in,only to have a tinning failure on center main in a short amount of time.Babbit is just as good as,and in my opinion superior to insert bearings on a gravity feed model a engine.Todays babbit compounds need pressurization to stay clean,and once you wear the thin film of babbit off you're running on copper or steel and chewing up a 1500 dollar counterbalanced crank.Babbit's ability to imbed debris and its basic thickness protect components when it fails.. basically the crankshaft journal survives for the most part.

 

I believe it also depends on material used (tin)

 

The September 2019 Banger Thread is open https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...anger-thread-cool-september-mornings.1163164/

 

Yes but I am used to it! . I can do it standing on my head!!

 

Yes there is much more to it than meets the eye , the reason I have researched it so much is that 5 years ago an old tradesman , started to teach me about the lost art, but then he passed before my (abreviated ) apprenticeship was done. His wife gave me the tools etc as per his request, ( including all the Ford molds and reamers ) but I have never been completely successful in making long lasting or consistent bearings on my own .
Recently I found out that my Uncle Len who used to work for New Zealand Railways, was in fact the head white metal guy in the "East Town workhops" he is still with us, but is 90 years old and lives 5 hours from me....I am unsure of my next move ,(we have never been very close) but I will be asking him what he knows .

 

I'm going to try adapting on a T fan assembly