Diresta Bandsaws Restoration 22: Pouring Babbitt Bearings on the Upper Wheel Shaft 

I tried yell hey!!! When I saw it started to roll 😂

LOL I caught myself reaching out to grab that shaft. Always enjoy your pouring videos Keith. Thanks for sharing.

Who else was hollering ? WHOA WHOA WHOA !!! While that shaft was rolling off the table.

Doesn't matter how many times it gets shown, I will always watch a babbit pouring video. There is something about molten metal.

Been in plant maintenance for 40 years and this is the first time I've actually seen this.

I was yelling at you that the shaft was going to fall, but I guess you couldn't hear me from Rhode Island! 😉😉😉I'm glad the shaft wasn't damaged.

Love the safety shorts, they go great with that welding jacket 😂

We just bought a 100 year old power shear and we took the bearing caps off and saw the poured babbitt bearings but didn't know what they were. Now we do. Just subscribed

Sitting here eating breakfast, and Vintage Machinery turns to horror video. Glad nothing was damaged. Great work as always.

Thanks Keith for another great video. I was shouting at the computer when I saw that shaft moving, glad everything turn out.

As an apprentice many years ago I assisted in poring two very large babbitts on a 24 ton shaft then spent the next three days blueing and scraping the bearings in. This bought back those memories.

Watching that shaft slowly roll off the bench kills me

I wish I saw this video 30 years ago.

Mighty fine, Keith. A pleasure to observe a master at work.

I think my neighbors heard me screaming at the monitor as the shaft was rolling off the table... Good there was no damage, close one. Thanks Keith...Enjoyed

Great video Keith! Watching a babbitt bearing pour is so satisfying to watch.

Nice job. Brings back a lot of good memories of pouring, patching, and scrapping babbit bearings. I was lucky enough to serve an apprenticeship at a machine tool rebuilder in the early 70s before working on hydro turbines, where I worked with large babbit bearings. Sometimes taking a couple of days to scrape a single bearing. I once even was lucky enough to be part of a team that hand-scraped the bearing that an observatory sat on. If I remember correctly, that bearing segmented was 32' in diameter.

Keith, you need to add this to the playlist.

A big thanks for including the video of the "whoopsie". And your calm at that moment was inspiring.

I was hollering, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa

You are a National Treasure! I am amazed at how vast your knowledge and skill range is.

your looking GREAT Keith. And as usual a great video.

I have been watching the bandsaw process out of sync, but it's all just so fascinating!

Learning a new way to do things in the shop, Smarter Everyday"! Thanks Keith! That was fun and educational, for an old machinist.

Oh Keith, I hollard when I seen the shaft rolling off. 😐 Glad and hope nothing was damaged. And glad you are ok. I love watching babbitt bearing pours and scraping. It's becoming a lost art of the crafts. As always, thanks for sharing.

Pour John Babbit! His shaft is finally repaired!

Love seeing these Babbitt pouring still being used and the Restoration of the Old Machinery.

is it just me or does anybody else here Jimmy Doresta cheering him on in the background? LOL I can picture him watching this video saying yes yes yes yes

That pour tuned out very nicely!

love the babbit pouring

Thank You for sharing your wonderful life with us. That was a very informative video.

Thank you for teaching me how to for Babbid I’ve seen Babbid engines in my lifetime is the first day and you know overhauled was a Babbitt engine and we sent it to a machine shop to have the Babbage poured

I think we all yelled "Keith" as the shaft started rolling off the table. Always enjoy Babbitt Bearing pours.

My father was in the Merchant Marines on a Liberty ship during WWII and the ship used babbitt bearing and was always curious about them. My father volunteered on the Jeremiah O'Brian on San Francisco Bay during retirement and took the the ship to Normandy for the 50th anniversary. the Jeremiah O'Brian was at Normandy during the invasion.

Always good to get lucky !

Nearly spilled my coffee!

Amazing, this was a complete mystery to me before and is easier than I expected. Great video, Thanks.

Liked your machining of the collars as a way to align the shaft and provide proper bearing thickness and also a dam. I will catalog that in my memory for future use for who knows what.

I yelled "Look out!" so loud I think the neighbors heard me.

I found a couple of those bearing scrapers in my grandads workshop, I could never figure out what they were for....now I know.

I’ve watched all of your videos. Many of your videos I consider teaching videos. I took machine shop 9th trough 12th grade. 11th and 12th grades I took double periods of machine shop. After watching all of your videos. The videos where you explain in detail what machines to use and how to fabricate parts. These videos are really easy to understand. Not that I ever will, but I’m confident that I could go to any machine shop that doesn’t use machines that aren’t CNC machines And fabricate precision parts. Right down to using a dividing head to cut gears. Becoming a Machinist was my second choice of what I was going to do with my life. My Grandfather and Dad didn’t want to hear this from me. I come from a Railroad Family. I’m a Retired 5th generation railroad Locomotive Engineer. Both of my sons are 6th generation railroad Locomotive Engineers and my oldest Grandson just recently passed the Conductor Class and is a 7th generation railroader. Your RU-vid channel is one of the few that I always look forward to new videos. Thank you for all the what I consider teaching videos. P.S. Excellent job done on the belt driven planer,your horizontal boring machine and any of the other machines you’ve reconditioned to more accurate than when they were new.

2 thumbs up on this great video! Only very few people out there beeing able to "feel" a bearing seat :-D It simply has to feel right, smooth, light, no play

I'm pretty sure my first video viewing at Vintage Machinery was a babbit pour. So cool to watch a really hot process!

I was watching this with some ear buds when the shaft rolled off the table. My wife thought I was having a stroke.

This is great! Thank you Keith!

Beautiful technique Keith! Thanks for keeping this method alive!!

Fire, turning, great host, what’s not to love!

Very fine job and seems like it would be fun

marvelous job on the video. good babbitt pour

Keith, this video isn't in the Diresta Bandsaw Playlist and needs to be.

I love your machine work

Wonderful videos as always Keith.

I enjoy and I learn from your videos!!! Thanks for taking the time to make them. I will be pouring babbitt in a pump jack restoration I am working on--everything I know about pouring babbitt I learned from you!!!

Nice video. It was common to cut grooves in the shaft so that there was no side to side movement in the shaft. While it didn't serve as a thrust bearing, it did prevent the shaft from walking out of the bearing.

You never fail to impress. Well done.👍⭐

That was a great pour! Recently rebuilt a grain mill that had babbit in it. I will confess I cleaned up the housing and used oil impregnated bronze bushings when I put it back together. 😂

Thank you for what you do.

Fun to watch. I remember doing one on an old commercial washing machine 50 years ago. The washer was 45 years old at the time we fixed it.

I knew you would get away with that double pour. Nice work.

I love watching this process. Have you considered making a heater table like @TopperMachineLLC uses? Basically a steel grate table top with propane burners under it. It looks convenient.

I like your videos much. I also like your pronounciation of the word "Oil". It sounds like "Ål" [Ool] in Swedish, for this is an enlongerated fish called Anguilla Anguilla, known as common Eel:) The Germans calls it "Öl", wich translates directly to beer, in Swedish, haha. But that is not the same thing, it is a so called "false friend". In Sweden it is called "olja", wich translates neatly into "oil" Nice video.

I almost broke my screen reaching in to stop that shaft from rolling off the bench when you turned away. Of course, I would have some nice 2nd degree burns but it turned out OK for both of us😂

Always a great interesting video, sure learned a lot.😊

Another job completed! Love watching how you do things around the shop, always a pleasure watching a master craftsman. Thanks Keith!

Thank you for sharing.👍

Who else reached to their screen to grab that shaft? Assuming those spring loaded plates are for oiling- lift up on the plate and turn it to expose the holes- then bring it back in place to keep debris out.

Eeeek!!! I cringed a bit when that shaft hit the floor, thankfully all is good!

Keith, where are you, I can hardly see you anymore, you’re disappearing! I hope all is well!!!

Great work, can't wait to see the machine running.... Thank Keith :)

Babbitt is always stressful for me, i am always second guessing things after i pour something, nice job!👍

So very interesting.

Love your videos!

Thank you for showing how to pour bappit bearings I always wondered how it was done my dad always talked about it

Very nice work Keith. The pore came out good. Nice fit on the shaft. Thanks for sharing the process. Take care, Ed.

That’s a masterclass in the technique right there.

Looking good

I was amazed at how well pouring the top bearings went. Another job well done

I made a rule only to wear shoes and not slippers in my shop. Also yelled ‘watch out’ when I saw the shaft roll but I am on a different continent so there was no way! Thats exactly the reason I made a rule about shoes but it might make good sense to up that to steel toed shoes? Tony

Thanks for sharing Keith

Great job Keith well done.👍👍👍👍

If those collars had threaded holes, a couple of screws would have prevented the shaft rolling away. But hindsight is always 100% right! 😄

Thanks

Good pour. Speaking of Wilton vices I was at my local farm sale in Hazlehurst Ga last week and a 6 inch well used Wilton vice bolted to a very well used metal shop table brought a healthy price of 400 dollars. I wanted the vice but stopped bidding at 250. Great job on the shaft refurbishment...

Thanks for sharing 👍

Excellent video. Thank you for sharing

Bravo! Another job well done.

Very similar to Lead Ball/Bullet casting mold needs to be hottish before pouring you don't want Wrinkly Balls.😜

Thanks!!!!

love what you do it gives me great satisfaction when you do a good job I wish I could do what you do but I can't thank you very much

Awesome thanks

This video is missing from the bandsaw restoration playlist, so I never caught it!

Very nice, Keith. Thanks for the lesson.

Watching that shaft roll off your bench I had a flashback to Andy Rawls pattern makers vise fall off his bench. Luckily with different results. Thanks for the video.

Hi Keith I have one of those scrappers and I have always wondered what it was used for, now I know

Various individual parts are now an assembly!

Nice!!🙂

The oldest known (wooden) ball bearings date back to 40 BC. Babbitt alloy was invented in 1839. So technically ball bearings are a lot older than Babbitt bearings. Although it took until the late 1800s before mass-producing bearing balls became practical and ball bearings started to become common. And Babbitt bearings are just a special case of plain bearings which have been used basically since the invention of the wheel.

Looking forward! (Oh, the agony of watching that shaft roll.)

I am sure that someone has already offered this tip, but weld spatter spray, sold at welding supplies stores, will also work instead of soot.

I took machine shop in HS in 1968. My teacher would have killed me if I used the scale as a trimming tool.