MTFCA Forum

Thank you for sharing this Randall.
Can you help me understand the purpose of spraying the jig with what
I assume was water after pouring the babbitt?
Harry Lillo

It is fun to see that after hearing about it for years.
Thanks
Rich

He is not spraying the jig if you look closely, he is spraying the main web under the fixture to cool the block and chill the babbitt.

Explain the peening please.

"peening or compressing the babbitt by hammering is often specified.... to compress the babbitt in a bearing and harden it so that it will give better service."
https://www.911metallurgist.com/babbitted-bearings/

When I pour these I pour from both sides using left and right hand ladles. The quicker you fill the mold the less chance of a cold shut. The water is sprayed to chill the babbitt as quickly as possible which preserves the quality of the metal. I have a helper ready with the squirt bottle handy. If there is a leak in the setup often it can be chilled with water and the pour salvaged. My molds are patterned after KR Wilson tooling but I use a smaller mandrel to give more room to bore for undersized cranks.

I under cut my KRW arbor for pouring and have tried pouring with the block vertical. That seemed to work ok. Some people chill some don't.

To quote someone famous on here. “If you don’t peen the Babbitt, the crankshaft will do it for you.”
That will result in a loose bearing. Dan