The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Babbit Bearing article

Back in the late 1950's I was a lad working on a 180,000 square acre cattle and sheep property as the off-sider to the "Windmill Expert", a full time job for both of us.
The property had 33 windmills that pumped from the underground ground water aquifier to drinking troughs for the stock.
A lot of these windmills were very old and sometimes we moved them lock, stock and barrel over new bores that had been sunk.

I remember three old gearboxes that dated back to 1917 and the bearing were originally milled from saltwater mangrove trees.

The expert and I went to the station vehicle dump one day and grabbed all of the die-cast door handles, engine parts, any kind of white metal, cooked them up in a cast-iron dutch oven and poured the molten metal directly between the block space for the main bearing and the drive journal on the crankshaft.

We let that cool for 48 hours and removed the packing. Gave it a liberal dose of penetrating oil and slowly rocked it applied pressure and after about 1 hour, got the drive shaft turning.

Assembled the gearbox and blades right up on the mast again and all were still going strong three years later, when I left, to get a life nearer the big city. Just bush innovation.