Babit Bearings

[PixMan]

Wish I knew more about babbit bearings to give you a good answer. What I do recall is that you do need a VERY fine finish on the shaft to avoid galling and scoring the babbit as it's fairly soft. That speed works out to about 157sfm, that's OK for babbit bearings as long as the load is evenly distributed. As far as I know babbit is used in Ford Model A engines (and many others) and those run at much higher speeds.