"I remember watching my father repair a bearing on some sort of farm implement years ago. He hammered and scraped the old bearing material out of the end bells and polished the shaft with a strip of crocus cloth. Then he wrapped the shaft with a piece of linen-based paper and poured the molten babbitt into the bearing shell with the shaft in place. the carefully-wrapped paper prevented the babbitt from siezing the shaft and provided a few thousandths of clearance. This of course was not a very sophisticated piece of machinery, nor was it intended to run at high rpm, but many of those old implements were designed to be repaired on the farm in just such a fashion. I remember being very impressed!
Lindsey Publications used to do a wonderful job of documenting these older technologies. Perhaps they have a website. Worth checking out.
Lonnie"
