Larry and the Rest of You --
The current (Spring, 2003) issue of the on-line magazine Vintage Windmills (
www.vintagewindmills.com) contains an article titled "602 Babbitt Pour" that is well worth a look-see.
The author doesn't claim to be a babbiting expert -- in fact, he specifically warns that he is only describing how he actually performed one particular job, not describing any generally-recognized-as-proper technique -- but I'd say that in combination with the information on this "thread" of postings it's possible to develop a good mental image of the babbiting process.
An old "rule of thumb" for journal-bearing running clearance is to allow a diametric clearance of 0.001 inch per inch of shaft diameter for an oil-lubed bearing or 0.002 inch per inch of shaft diameter for a grease-lubed bearing.
As Forrest indicates, it's fairly standard practice to "soot" the shaft with acetylene smoke to keep the babbit from bonding to the shaft, but lack of an acetylene flame doesn't stop the parade. Similar results can be had by smoking the shaft with a candle flame or the flame from a kerosene lamp, and I remember watching an old-time oilfied mechanic coat a shaft with daubed-on silt from the bottom of a mud puddle.
Finally, the fluid babbit must be captured between the shaft and the body of the journal long enough for the babbit itself to freeze. This requires filling the spaces through which the fluid babbit could flow, and is often termed "damming". Babbit dams are often solid, but don't often fit the shaft and journal housing well enough to be fluid tight, so a gasket of some sort is necessary. The gasket may be a literal gasket, made of a refractory sheet material, or may take the form of a rope seal or a putty. Babbit Rite is a commercial babbit-damming compound, and Duxseal has often been used for this same purpose. KyMike mentions using a homemade clay-and-glycerine putty, others have used clay-and-oil putties, and the same old guy who used silt as a release agent used what he called "cookie dough", a putty mixed from flour and molasses.
John