SkookumJeff
02-19-2011, 01:03 AM
New to boolit casting, I cast my first boolits today. Finally! It's been a bit of a journey.
I set up my Lee Hardness tester to test the hardness of my smelted lead. I was sold pure lead, soft lead, whatever you want to call it. I was curious to see what I really had. Sure enough, the dimple left by the Lee Hardness tester measured .10 on my cast boolit. I also tested one of my small muffin ingots from a different smelt. This was a different batch of purchased lead, also sold as soft lead. Same dimple, measured .100 in diameter. Pretty happy with the outcome.
The 'microscope' sold with the Lee Hardness test kit is a pain in the ass to use. I got it figured out, but it's a pain nevertheless. After I was done I thought why wouldn't I be able to use my calipers to measure the dimple? Got my calipers out and measured, thinking maybe there is some conversion with the Lee 'microscope'. Nope, measured .100 with my calipers same as with the Lee optics. Am I missing something? The calipers are a heck of a lot easier to measure with than the Lee tool, Lee can keep their microscope. Aside from the microscope, I like the hardness tester...
I set up my Lee Hardness tester to test the hardness of my smelted lead. I was sold pure lead, soft lead, whatever you want to call it. I was curious to see what I really had. Sure enough, the dimple left by the Lee Hardness tester measured .10 on my cast boolit. I also tested one of my small muffin ingots from a different smelt. This was a different batch of purchased lead, also sold as soft lead. Same dimple, measured .100 in diameter. Pretty happy with the outcome.
The 'microscope' sold with the Lee Hardness test kit is a pain in the ass to use. I got it figured out, but it's a pain nevertheless. After I was done I thought why wouldn't I be able to use my calipers to measure the dimple? Got my calipers out and measured, thinking maybe there is some conversion with the Lee 'microscope'. Nope, measured .100 with my calipers same as with the Lee optics. Am I missing something? The calipers are a heck of a lot easier to measure with than the Lee tool, Lee can keep their microscope. Aside from the microscope, I like the hardness tester...