Lead Hardness Testers

[1Shirt]

Have always put off investing in a lead hardness tester, mostly because I am cheap. However, when Lee brought out their tester at much less than any others that I had seen, thought I might consider one. That said, and thanks to basic procrastination have not bought anything YET! After reading the yeahs and nays on the Lee, have doubts that I will go with it, however, am not yet to old to not pay attention to the advise of them what has when I have not. I cast normally for rifle and from 224 to 58 Mini. I use mostly water quenched wheel weights, and assume that I am somewhere in the 18-20 BH range, but know what the break down of assume produces.

So, -----and I expect to get probably more advise on this than anything else that I have posed as a question on this web, but-------What are the recommendations of those who have hardness testers. By the way I am right brained, and math challanged so if the recommendation(s) require much detailed math, forget it! As always, many thanks in advance to all who respond to this thread.
1Shirt

[MikeP]

Well, after looking at them all, I chose Veral Smith's LBT lead hardness tester. It is beautiful in its simplicity. It has a dial and pointer that shows the hardness level in terms of the BHN reading with no calculations, no magnifiers, no estimations, no measurements, no nonsense. Just a direct reading of the BHN hardness factor right on the dial. It is built out of steel to last several lifetimes. Two minutes after I started using it, I knew how hard my .45 bullets are. A couple of minutes later, I knew how hard my .44s are. Then my .38s. Then my .30s. Then my .22s. It's a wonderful tool.

[MGySgt]

1St Shirt - for many years I just THOUGHT I knoew what the hardness was of my WW bullets and everything was fine. Good accuracy and little leading. The leading has gone away with larger diamter bullets ie properly fitted.

I didn't really NEED a hardness tester until I had 2 lots of lead (600 and 700 pounds) and needed to know if it needed to be harder or softer.

If you are shooting WW or WW+2% tin and do large batches - no problem. But WW is starting to be hard to get and of unknow quality. We are scounging for any type of lead alloy we can find to make up in 200 - 300 pound lots.

Cabin Tree had one that he made a mistake on and drilled it for a Right Brain person (AKA left handed) and was selling it a reduced price.

What I like about Cabin Trees is that it will also do bullet run out, you can test any design/size of lead as long as it has a flat on oposite sides and thick enough so the point doesnt get damaged. I have tested bullets, ingots from Lyman/RCBS ingot molds - and blocks of lead up to 25 pound blocks.

Yes it has a dial indicater on it and you have to use a chart with it, but it is very quick and easy. If this tired old retired Master Gunnery Sergeant can do it, any one can.

But at the same token - I don't think anyone out there can beat the LBT design for us 'Hobbist's'.

Drew

[drinks]

The LBT is very limited in the size of the test object and has no way to adjust or recalibrate , also, looks a little light to me, just my opinion.
The Saeco is also very limited in the size that can be tested.
I have the Cabine Tree, it does use a dial indicator, it is adjustable, can be recalibrated and weighs about 5-6 lbs, built very much like an anvil and could probably be used for one when not testing alloy.
The size limitations are very liberal, up to about 2" thick easily.
Price is more than the Lee, but you get a numerical readout which you just translate with the chart supplied with the tester.
Cost is less than LBT and Saeco and much more rugged.

[David R]

I bought his and found out what I already thought. Don't get me wrong, its a usful tool that I wish to keep, but my water dropped ww with 5% tin are at BHN of 22 just like they should be. air cooled wheel weights come out between 9 and 12 BHN. It has helped me find out more things about what I am doing with lead. I had a bunch of range lead that was mixed in with my wheel weight muffin ingots. I could tell by the color which was which, but not for sure. I tested the boolits from that batch and sure enough they were range lead, BHN of 9. MOST wheel weigts are coming out 11 or so for me.

I also found boolits poured cooler come out softer weather air cooled or water dropped. Still and always learning

Its like when I got my crony, I found out most of the time, the book is pretty close to what I was getting. The book didn't tell me ES or SD.

All in all I really like mine and my son will have it. Maybe his son.

David

[six_gun]

"Cabin Tree"??

I looked it up on the web and decided that I need to get more info!

Who makes it and where can I find one?

Sixgun


P.S. Thanks in advance for the info

[45nut]

http://www.castingstuff.com/cabinetree_loading_products.htm
There ya go.

[Catshooter]

You might look at Buckshot's. I just bought one and it's very sturdy and accurate.

Look in the Reloading Equipment forum and also For Sale.


Cat

[drinks]

Sixgun;
It is actually "Cabine Tree", just type that in on search and you should get his site.
If I remember correctly, he is in Washington state, but it has been 3 years since I bought mine and I have CRS disease, [Can't Remember S---]
Just typed "Cabine Tree", the site is the second listing, his prices have gone up some, still a good price.
The tool also has an extra feature if you wish, checks bullet runout and case neck uniformity, a few dollars more to add those features.
Should appeal to contest shooters.

[Herb in Pa]

What David R and Catshooter said....Buckshot's tester should last 3 lifetimes and is easy to use.

[wills]

Sixgun;
It is actually "Cabine Tree", just type that in on search and you should get his site.
If I remember correctly, he is in Washington state, but it has been 3 years since I bought mine and I have CRS disease, [Can't Remember S---]
Just typed "Cabine Tree", the site is the second listing, his prices have gone up some, still a good price.
The tool also has an extra feature if you wish, checks bullet runout and case neck uniformity, a few dollars more to add those features.
Should appeal to contest shooters.

The link to castingstuff is at the bottom of the page. {corrected}

[45nut]

The lnk to castingstuff is at the bottom of the main page

Thanks Wills,
Actually it is at the bottom of every forum page,and I put up some specialized cb links over on the home page. If you haven't checked it out,please do. And if you have some links that are dedicated to CB's as well please mention them so that they also can be added.

[Buckshot]

...........1Shirt, in my mind what a lead hardenss tester is good for is batching and duplicating. If you're rendering scrap and it is all WW (clip on type) you can be pretty sure it's going to run about 10-11 bhn. Somewhere around there. With a hardness tester you'll know and can label the containers you store it in.

If you run into a bunch of linotype and batch it into ingots you can also test it to be sure it is up to snuff. Lots of scrap lino has a lot of it's tin burned out, but retains most of it's antimony. Some of the scrap lino I've gotten tests out less then 22. Down around 19 or so.

If you get some soft lead, how close is it really to pure? That is, if having pure lead is important to you. But even if not, knowing what BHN it is will allow you to batch it to a hardness you can use, and without guessing. Assuming your alloy is in simiilar weight ingots you can get a rough idea before testing and then fine tune it in.

Say WW type alloy does it all for you. You have just batched a bunch of old drain pipes and flashing that reads 8 bhn, and you want 12? You take 3 of the new 8 bhn and add 1 lino at 22. That's 8x3=24 plus 1x22= 44. So 24 + 22 = 46. Divide by the number of ingots (4) and you have 11.5 bhn. That would normally be close enough but if for some reason it HAD to be 12 you melt a bit more of an ingot of lino in the pot, draw a sample and you'll know.

If you have a pistol you'd like to use for hunting and would like a softer boolit, you can test without guessing. Best of all you can duplicate it later via a lead hardness tester. Start with a pot of the alloy you developed your load from. Cast a suitable quantity of test boolits. Add enough soft lead to adjust the hardness down 2 points and again cast some test boolits.

Depending upon how hard the alloy was to start with, you might have 5 or so groups of boolits to test. You load and shoot, going down in hardness until accuracy suffers.

You can test age hardening by drawing off X number of samples to test at varying dates. Keep them in the same container as the boolits in question unless your hardness tester will test the bullet itself.

I currently have 4 lots of lead. Pure, scrap (ww type), hard scrap (14-16 bhn) and lino. Pure is reserved for ML'ers, WW is mostly cast for pisto, hard scrap is mostly rifle, and the lino is for special occasions :D, or to make more of the previous.

Hardness testers are like chrono's. Not indespensable but it's just nice to know sometimes, and to be able to duplicate what has worked before.

............Buckshot