Reviews of Lee Hardness Tester

[philthephlier]

Any comments on this tester would be appreciated. I just bought one. Takes a little getting used to. How accurate is it?

[RobS]

It is repeatable and somewhere on here there was a means of holding the magnifing glass part. The individual used a plastic coke bottle, cut it in half and used the top part, after drilling a hole in the bottle cap for the magnifying glass to be in, as a base. An easy fix to trying to stabilize the magnifier while reading it.

[imashooter2]

I like mine and readings are consistent. Took me a little while to figure out the best method to read the scale, which was problematic when I first tried it. A few different fixtures were posted on this thread:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=71809

I also recall reading of a guy that put it in a cut down funnel. That would be similar to the plastic bottle mentioned above.

[montana_charlie]

Any comments on this tester would be appreciated.
It uses an indenter of known diameter, applied at a known pressure, over a specified period of time. The area of the resulting indentation is precalulated (by using the supplied table) from the measured diameter of the indentation.

Indenter, force, time, and area, are the same criteria used in a lab-environment Brinell tester. None of the other reloader-grade testers use all of those factors to provide an estimation of hardness.

Used according to directions and with consistent technique, it provides the most dependable measurement of hardness.

The microscope combines the two elements of magnification and precision measuring instrument, but is the least user-friendly part of the kit.
I prefer a jeweler's loupe for the magnification, and use a dial caliper as the measuring instrument.

CM

[HangFireW8]

Any comments on this tester would be appreciated. I just bought one. Takes a little getting used to. How accurate is it?

I've found it to be quite repeatable, depending on my technique. That is, if I file deeper, it gets softer, if I file not at all, it gets harder.

If the boolit is harder on one side then the other, that means I dropped it on a wet towel on that side.

I've standardized on one depth on the base of the boolit and another depth on the middle rib. Don't forget to file or it will be unusually hard. The chilling effect of the cooler mold on the hot lead makes the skin harder than the core.

Too close to a lube groove and the dent will be larger because the lead collapses a bit on the groove side.

Get yourself a microscope holder and small light, or grow yourself a steady third hand. See largom's thread on the topic.

As with all such instruments, it matters not if it is correct, it matters more if it is consistent, you keep good records, and you adjust your practices to the results.

-HF