Measure Brinell Hardness on the cheap

If you have a bathroom scale, a drill press and a micrometer, you can measure the Brinell Hardness easily.

Attachment 166679

The point needs to be 1/4" round, like a ball bearing. Brinell actually created this standard using a 7/16" ball bearing.

You just apply 200 pounds of force through the drill press into the lead, and measure the diameter of the indentation. The larger the indent, the softer the material. The force is not critical, so +/- 10 pounds doesn't change much.

I even made a point, and put it into a file handle. If I press as hard as I can it's around 200 lbs. I use this at the junkyard to see how hard the lead he has is.

Pretty cool, based on this, is day PBaholic suites you well.

Bullpens hammer works great,just a good whack and then measure as above......:takinWiz:

Nice. Art pencils of various hardness can be used. Search the YouTube

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Originally Posted by duckey

Nice. Art pencils of various hardness can be used. Search the YouTube

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Now, how does that work?

it's a sticky here.
but you take a squared off piece of the various pencils and push it over the surface, the one that digs in tells you the approx. bhn.

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Originally Posted by duckey

Nice. Art pencils of various hardness can be used. Search the YouTube

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Originally Posted by 6622729

Now, how does that work?

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Good read about testing lead hardness using various artists pencils right here on Cast Boolits.

Testing Hardness with pencils

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...s-with-pencils

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps36de46c4.jpg


- Bullwolf

All artist pencils are not equal. The ones that are the standard for the paint industry have seem to be the Mars Staedtler brand, as said in that thread. There are other cheaper off-brand ones out there, but that is the brand that is the most consistent I have found compared with a Cabine Tester.

It's a SWAG but close enough for most. And the Mars pencil sets are not THAT expensive!

Unless you already have a drill press, 1/4" ball bearing and a micrometer; I think the Lee Hardness tester is going to be a less expensive option (though you will need a reloading press).

Pencils of different hardness, even less (and you don't need the press).

There is a method where the only tools needed are a vise, 3/8" to 5/8" steel ball and a pure lead ingot(as a reference). Place the alloy ingot and the pure lead ingot in the vise with the steel ball sandwiched between the ingots. Tighten the vise to make an impression in both ingots. Measure the diameter of both dents. Formula for calculating the BHN is 5(L/A)squared. L= diameter of dent in the lead ingot and A= the diameter of the alloy dent. If the two dents measure .105 in the alloy and .175 in the lead, the BHN is 13.9.

Carl

This is from the book "Cast Bullets" by Col. E. H. Harrison (ret.)

and I have seen a ball bearing and a regular ol reloading press used.
you set the bearing on the shell holder and place the ingot under the top of the press and lower the ram.
then you hang 40 lbs off the handle and measure the dent in the ingot and use the lee 'measure and compare' dent diameter chart to get the @ bhn.

Thanks. This is a good post.

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Originally Posted by PBaholic

I even made a point, and put it into a file handle. If I press as hard as I can it's around 200 lbs. I use this at the junkyard to see how hard the lead he has is.

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sounds like this is custom made for a semi-fat man like myself at 192 clothed. thanks for this post :bigsmyl2:

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Originally Posted by oley55

sounds like this is custom made for a semi-fat man like myself at 192 clothed. thanks for this post :bigsmyl2:

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You can modify the formula for any weight. Just check what weight you are pressing with a scale.

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Originally Posted by bangerjim

All artist pencils are not equal. The ones that are the standard for the paint industry have seem to be the Mars Staedtler brand, as said in that thread. There are other cheaper off-brand ones out there, but that is the brand that is the most consistent I have found compared with a Cabine Tester.

It's a SWAG but close enough for most. And the Mars pencil sets are not THAT expensive!

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Found the sticky this morning and WOW does the pencils look like the way to go for amateur hardness testing. I have the Lee tester and hate trying to read it. If they could just do something about the backwardsness of the magnifier.

It doesn't matter what pencil set you have as long as it genuinely meets the ASTM standard which I didn't even know drafting pencils were supposed to meet. The Staedtler pencil set is up to $15 at Office Depot. A steal for something so useful in my book. Whether they claim to meet the ASTM standard or not, I'm not buying my pencils at Wal-Mart.