Comparing Lead Hardness, short, sweet & FREE!!

[maglvr]

This method of hardness comparison is most likely posted somewhere on this site, but, I have yet to come across it in the couple of months that i've been reading here, someone might find it useful, as I do.
Anytime you have 2 different pieces of lead, whether it be ingots, bullets or scrap, and you wish to know which is hardest or softest, place 1 piece down on a hard surface, place a steel BB(like for a BB gun) on top of it, then the other piece of lead on top of the BB, now give the top one a good TAP (not a whack!) with a hammer, take the top piece off and compare the dents from the BB, the hardest lead will naturally have the shallowest dent and smallest diameter, and the softest lead has the deepest dent & largest diameter.
If the dents appear pretty close in depth and diameter, so too is their hardness.
The pic below is of a WW ingot and a reclaimed radiator solder ingot.
Personally I have little use for anything softer than WW's, and I use this test a lot.:redneck:

maglvr


http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd325/maglvr/WW-soldercomparison.jpg

[dieguy59]

I'm just learning the ropes, but just the other day at the scraper I used a similiar method to check some 'Saeco' and 'Lyman' ingots in the barrel. I had 4 ingots - lino,WW,range scrap and Pb. I just tapped a known and unknown together to find a ballpark guess. And finally I checked for Zn. I have a Lee hardness kit, just not with me. Again, the key word here was 'ballpark'. Keep searching!

[fecmech]

You can figure the BHN that way also if you have a pure lead ingot as the base. Squeeze the ball bearing between the pure lead and unknown ingot. Measure the two indentations and square each of the two results. Divide the smaller into the larger result and then multiply your answer times 5 (BHN of pure lead). If you measure carefully and have pure lead as a base it's very accurate.

[dieguy59]

Cool! Thanks, fecmech.

[maglvr]

You can figure the BHN that way also if you have a pure lead ingot as the base. Squeeze the ball bearing between the pure lead and unknown ingot. Measure the two indentations and square each of the two results. Divide the smaller into the larger result and then multiply your answer times 5 (BHN of pure lead). If you measure carefully and have pure lead as a base it's very accurate.

Now that is great to know! Thanks for chiming in!
maglvr

[lwknight]

You can figure the BHN that way also if you have a pure lead ingot as the base. Squeeze the ball bearing between the pure lead and unknown ingot. Measure the two indentations and square each of the two results. Divide the smaller into the larger result and then multiply your answer times 5 (BHN of pure lead). If you measure carefully and have pure lead as a base it's very accurate.



Here is the formula BHN= 5 X (lead dia./test dia.)^2
The ^2 means squared