Lead hardness testers?

[Revolver]

What are my options for reasonable price hardness testers? I know the Lee is popular, are there any others I should be considering? I'm on a budget but of course accuracy is very important to me too. I would like it to be portable too so I can use it anywhere. Your input it appreciated!

[Reload3006]

Cabin tree makes a good tester. the Lee is good but is not portable. you can get a couple beer bottle caps (the metal ones) pour one full of pure lead and the other with the alloy you want to test squeeze them togather in a vice with a steel ball between them and measure the difference in size... I will get back to you with a formula that will allow you to calculate the BNH of your alloy. Crude but fairly accurate.

[cbrick]

You may find this interesting.

Cast Bullet BHN Tester Experiment (http://www.lasc.us/Shay-BHN-Tester-Experiment.htm)

Rick

[RobS]

You may find this interesting.

Cast Bullet BHN Tester Experiment (http://www.lasc.us/Shay-BHN-Tester-Experiment.htm)

Rick

Good read Rick..............thanks

[Revolver]

This cabine tree units look nice... what's the general consensus on them?

[grullaguy]

I have a quantity of pure lead cast .50 Lee REAL bullets. When I melt a batch of an unknown alloy, I will cast a couple of the REALs. I made up a short paper sleeve that will hold two REALs with about 1/4" protruding out each end when a ball bearing is between them. I center the ball bearing using a small doughnut of Styrofoam.

I lightly crush the know pure lead and unknown alloy bullets and the bearing in the jaws of my vice and then measure the corresponding indents. The pure lead bullet will have a deeper indent unless the unknown alloy is also pure lead. I then measure these indents with my digital calipers five times, averaging my readings.

This is where I got the idea. It is a page on the Corbin Engineering website.


Here is a simple way to test the Bhn number of unknown lead samples: all you need is a caliper, two bottle caps, a vise, a 5mm diameter (aprox. size) ball bearing, and a known pure sample of lead (Corbin can furnish pure lead of 99.995% Pb with trace silver).
1. Melt enough lead to fill one bottle cap with unknown sample, and the other with known pure lead. Make sure the surface is smooth and flat when the lead hardens and cools.
2. When the lead is cold, put the ball bearing between the two lead surfaces and squeeze this "sandwich" in the vise until the ball is driven partly into both surfaces (just enough to make a fair sized dent, but not past the middle of the ball).
3. Remove the sandwich and measure the two dent diameters. First measure the known pure lead dent and write down this number. Then measure the dent diameter in the unknown lead sample and write it down. Square both numbers (multiply times themselves). Then divide the resulting square of the unknown lead dent diameter into the square of the known pure lead dent diameter. This could be written as (L times L) divided by (X times X) where L is the pure Lead dent diameter, and X is the unknown lead dent diameter.
4. The answer should be a number of 1 or greater. If it is a fraction, or less than 1 in value, you have inverted the two dents and divided the wrong way. In that case, try again. When you get an answer that is 1 or greater, multiply it by 5. This is the actual Brinnell Hardness Number of the unknown sample.

Here is the formula:

H = 5 * (D1^2)/(D2^2)


You can't go any cheaper than this method.

Cheers,
Grulla

[1bluehorse]

I bought a Lee tester a few years back (it was about 30 bucks at the time). Every batch of air cooled WW that I've "tested" has been 11 to 13. When water dropped and checked after a couple weeks they were 18 to 20. How accurate these numbers actually are I wouldn't know but they're good enough for what I was looking for. No more water dropped bullets for me as pretty much all I shoot anymore are light to mid range 45 colt. :Fire: To me the Lee tester can be a bit of a pain to use however I've not used the others for comparison.

[6.5 mike]

I have a cabintree & like it very much. I clamp mine in a padded vise leaving both hands free to center the boolit I'm testing & watch the dial as I turn the handle in to make contact. I use a lee 125 gr 38 boolit for my test "slugs", good flat base & nose. I do find it to be a very easy item to learn to use. :Fire:

[Moonman]

Cabine Tree I like mine.

[Hammerlane]

I vote for Cabin Tree

[mold maker]

Unless your young, with excelent eyesight, and lots of patients, get a cabintree. If you meet all the qualifactions, perhaps a LEE might work, but your age, eyes, and patients, will be gone before you know it.

[Larry Gibson]

My Lee tester works quite well and is repeatable, even for my old eyes (I wear trifocals). With the addition of a kids microscope for less than $13 it is fast and easy to use.

Larry Gibson

[cbrick]

My Lee tester works quite well and is repeatable, Larry Gibson

That is the key right there. It doesn't matter if you test a sample and your tester says 16 BHN and a lab says nope, it's 14 BHN. What matters to a bullet caster is that your tester always says 16 for that same alloy.

Most of the available testers seem to do this fairly well. Consistency, repeatability is what matters so your choice should boil down to ease of use and your pocket book.

Rick

[Dan Cash]

This cabine tree units look nice... what's the general consensus on them?

For me, mine is 100% repeatable. I suppose the conversion chart which gives Brinell hardness is accurate but that is not important to me. I can blend repeatable alloy using the tool and can also sample unknown alloy ingots at the junk yard.

[Moonman]

The Cabine Tree unit can test an ingot the size of a Brick too.

[largom]

My Lee tester set-up is a lot like Larry Gibsons using a kids microscope. I don't use puddy to hold my boolit, I took a flat piece of aluminum and drilled holes in it for different caliber boolits. This plate is 1/8 in. thick by 1 in. wide and 6 in. long. I can use both hands to precisely line the boolit with the scope.

I also have a LBT tester but have found the Lee to be more accurate in repeatability.

Larry Miller

[Larry Gibson]

Largom

Note the putty (actually modeling clay) is on a carbord slide. With it I also use both hands to easily and precisely line the indent between the lines. Same result as you use just slightly different.....great minds work alike:drinks:

Just have to remember it's like backing up a trailer....goes in the opposite direction....takes me 2 or 3 bullets to get it down......:mrgreen:.....then it's quick, consistent, easy and very accurate.

Larry Gibson

[fredj338]

I had a Saeco, works fine but a bit tedious to use & no big bullets or ingots. So I sold her off & got a Cabintree. Great little product, easy to use & can do any size bullet.

[SmuvBoGa]

I have used both. With age the Cabin Tree is the answer or "adapt" the Lee so you may "see".

JohnMc

[Revolver]

Thanks for all the good info, sounds like the Cabine Tree is the best choice for me. It was more money that I should spend right now but what the heck, my kids don't need to eat EVERY day... just ordered it today. :razz:

[fishnbob]

I have a magnifying glass w/light mounted on my jig tying bench. I indent the boolit and take it to my lighted magnifier and measure it with my calipers and it is pretty darn consistent with the Lee scope. I do this when I get tired of leaning over the scope and my back gets to whining. I also take the Lee scope and put a large washer on it and set it in my press die hole. Then I put a piece of flat steel on the ram head and place the boolit on that and then raise the ram until I can see the indent. Oh I forgot to mention a goose neck lamp to light up the area so I can see it. Can't see $#it without lots of light!

[cbrick]

my kids don't need to eat EVERY day... just ordered it today. :razz:

I discovered it's a complete waste of money feeding them, they just get hungary all over again anyway. :mrgreen:

Rick