Lead testing service?

[Skipper]

Anyone know of someone who will test a few bullets of unknown alloy for hardness?

[hickfu]

Skipper, Send me a PM and I will send you my address. I have the Lee hardness tester and test all my alloys before casting. The test doesnt go below 8bhn so anything below that I would just say is pure lead.

Doc

[fredj338]

I would think anyone would do it for you. I have a Cabin Tree, if you want to post me some samples, 3 should do it, glad to run them for comparison w/ Doc's Lee.

[hickfu]

Fred, that is a great idea!! Skipper if you can send him some samples as well you can get 2 evaluations and I can compair my Lee (probably crappy) bhn tester against the Cabin Tree. :bigsmyl2:

Doc

[454PB]

Doc, you can use an extended chart to read softer alloys with the Lee tester. I can e-mail it to you if you'd like, just send me a PM with your e-mail address.

[hickfu]

454PB,
PM inbound and thank you!


Doc

[detox]

Most all bhn testors are inaccurate, but they will tell you if one alloy is harder than another.
http://www.lasc.us/Shay-BHN-Tester-Experiment.htm#Lee

[454PB]

I was one of the testers in that experiment, I have the Lee, and my results were very close to the lab results.

[Skipper]

I would like to publicly thank a couple of great guys;

The Real Doc Holliday

and

fredj338

Were kind enough to test a couple of samples for me and I really appreciate it!

By the way, the Lee tester showed 7.8-8 and the Cabin Tree showed 9.5-10

[hickfu]

You are very welcome Skipper.... Its very interesting that the Cabin Tree tested them that much higher.
I have some pure lead that I tested with the Lee and it was at 5.3 (had to use my caliper on that one as the Lee scope doesnt go that low)
545PB sent me the Extended chart so I would like to thank him for that.

Anyone that needs a BHN tested can send me samples, its a real quick test and I get free lead!!! ;-)
EDIT: please send in 50lb ingots..... :kidding:


Doc

[cbrick]

Most all bhn testors are inaccurate, but they will tell you if one alloy is harder than another.
http://www.lasc.us/Shay-BHN-Tester-Experiment.htm#Lee

Inaccurate is the wrong word to get from that article, what the results of that test determines is that they are not lab grade tools. What is important with boolit BHN testers is that they are consistent for each individual user. If lab tests says a sample is 18 BHN and your tester says 19 or 20 so what as long as your tester always 19 or 20, that is easily accurate enough for you keep good notes and make consistent ammo from batch to batch.

In that test with the LBT tester there was one tester that was clearly out of calibration and should have been sent back to Veral to see what the problem is. That one tester threw off the average results for LBT which otherwise was very close to the lab tests.

Rick

[trapper9260]

I have a Lee tester and have the chart that is extened on the reading and the scope is below what the chart that comes with it gives .and works for me for what I know to be some hardnest .Like lino it comes to about what Roto says it is and of know soft lead it is waht the reading is .Like is stated on the one that have a different reading as long it works for you use it and also if you can send it in to get it close to specs. do it please let us know where you do and that way if any of us have any problems with ours we know where to send it to .if someone needs to have any tested also i am willing to do that for them with my lee also .