My Lead Hardness Testing Results

[RedRiver]

Just got done testing a bunch of my ingots tonight. Testing was done using my Lee tester.

Xray room sheeting - Pure soft lead, probably 5 or 6 bhn. Off the low side of the Lee chart. Ingots have a large crater in the center.

Lead pipe - Almost pure soft lead, 6 bhn. Off the low side of the Lee chart. Ingots have a decent crater, not as large as the pure, but still big.

Range scrap - 9bhn.

Stick-on wheel weight (I didn't separate the harder, raised lettering weights) - 11.8 bhn.

Clip-on wheel weight - 20.9 bhn. This really surprised me.

50/50 clip-on/stick-on with 2% tin added. - 14.3 bhn.



X-ray, pipe and range scrap were cast last night, the last three have been sitting two weeks.

Hope this information helps everyone.

Picture from top to bottom, left to right: Xray, pipe, range scrap, stick on, clip on, bullet alloy.

[runfiverun]

got you some of those fancy lino-type ww's.
or some zinc.
or sumthin.

[RedRiver]

It did surprise me. I just tested a couple more and got 16 and 17.2.

My batches were about 10 lbs at a time so there is some variance. 20 seems high, but it's well beyond any mistake measuring with that crappy little scope Lee gives you.

[runfiverun]

the stick-ons seem right.
they have gone away from the plain lead and a little tin they used to have and are just about anything anymore.

the range scrap seems close too I usually see it at 10 or so.

[DougGuy]

Range scrap - 9bhn.

Stick-on wheel weight (I didn't separate the harder, raised lettering weights) - 11.8 bhn.


50/50 clip-on/stick-on with 2% tin added. - 14.3 bhn.





Which of these can you scratch with a thumbnail, and which if any can you dig a thumbnail into? Am I correct in thinking the 50/50+2% can be scratched with a thumbnail but can't dig a thumbnail into one? Just curious.

[farmerjim]

I have some WW ingots that I made back in the 60's. They are BHN 22. WW'S had more Sb in them back then. Also had lots of As in them. It always gave me bad headaches when I would smelt.
I could get all I wanted for 5 cents a pound.

[runfiverun]

you were getting gypped then. :lol:
I was getting free clear into the 2,000's
I remember my FIL paying a guy 5.00 for a bucket of ww's and I told him not to go back there anymore.

[mdi]

I didn't care for the microscope included with my Lee tester so I use a magnifying visor, mebbe 4x, and my dial calipers to measure hardness. I make the indent then use the jaws to "span" the dimple and read the measurement while wearing my visor. Pretty accurate and much easier than Lee's 'scope. There are many ideas on how to hold the scope to measure the dimple...http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?73590-Lee-Hardness-Tester-Scope-Holder

[quilbilly]

Good to know about that X-ray isotope lead and plumbing lead. I knew it was very pure which is why I alloy it with about 40% melted hard birdshot for my modern firearms but plain for my PRB's. Thanks very much for the info. I learned 35 years ago while making certain bendable fishing jigs commercially that wheel weights were quite variable in hardness so have never used them for CB's once I started casting for modern firearms. If you ever do chilled birdshot and roofing lead, I would love to hear about that as well.