Physics
01-02-2021, 04:22 AM
Hello Everyone,
I joined this forum 10 years ago and lurked/occasionally came around for a long time. This is my first thread.
Several days ago, I used the Lee Hardness Tester for the first time. It was awful trying to hold the microscope at exactly the right distance and I found the entire experience very unpleasant. Fast forward to today... I needed to use it again this afternoon, but decided to build a nice little jig to hold it like a real microscope. This made all the difference and it is now super fast to use the hardness tester.
To make this, I used 6 screws, apiece of scrap wood, and two zip ties. The tools involved were a hand drill to countersink the wood screws, a drill press (optional), and a table saw for cutting the piece of scrap wood into three pieces. The attached pictures will give you an idea of what I created. The short of it is that this works great and removes a lot of the frustration of using the tool.
The first piece of wood is simply a base. The second piece is a riser. The third piece is the arm that the pen microscope attaches to. By drilling a hole in this piece and then cutting through the hole, the microscope has a nice curve to rest in. I used two wood screws - one on the top and one on the bottom - to secure the microscope using two zip ties. The pen is held tight but can still move up and down with a little manipulating, so it can move to the right focal length.
The final improvement was to cut a piece for the bullet to rest on. For this piece, rather than running a dado all the way through the wood, we stopped the saw at about half way. This leaves the curve of the table saw blade in the wood, and the nose of the bullet can rest on that and sit flat and level. It is also much easier to place the bullet at the right spot when using the bullet rest.
If you have also found the Lee Hardness Tester nearly unusable, give this a try. It is very easy and fast now.
274465
Physics
I joined this forum 10 years ago and lurked/occasionally came around for a long time. This is my first thread.
Several days ago, I used the Lee Hardness Tester for the first time. It was awful trying to hold the microscope at exactly the right distance and I found the entire experience very unpleasant. Fast forward to today... I needed to use it again this afternoon, but decided to build a nice little jig to hold it like a real microscope. This made all the difference and it is now super fast to use the hardness tester.
To make this, I used 6 screws, apiece of scrap wood, and two zip ties. The tools involved were a hand drill to countersink the wood screws, a drill press (optional), and a table saw for cutting the piece of scrap wood into three pieces. The attached pictures will give you an idea of what I created. The short of it is that this works great and removes a lot of the frustration of using the tool.
The first piece of wood is simply a base. The second piece is a riser. The third piece is the arm that the pen microscope attaches to. By drilling a hole in this piece and then cutting through the hole, the microscope has a nice curve to rest in. I used two wood screws - one on the top and one on the bottom - to secure the microscope using two zip ties. The pen is held tight but can still move up and down with a little manipulating, so it can move to the right focal length.
The final improvement was to cut a piece for the bullet to rest on. For this piece, rather than running a dado all the way through the wood, we stopped the saw at about half way. This leaves the curve of the table saw blade in the wood, and the nose of the bullet can rest on that and sit flat and level. It is also much easier to place the bullet at the right spot when using the bullet rest.
If you have also found the Lee Hardness Tester nearly unusable, give this a try. It is very easy and fast now.
274465
Physics