Lead hardness tester, homemade

[cheese1566]

My little shop attempt at a lead hardness tester.
A little milling, turning, and powder coating.

Now to make some various test bullets from known lead to make a reference chart.281227

[deltaenterprizes]

Very nice!

[W.R.Buchanan]

Simple design, should work just fine once you get it calibrated.

Randy

[Rizzo]

My little shop attempt at a lead hardness tester.
A little milling, turning, and powder coating.

Now to make some various test bullets from known lead to make a reference chart.281227
Nice work.
What units does the gauge measure?
I am interested in how you would calibrate it.

Perhaps use some pure lead (5 BHN) and use that as a reference?

[Scrounge]

My little shop attempt at a lead hardness tester.
A little milling, turning, and powder coating.

Now to make some various test bullets from known lead to make a reference chart.281227

You sure you didn't buy that thing? It looks very professionally produced! Nice work! I'll be following your progress on this. I don't suppose I could beg a couple of close-ups and maybe a parts list? Drawings? Plans? ;)

Bill

[W.R.Buchanan]

All the indicator does is give him a stopping point that insures that the same amount of force is put on the Penetrator every time.

In other words you just turn the screw until the indicator reads Zero and then you measure the size of the dimple created by the Penetrator.

The only variable is the hardness of the material you are testing.

Randy

[cheese1566]

It’s based off the style of the Cabine Tree tester. It’s made from basic 3/4”x2” steel stock and a harbor freight dial indicator. A 1/2” bolt holds the spring I found at a local hdwe store. The hand wheel was turned from aluminum as was the threaded pointer.
Once the boolit is lightly touching the point, the dial is turned one complete turn. Then the dial measurement is made and recorded.
I hade some soft clip on WW, 22LR range lead, clip on WW, and Linotype to make boolits for known references. Then I compared the Brinnel hardnesses from several resources (Cabine Tree/Saeco/LASC website/Lyman books to make a reference chart and graph. In the future I’ll make more measurements of the aged WW and quenched WW boolits form more data.

[Rizzo]

It’s based off the style of the Cabine Tree tester. It’s made from basic 3/4”x2” steel stock and a harbor freight dial indicator. A 1/2” bolt holds the spring I found at a local hdwe store. The hand wheel was turned from aluminum as was the threaded pointer.
Once the boolit is lightly touching the point, the dial is turned one complete turn. Then the dial measurement is made and recorded.
I hade some soft clip on WW, 22LR range lead, clip on WW, and Linotype to make boolits for known references. Then I compared the Brinnel hardnesses from several resources (Cabine Tree/Saeco/LASC website/Lyman books to make a reference chart and graph. In the future I’ll make more measurements of the aged WW and quenched WW boolits form more data.
Thanks for your explanation.