Lead tester

Tools that represent the "odds and ends" of bullet casting.
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cj8281
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Lead tester

Post by cj8281 »

Lee Lead Hardness Testing Kit

Postby mt_sourdough » 21 Jul 2014 23
The instructions with Lee's Lead Hardness testing kit says you need to test an area where the alloy was close to the mold.
As the original thread was locked, (???) in the instructions from my tester, Lee recommends "It is always best to check hardness on side or nose of the bullet. Never test the base of the bullet as the results will show softer than actual hardness. If you wish to check a large ingot, check the portion of the ingot that was in contact with the ingot mold. Be sure to file a pad before testing." Under the table on page 3.

I hope this clarifies it.

I have been testing some of my old lead, ingots and some of the ones I just cast from newly purchased wheel weights (from evilBay). One of the most surprising to me was when I tested one of the spacers from an old box of linotype, still in type form. The spacer indented the farthest, it appears to me to be about .120! The regular letters indent to about .046 - .048. This makes me question one of the recent purchases of linotype as it was all spacers. Will have to go through and tests all of those ingots and see how hard they really are.

Been testing everything, really. New toy, you know how it goes. Great idea, really.
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Re: Lead tester

Post by daboone »

I had a hard time using the Lee scope. Getting a clear repeatable readable image with the scope was next to impossible.

The solution for me was a cheap broken kids microscope. I pulled the lenses, inserted the scope wrapped in duct tape as a shim in to the adjustable focus mounted tube stand. This removed the wiggling and allow stable centered repeatable on the test piece of lead. To hold the lead on the microscope's platform I use kids play dough.

For me it's not as important to know the exact BHN of the lead. I do want the new batch to have the same indentation or as close to the last batch as I can make it by adding either softer or harder alloy. For me an alloy between 10 to 15 seems to work. For most rifle gas checks are seated.
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Re: Lead tester

Post by Ohio3Wheels »

I was told some years ago by guys in the printing industry that a great deal of the Linotype that's in the scrap stream is there because it's no longer Linotype. Over time the tin gets "burned" out of it to the point that it is no longer economical to replace it.

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Re: Lead tester

Post by cj8281 »

I was thinking that the spacers don't get any pressure or wear on them like the letters do. I think that is why the letters are hard and the spacers are soft. I need to go through and test all of the ingots that I made out of the linotype that I recently purchased.
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