Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Casting Question

You can make your own Brinell tester if you have a drill press, bathroom scale and calipers.

Get a steel ball bearing. I use one that is .250" epoxy it inside a washer that is smaller than it is.

Put your bathroom scale on your drill press table. With a bullet or ingot directly underneath the chuck.

With the drill press OFF run the chuck down to the bullet with the washer keeping the bearing from sliding up into the chuck.

Now pull down on the handle until the bathroom scale reaches your desired pressure (I use 60 lbs) and hold it for 30 seconds.

Release the pressure and your bullet should have a nice dimple in it. Using a magnifying glass and your calipers read the diameter of the dimple.

Plug the diameter of the dimple, pressure and diameter of the bearing into this formula

BHN = (2*P) / [ (pi*D)(D - sqrt(D2-d2)) ]

where

P = Load on indenting tool in kg
D = Diameter of steel ball in mm
d = measure diameter at rim in mm

and you will have your BHN pretty close.

Bart, Personally, I'd use gas checks for a good reason---just because---and that's the best I can do. I'd buy a 170 grain mould. I bought a 150 from Accurate Mould and have wished many a time I'd gotten a 170.

Yeah, what Mickey said. 170...an old Lyman 311041 will do nicely.

I've used that one with WW/Pb evenly mixed with about 6-8 oz tin in a 25# pot. They have shot well, up to around 1900 fps which is as far as I've gone with them. I prefer something around 1600-1700 fps however. LLA lube only, no leading whatsoever. I recently fired some of slightly harder alloy and they did about 3" at 50 yards offhand in a Savage 24. Same mix as above with about 20% of the lead/WW replaced with linotype.

311041 is the one on the right, sized but not lubed. The other is some 7mm trash.

Just caught this thread, and I'm too late.

Sorry Bart, you've cohorted with HawkI in open forum and you are apparently too far gone to save.

I did, and the the next thing I realize, I'm accepting wheel weights as payment for surveying services, and humming winnie-the-pooh songs to pass time while melting lead.

screwed, bro.

You're screwed.

Ha ha! How true!

Next thing you know, you'll be watching the ground for stray wheel weights and miss out on the pretty girl bending over to tie her shoe...

I ain't that far gone.

yes the original lyman 311041 or 31141 is a great wide metplate fn bullet really puts the wallop on whatever you are shooting noe bullet molds , make a nice one it is a little less wide than the lymans , but is more aerodymamic and wide enough for tubular magazines to not be a problem