Ball bearing hardness tester?

[Justin Schmidt]

Just saw one on Ebay and was wondering if anyone knew anything about them? It's a Detroit rockwell C hardness tester. Heres the link
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/143254831614

 

[scott kozub]

I tried an impact tester a friend had that looked more sophisticated than this and it was crap. Very inaccurate, but more importantly, inconsistent results. There was just a tread on similar testers here:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/rockwell-c.1662836/

If you buy this I think you'll be wasting your money as a couple HRC points is very important to knife makers.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Well MSC has a digital starett one for cheaper than a grizzly so I may go that route

 

[scott kozub]

Look around for a testing standard block around 60hrc. You may get lucky and find a deal on a used tester in your area. If you have the test block you can see how accurate the tester is before purchasing. You could also get a piece of hardened steel tested at a local machine shop for pretty cheap and use that.

The most important thing is consistent results. Doesn't really matter too much if you read a couple points high or low. Once you have a tester you can make several coupons and test them to get the optimal hardness and ht recipe.

 

[Busto]

Well MSC has a digital starett one for cheaper than a grizzly so I may go that route

That Starrett unit measures "100 kgf" load for thin steel aluminum and other soft materials. Do a little research what you need is a RC Tester that reads 150 kgf in "C" scale. The price is Tempting but not what you need for Hardened Blade Steel...
https://www.struers.com/en/Knowledge/Hardness-testing/Rockwell#

 

[Justin Schmidt]

That Starrett unit measures "100 kgf" load for thin steel aluminum and other soft materials. Do a little research what you need is a RC Tester that reads 150 kgf in "C" scale. The price is Tempting but not what you need for Hardened Blade Steel...
https://www.struers.com/en/Knowledge/Hardness-testing/Rockwell#

Damn alright well that makes sense. Thanks for saving me 700 bucks lol
Keep my eye out for another one then

 

[A.McPherson]

700$?! You can get a proper one for 700, used of course, on eBay...

Heres one...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Togoshi-Se...737610?hash=item521b06a14a:g:xlUAAOSwrfRcWwZK

Heck there’s one for 120 or something like that if you can pick it up locally in OH.

Just do a little searching, who knows what you’ll find!

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Theres actually one close to me for 650 I may and try to grab but we shall see

 

[Doug Peariso]

If you have the luxury of time you can find them pop up on craig's list and other auction sites quite reasonable. I picked up a nice working bench top model for $90 that had been serviced and calibrated within 10 months of the listing on fleabay. The key is to watch for mis-spellings and listings based on actual model names. In this case it was an induction heat treat shop about an hour away from me that was closing up due to the owner retiring. The unit that I purchased had a broken lens on the bezel and some carbon grunge on the body, but still read the 45 and 62 HRC NIST traceable hardness standards within a tight group. IMHO the bench top units are so much nicer than the portable style.