I have been looking for a decent affordable hardness tester for a while now, and results in Canada are pretty much non existent, unless i want to re-mortgage my house. I see a pile of guys using the Grizzly machine online, but i have not been able to find any info on pricing, availability, or shipping to Canada. Just curious if anyone has found a viable option for us northern guys. I would like to be able to verify results and consistency without bothering other guys by sending them samples to test, I'm just not looking to spend the $8000 that the few machines I have found in Canada cost.
There is the manual bench top units and my quote was for 2600 plus delivery. The Grizzly units are $800 USD and by the time shipping, dollar conversion, customs and taxes are paid you will be into it for close to $1600 CDN The $8000-10,000 CDN units are automatic with output for spreadsheets and reports. Way more than we would need. I am looking at getting a hardness tester soon so I can begin the Quenching system experiment (new product). Wonder if they would give a group rate with different delivery addresses.
Is that $2600 manual benchtop unit you are mentioning something that is sold in Canada? Do you happen to know the brand or seller? $1600 for the grizzly doesn’t sound too bad, I just haven’t heard back from them about shipping and availability so I wasn’t sure where that would come out at.
Dan Lowe M&L Testing Equipment 31 Dundas Street east, Unit #9 Dundas, Ontario, Canada L9H-7H8 Toll free 1-800-263-9244 Fax 905-689-3978 dan@mltest.com www.mltest.com IT is a quality unit not the no name brand carried by Grizzly that is a copy made in China.
I have an email into the manufacturer for a quote based on shipping to my place. Will pass along that info when it gets here and I mentioned might be more than 1 tester purchased. So who wants in on a group buy for hardness testers
I see a bunch of portable rockwell testers on ebay for around the $600 mark, give or take. I don't know where they're coming from or whether they're new or not.
I had an email come in Saturday from the manufacturer of the portable testers and will be sending in a request for pricing
Also make sure the hardness tester can test the thicknesses knife makers use! A while back I posted about a unit I thought was going to be the perfect poratable and automatic hardness tester for knife makers at $700 Canadian from a company in the GTA, but it turns out it doesn’t effectively test steel below 10mm /0.394 thickness! Also the more I read into bench-top testers needing to be constantly calibrated, being effected by changes in temperature and humidity, and also them having to be placed on a surface that won’t ever be nudged, bumped or otherwise collided with is ridiculous (I don’t have a spot like that in my shop lol, do you?)...I think I’m just going to get a set of HRC files like these http://www.flexbar.com/shop/pc/HARDNESS-TESTING-FILE-SET-p5383.htm
What about those hardness file sets you can buy. Each one is progressively harder until it lets you figure out what hardness the metal is at. Are those any good? They're substantially less expensive. Around $100. https://www.amazon.com/Fowler-Warranty-52-760-000-0-Hardness-Diameter/dp/B00B5HQYAM
The files work ok but they step in 5 point increments so all you will know is its harder than say 55 but softer than 60. Kinda a big gap. I cant remember the guys name right now (I will look it up and post) but there is a maker who sells hardness testing chisels. They come in a set that step up in one point imcrements so give a much better idea of the actual hardness.
Them hardness files are over priced but that is what people are willing to pay. The Hardness chisels cost more but are supposed to be more accurate.
Only certain models of bench hardness testers and one portable model are able to test accurately below 1/4" or 6mm. rebound testers, portable systems and some bench models have the same basic issue with the testing indentor causing material deflection or excessive penetration both will give false readings. i even tried testing with a 160 lb anvil for backing and was not able too obtain satisfactory averages. The bench top unit needs to have a 1kg and 10kg force option at the least and instructions for testing on thin materials which is a whole other class of testing.
Okay @ToddR time for you to make another confession...y’know when you said sorry for not hitting the like button...this time it’s, ‘I don’t read the last post before mine!’ Lol It’s sad when you think about it that the knife making industry touches on so many different other industries, but it’s still so relatively small as to not warrant the attention of a company willing to make a hardness tester to suit our needs. *sighs*
