[Newbie] Wilson Superficial Hardness Tester

Luvtofish

Luvtofish

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I’ve got an opportunity to pickup a vintage Wilson Superficial Rockwell hardness tester model 3JS for a couple hundred $$. I know nothing about the unit yet as I’ve not yet seen it in person. However, I do know it is missing the weights which are used to apply forces of either 15Kg, 30Kg, or 45Kg. the weights can be purchased new for the small price of $495, gulp! That only would make this a deal breaker. I have the means to create replacement weights if I knew how much each of the three hang on weights weigh individually. Does anybody own a Wilson superficial hardness tester and willing to take the time to weigh each of them and post the details
here? I’ve seen other threads that list the weights of the standard Wilson tester that uses up to 150Kg of force weights. Those numbers are no good for the superficial units. Thanks in advance.
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Wilson made several Superficial Rockwell testers. Which model are you looking at?
 
Not sure, here’s a pic of it. As you can see, it will need a through cleaning and restoration before it’s useable.
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Save your money, the superficial tester is used to determine the hardness of case hardened articles, this would severely limit its usefulness.
 
benmychree said:
Save your money, the superficial tester is used to determine the hardness of case hardened articles, this would severely limit its usefulness.
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I thought this as well until I researched this further. There is a conversion chart that converts the N scale to C and vice versa. I’ve also read this in a Wilson manual. The advantage is quite the opposite. The superficial can do thin metal parts without leaving major dents while also being able to measure hardness up to N87 which is equivalent to 80 on the C scale.
 
We have it bigger brother at work, Junior. We bought it for $100. We spent as much for certified test blocks!

This guy is smelling the fresh air! It is missing a couple of the test weights as well.
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Pierre
 
Just received the information I needed from a fine gentlemen at Bryster Meterology. For the Wilson Rockwell Superficial model 3JS weights, the following are correct.

#1 15 Kgf weight = 420 g including hanger
#2 30 Kgf weight = 600 g
#3 45 Kgf weight = 600 g

Wear and other nuances may require a slight tweaking of the #1weight to fit your particular unit.

cheers!
 
Hi Luvtofish - I know it has been 3-1/2 years since this thread was active. I wonder if you could let us know how you made out with your 3JS machine? I bought a 5JS machine and am also missing the weights. Were you able to make you weights and be happy with the results?
 
Yes, it seems to work well with the posted weights above. I use a cross reference to get to a Rockwell C reading since most hardness specs are based on that scale. I went cheap on the weight. Using pvc pipe a piece of clothes hangar wire and lead weight I was able to build a makeshift weight to match what was listed above. I tested on a piece of 3/8 HSS blank which should have a hardness of around 62 C. My test with a cross reference came out spot on.
 
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