My company is considering the purchase of a new portable hardness tester for use on items that can't be sectioned and simply won't fit on our stationary unit. We generally work in the upper Rockwell B scale and would require the unit to be accurate to within a couple of points in real-world use (in other words, outside of the lab and in the hands of a bonehead like me).

Any advise or comments on brands, styles, usage, etc. from those of you who have some experience with portable units would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

I have tried the Newage in the past, was very happy. (800-806-3924)
http://www.hardnesstesters.com/portable-rockwell.htm

In my current company, we don't have a need for a portable one, have couple of old, mechanical Wilson testers, they are always reliable.

Thanks, I'll take a look at the Newage.

Our stationary is an old Wilson. We've never had a lick of trouble and it's still dead-on after all these years, so I suppose I'm kinda spoiled in that respect. :D

One more for you to look at would be the Computest SC. We picked one of these up to use for Brinell testing, but it will also perform Rockwell.

http://www.worldoftest.com/computest.htm

I take it you liked the Computest? It looks to be a nice unit.

I take it you liked the Computest? It looks to be a nice unit.

Yes, its a very straight forward unit to use, but it was a bit pricey with, if I remember correctly, a cost around $5800 back in 2005.

Mitutoyo makes two units as well if you are partial to them. A portable indention type unit, the HH-110/120/140 series, and a rebound type portable tester the HH-401.