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The Five Things Shops Underestimate When Quoting Brass

September 25, 2026

Brass is rated 100 for machinability, the benchmark every other metal is measured against. That reputation is exactly why brass quotes go wrong. The cutting is the easy, predictable part, and it is not where the money leaks.

Here are the five that catch shops out, in rough order of how much they cost.

1. The burr nobody put on the drawing

This is the big one.

On a fitting, the burr that matters is not on an outside edge. It is inside a bore, at the intersection where a cross hole breaks through, where nobody can see it and few tools can reach it.

The problem is that it rarely appears on the drawing. A note saying “deburr all edges” reads as external edges, so you quote a tumble, and the tumble does nothing for an internal intersection.

Then the first article comes back, or worse, the parts pass at your end and fail a leak test after assembly at theirs. Now you are adding an operation to a price that is already fixed.

What to do at quote time: ask the buyer explicitly what internal burr condition they need, before you price. If the drawing is silent, say in your quote what you have assumed. “Quoted with external deburr only, no internal deburring at cross hole intersections” is a sentence that protects you and starts a useful conversation. Detail in the burr inside the bore.

2. Gauging sealing threads

A thread on a drawing costs one line of code. A sealing thread costs a tool, a pass, a gauge and a scrap risk.

Tapered pipe threads are the expensive case. The check is a go and no-go ring or plug gauge measuring standoff, not a micrometer, and a part that is out is scrap rather than rework because you cannot put material back.

If the drawing does not state a class and a gauge standard, you are being asked to guess at an inspection regime. Quote to a stated assumption or ask. See thread standards on brass fittings.

3. The metal price

Brass is 60 to 70 percent copper by weight and bought by weight, so the bar price tracks a commodity that moves weekly.

On a small Swiss turned part this is noise. On a heavy valve body the metal can be more than half the price before a tool touches it, and a quote you honour three months later can be underwater on material alone.

Two habits worth having. Put a validity period on every quote and make it short on heavy parts. And on repeating work, propose a metal price basis, where the conversion element is fixed for the contract and the metal element is recalculated against a published index at agreed intervals. Buyers in this industry understand that structure and it removes the argument from every repeat order. See why brass quotes expire.

4. Lead-free is two adjustments, not one

If the part is a potable water component it is going to be C69300 silicon brass or a bismuth brass, not C360.

Quote it as two separate lines.

Cycle time. Published machinability near 80 against C360 at 100, so expect roughly a fifth more time. Silicon brass also work hardens, so if you have not run it before, budget the learning rather than pricing it as C360 with a small uplift.

Material. Costs more per kilo and is held by fewer stockists, which sometimes means a longer lead time on an unusual diameter as well as a higher price.

Buyers who see a single lumped premium assume it is margin and push back. Buyers who see two lines understand it. See leaded and lead-free brass compared.

5. Certificates and traceability

“Material certificate required” is cheap. “Material certificate with every lot” is not.

Per lot certification forces material segregation through your whole process: bar batches kept separate, records of which parts came from which bar, and that trail held through machining, finishing and packing. That is real operational cost and it belongs in the price.

Ask which one they need. Most buyers who tick the box have not thought about the difference, and many only need it on the first article. See material certificates for brass parts.

The quote note that saves the most argument

Most brass drawings arrive missing the same handful of things. Rather than guessing silently, state your assumptions in the quote.

Quoted on the following assumptions:
- External deburr only. No internal deburring
  at cross hole intersections.
- Threads to stated class, gauged on first
  article only.
- Material certificate with first article, not
  per lot.
- Price valid 30 days, subject to metal price
  at order date.

Five lines. They cost nothing, they make your number comparable to a competitor who assumed differently, and they turn a later dispute into a change order rather than an argument.

Deciding not to quote

The fastest way to improve the return on your estimating time is to decline more.

A part that belongs on a Swiss lathe, quoted honestly on your machining centre, will come back several times the market price. You will lose it. The only thing that changed is that you spent an hour.

Knowing your band and saying no outside it is not lost business. It is the same discipline that decides whether buying leads pays.

Turn brass regularly? Register your shop and you will see previews of requests before you pay for any of them, with the part, alloy, quantity and compliance requirement on the preview so you can decline in ten seconds.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• When Buying Machining Leads Pays, and When It Does Not
• What It Takes to Add Lead-Free Brass to Your Shop