Thread: Seeking Manufacturer for Machined Brass Parts

Originally Posted by Ox

600K EAU out of 360 is not much.

This is multi-spindle screw machine territory, not single spindle CNC.

And it will be ran WAY cheaper than most any of you think.
To land this work - you need to be in an exchange program with the brass mill (which is 7 miles from me).


Now if the parts were ran out of Eco-Brass (unleaded) then it would be more what y'all are thinking.
Case in point - I just fetched a cpl brass barb fittings a cpl days ago, and they were $$$
Then I noticed that they had been single pointed.
I'm sure they were unleaded brass to justify single pointing.
I'm told that stuff runs about like stainless.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

What kind of price will a mill pay for swarf and bar ends in high volume compared to a scrap yard? Also, must the swarf be run through a wringer?

Originally Posted by Finegrain

Maybe that AS9100 dude is back ...

Dunno about the rest of you but I don't have a good feeling about this one. As soon as everyone started asking questions he went AWOL.

He might be completely legit, but it seems he would come back to answer questions in that case...........

I would at least ask for proof of identity before signing anything.

Originally Posted by Dualkit

What kind of price will a mill pay for swarf and bar ends in high volume compared to a scrap yard? Also, must the swarf be run through a wringer?

I haven't ever been personally involved in the program, but historically I believe that they take the chips back and will re-process them for $.50/#.
Now that $.50 may move around a bit, but that is essentially the deal.

But your chips have GOT to be clean! to go back to the mill.
You don't run these parts in any machine that ever runs anything other than brass!
You don't run them through a wringer that runs anything other than brass!
Typically - a shop that runs this way - IF they run anything other than brass, it will be in a separate building.

They also keep you to only a certain % of chips coming back, to make sure that you are not smuggling in your buddy's chips that may or may not be pure.
And Heaven forbid you smuggle some Mueller material into the Chase facility. (or vs/vs I'm sure)
There are times when guys run a higher % of scrap than the allowed return rate, and I have heard that they have had to send the overflow to a scrap yard, which seems ridiculous, but ????


This is the cycle time for a 12L14 fitting.
360 brass will be 1/2 or less.




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I am Ox and I approve this h'yah post!

I was not impressed, until I saw it is a part per cycle. Very cool. How do you thread holes? Do the spindles have independent rpm (or I guess it’s more rotations per cycle being one giant gear orgy).

Hi/Low clutches / gear - yup.


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I am Ox and I approve this h'yah post!

Can't say I blame the guy for disappearing, some wise ass responses from guys who [like me] cannot even think of quoting.


Ox: fun, now that is some production


USed to be a guy next town over ran a cnc screw operation. Asked how many parts he would agree to make, his response was that he would take a job for a million parts............if it repeats

Sileff:

I was going to recommend Marshal Brass in Marshall, Michigan, but they seem to have fallen off the face of the Earth.

It appears that Tribal Mfg has bought them out somewhere along the lines.
Apparently somewhere on this side of 2008 as I found where they were laying folks off summer of 2008 still as Marshal Brass.

Anyhow - the Tribal website seems to be throwing alarms for my firewall, but here is the facebook page.

Tribal Manufacturing - Home | Facebook


I don't know their capacity as it seems that you have some pretty large sizes, and most brass parts are typically an inch and under, so ???
I have been in several brass only screw machine facilities over the years, and I don't think I've seen much over 1.625" capacity in them, but ???



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I am Ox and I approve this h'yah post!

Originally Posted by Ox

I haven't ever been personally involved in the program, but historically I believe that they take the chips back and will re-process them for $.50/#.
Now that $.50 may move around a bit, but that is essentially the deal.

If I would have had to guess I would have thought higher as scrap yards are still paying $1.25 for solids around me. It does seem no one takes brass chips anywhere I have been so I guess 50 cents is great.

Originally Posted by Mcgyver

Whether an NDA is needed or makes sense is irrelevant. Its box ticking. You'll waste a lot of time arguing with policies created in the bureaucracies of billion dollar companies.

Oh I know, used to work at a place like that.

Originally Posted by Dualkit

If I would have had to guess I would have thought higher as scrap yards are still paying $1.25 for solids around me. It does seem no one takes brass chips anywhere I have been so I guess 50 cents is great.

Read again - it is $.50/# to "reprocess" them, or said another way - they will buy back the chips for $.50 less than the selling price.

So it really boils down to - you pay $4/# (I have no clue what the current red market is) but you pay $4 for the actual material that you ship out to your customer, but only $.50/# for the material that you cut away in chips.

So - parts that have a high amount of scrap - benefit highly from running brass, as the removal rate is dbl that of 12L, the tooling will last much longer, and with the low cost of remelting - it goes well if the manufacturer and the brass mills work closely together. Once you git contamination and a scrap middle man involved, it's not so efficient.


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I am Ox and I approve this h'yah post!

Originally Posted by upm2019

As someone who has worked with T&B in years past I'm a little skeptcal one look at the drawing and I think sketchy . That doesn't look like anything a company like T&B would Draw . Also with their resources why are they looking they have shops all over the country .It would be better for the OP to put his contact info up so we can check him out .

Hi,
It is okay to be skeptical. It is surprisingly difficult to find a shop that is both capable and qualified to provide this type of product. We've looked all over the mid-south and southeastern states. It would be great if we had one but we unfortunately don't. Neither does our parent company ABB.

Why won't I post my contact information on a public forum? Not wanting to be spammed to death on my corporate email account with companies looking for work. If anyone is interested in learning more about this just send me a PM with a little about your company and a link to a website is also great. If your company looks like a possible fit I will call or email back.

"As someone who has worked with T&B in years past "
If you've done work with T&B in the past then please reach out to me. That is a huge plus!

Cheers,
Jeff

Originally Posted by triumph406

Does your purchasing dept know your out looking for vendors?

Nothing wrong with that, but I've seen a few situations where everything went swimmingly between engineers/managers and new potential vendors go south when purchasing got involved. "wait a moment, you said net 30, purchasing is saying we'll be on net 90, whats going on?"

Or have you discovered their (purchasing) not capable of looking for vendors outside of their already established network?

Hi,
Good question. I am in the purchasing department and responsible for the spend at the factory that makes our Hi-Tech Fuses. It has been so difficult to find anyone who is both capable and willing to do this type of work. I've spoken to probably a half dozen companies that colleagues at our other plants have sent me as recommendations. They have been either too small, not willing to take on that much work, or don't machine brass. I've struck out everywhere I look so I Google searched "machining brass dry" and found this forum! Thought, what they heck, and gave it a try and the response has been great so far. But again, most companies are either too small or too far away from our plant to make logistics sense.

Cheers,
Jeff

Originally Posted by DouglasJRizzo

I have a beautiful shop in Stanhope NJ. Two CNC lathes (Okuma and Mori Seiki) and two CNC machining centers. All are in excellent condition. I would love to quote!
-Doug

Hi Doug,
Have you sent me a PM with contact information? I looked through my emails and didn't see one. Please send your contact information and any information on your company. We have a factory in Hackettstown, NJ so perhaps we can have someone come by and take a look at your shop.

Cheers,
Jeff

Originally Posted by AD Design

-As someone that once worked for T&B I can tell you that there are thousands of drawings that resemble this one for several reasons. If the OP would reveal which CAD program was used to create this drawing it would help verify authenticity. Why the OP is doing this can be for a couple of reasons that come to mind but I'll withhold comment. I'd also like to ask which facility is targeted for final assembly if the OP can reveal this. If answers to any of these questions the public can view is verboten a PM is fine with me and the information will not be disclosed. I don't break the rice bowl of anybody.

Hi,
Yes agree, this is an old company that has acquired allot of companies over the years. Some prints we have are on microfiche of a hand drawn print from the 30s or 40s! It is crazy. I have no idea what CAD program was used to make that print. So sorry that some of you think it is fake. It is not, that is really what we have as a print for that part and it is one of the highest volume parts. Our engineering department would be involved in qualifying a new supplier so they could answer any questions that the print doesn't make clear.

There is nothing secretive about our Hi-Tech Fuses plant in Hickory, NC. A quick Google search will find it right away. No PM necessary. Sorry, I wish I could post all sorts of information more. However, this is a public forum and I would certainly be walked out the door if I disclosed anything considered confidential on a forum that our competitors can see.

Who is ASS9100D?

Cheers,
Jeff

Originally Posted by ChipSplitter

Dunno about the rest of you but I don't have a good feeling about this one. As soon as everyone started asking questions he went AWOL.

He might be completely legit, but it seems he would come back to answer questions in that case...........

I would at least ask for proof of identity before signing anything.

Hi,
I'm still here. Just don't work the weekend and just found the time to get back to you all.

Cheers,
Jeff

Originally Posted by Ox

I haven't ever been personally involved in the program, but historically I believe that they take the chips back and will re-process them for $.50/#.
Now that $.50 may move around a bit, but that is essentially the deal.

But your chips have GOT to be clean! to go back to the mill.
You don't run these parts in any machine that ever runs anything other than brass!
You don't run them through a wringer that runs anything other than brass!
Typically - a shop that runs this way - IF they run anything other than brass, it will be in a separate building.

They also keep you to only a certain % of chips coming back, to make sure that you are not smuggling in your buddy's chips that may or may not be pure.
And Heaven forbid you smuggle some Mueller material into the Chase facility. (or vs/vs I'm sure)
There are times when guys run a higher % of scrap than the allowed return rate, and I have heard that they have had to send the overflow to a scrap yard, which seems ridiculous, but ????


This is the cycle time for a 12L14 fitting.
360 brass will be 1/2 or less.




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I am Ox and I approve this h'yah post!

Hi Ox,
I am very interested in talking to you soon. I've responded to your PM with an email. Let's setup some time to talk soon. Based on this post you know exactly what we are looking for and why it is so hard to find someone.

Cheers,
Jeff

I really hope the thread gets closure and an approx. price range gets quoted - ballpark.
Thats what this forum is for.

Weather its 3$ or 9$ or whatever is not really the issue - it´s to get a handle on how that stuff moves.
(( Because 3"++ sizes will cost quite a bit in material no matter what.))

Originally Posted by hanermo

I really hope the thread gets closure and an approx. price range gets quoted - ballpark.
Thats what this forum is for.

I'm afraid that will be one of the things listed in the NDA, along with actual volumes and the part drawings, etc.

Could these be made from a near net casting instead of drawn bar?

Originally Posted by hanermo

(( Because 3"++ sizes will cost quite a bit in material no matter what.))

Not if the shop works with the mill as OX described earlier. Parts cost would be 50 cents per pound, chips go back to mill for remelt.