Brass Machining & Supply in Savannah, GA

C360 free-machining brass is popular because it offers the best machinability of any common metal, with a rating near 100 that serves as the industry benchmark other materials are measured against. The small lead content acts as a chip breaker and lubricant, letting the alloy cut at very high spindle speeds with excellent chip control, minimal tool wear, and a clean surface finish straight off the machine. For high-volume turned production — fittings, valve bodies, threaded fasteners, and connectors made on screw machines or CNC lathes — that translates directly into faster cycle times, longer tool life, and lower per-part cost. It's the reason C360 dominates fluid-system and hardware fittings. The main considerations are that it contains lead, so it's not appropriate for potable-water or certain regulated applications where low-lead or lead-free alloys are required, and that it's optimized for machining rather than deep forming. For volume machined parts without those restrictions, C360 is almost always the most cost-effective starting point.

Choose C260 cartridge brass when the part is primarily formed rather than machined. C260 has higher zinc content and no lead, which gives it outstanding ductility and formability — it deep-draws, stamps, bends, and spins without cracking, behavior that the free-machining C360 doesn't share. That makes C260 the right alloy for drawn enclosures, stamped terminals and contacts, springs, and other components shaped by cold working rather than cut on a lathe. It also work-hardens to useful strength and takes a bright finish. The tradeoff is that C260 machines far less easily than C360, so if your part is mostly turned or milled in volume, C360 will be much more economical. The decision really comes down to the dominant process: pick C360 when you're cutting metal away and C260 when you're forming or drawing metal into shape. For parts that combine both, the choice usually follows whichever operation drives the most cost and difficulty.

Dezincification is a selective corrosion process where the zinc in brass leaches out, leaving behind a weak, porous, spongy copper structure that retains the part's shape but loses most of its strength and can leak or fail. It's accelerated by exposure to saltwater and chloride-rich environments, which makes it a genuine concern in a port city like Savannah surrounded by tidal saltwater and coastal salt air. Standard high-zinc brasses such as C260, and even leaded C360, are susceptible. The solution is naval brass, which adds a small amount of tin specifically to inhibit dezincification, making it far more durable in marine service. For any brass part that will see seawater, brackish water, or sustained coastal salt exposure — marine fittings, hardware, and fasteners around the port — specify naval brass rather than a standard alloy. Stating the marine exposure clearly on your RFQ lets the supplier steer you to the dezincification-resistant alloy and prevents a part that quietly corrodes from the inside out.

Yes. Savannah's fabrication base, built around welding-fabrication, CNC machining, and assembly, includes the kind of turning capability that high-volume brass work requires. C360 free-machining brass is ideally suited to screw-machine and CNC-lathe production, and shops running volume turned parts keep it as a staple because of its speed and finish advantages. The regional supply chain supports this with good availability of C360 rod and bar, which is a high-demand commodity precisely because so much turned production depends on it. For a buyer planning a volume run of fittings, fasteners, or connectors, that means both the material and the machining capacity are realistically available in the metro. When you submit an RFQ for a production run, specify the alloy by C-number, the bar or rod stock size, tolerances, thread callouts, quantity, and any required plating or finish. Providing realistic annual or batch volumes also helps the shop quote the right setup and tooling for the most efficient per-part cost.