Drawings
How to send a drawing for a bronze casting quote
The six things a Vietnamese bronze foundry needs before quoting a drawing: views, controlled dimensions, material, finish, quantity and destination port.
Most enquiries that take a week to answer are not slow because of the foundry. They are slow because the message carried one photograph and a target quantity, so we had to ask four questions and wait a day for each reply. Six pieces of information are enough for a real number. This guide lists them, shows what a marked-up photograph must carry, and which dimensions deserve a tolerance.
The six things a quote cannot be built without
- A drawing, a 3D file, or a photograph you have marked up. Any of the three works. A bare photograph does not.
- The overall height, and which single dimension must not move. One controlled dimension, named by you, is worth more than twenty numbers with no priority.
- Material. Red copper or yellow brass. They cast differently, weigh differently and age to completely different colours.
- Finish. Name it from our range or send a photograph of the tone you want. “Antique” means five different things to five buyers.
- Quantity per model, and whether it repeats. A one-off and a line you intend to re-order every quarter are two different jobs.
- Destination port and the Incoterm you work on. These decide what a quote actually covers — see our trade terms page before you write this line.
A photograph becomes a drawing once you mark it up
Most of our customers are buyers and shop owners, not engineers, and we do not expect CAD. A usable marked-up photograph carries four things: the piece shot straight on from the front, one from the side, one from above, and an object of known size in the frame — a ruler, a bank card, a bottle. Then draw arrows on the print and write the millimetres you care about beside them.
Two habits ruin otherwise good photographs: shooting down at an angle, which foreshortens the piece, and cropping tight, so the base edge is invisible. Step back, shoot level, leave air around the object.
Dimension the piece the way a caster reads it
For altar sets the relationships between pieces matter more than any single figure, and they are what a customer notices on a staged shelf. Carry them on the drawing even if you specify only one absolute height.
| Element | Reference | Normal relation | State on your drawing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burner | Sets the whole scale | The figure everything else follows | Overall height, and body width at the widest point |
| Cranes, pair | Burner height | 5–7 cm taller | Whether you want them taller, or matched |
| Candlesticks, pair | Burner height | 12–15 cm shorter | Any shelf or cabinet height they must clear |
| Incense bowl | Burner height | About one third | Inner rim diameter, if it must take a specific insert |
Nominal size names and measured heights are not the same thing either: a “60” burner measures about 57 cm in the hand. If your retail listing must state a number, take it from the measured column on the specifications page, not from the size name.
Put a tolerance on what matters, and only on that
The most common mistake in a casting enquiry is a tight tolerance written across every surface, including faces left exactly as cast. It does not make the piece better; it slows the quote and invites a supplier to agree to something they cannot hold.
We pour and finish by hand. Between two castings of the same model, 1–3 cm of difference in height is normal and we say so up front; above 5 cm we treat it as a fault. Within that, tell us instead:
- The one or two dimensions that are genuinely controlled — a base that must fit a 42 cm shelf, a plinth that sits on an existing bolt pattern, a lid that must clear a cabinet.
- Which surfaces get inspected on arrival and which are decorative.
- Whether pieces sell as a matched set, in which case consistency within the set beats the absolute figure.
Wall thickness and weight belong on the sheet
Our standard is 5 mm of wall, up to 8 mm where the piece carries load — legs, ears, the ankle of a crane. That is deliberate: it is what lets a piece be re-finished years later rather than wear through. If your market has a weight ceiling for shelf display, or a freight budget per carton, say so on the drawing. A complete size 65 five-piece set runs to about 36 kg; multiply by carton count before you commit to a container plan, not after.
Marking, packing and version control
None of this should arrive as an afterthought two weeks in: engraved names or a retailer’s mark, a logo plate, text on the base, carton dimensions your warehouse requires, label placement, and whether pieces ship individually boxed or nested. If the design is yours rather than ours, read our OEM and tooling page first — it sets out who owns a mould and what happens when a line ends.
Then keep one file-naming pattern, company-model-rev-date, and send revisions as new files rather than replacements with the same name, marking what changed. Casting runs 21–30 days from an approved drawing, and a change accepted after approval restarts that window instead of shortening it.
Frequently asked questions
We have no CAD files. Can we still get a quote?
Yes. Most enquiries arrive as photographs with dimensions written on them. Three angles, a scale object in the frame and the millimetres you care about marked with arrows is enough to start.
Can you copy a piece we already sell?
If the design is yours or is a traditional form, send the piece or dimensioned photographs of it. We will not copy another company’s proprietary design. A hand-made match lands within the normal 1–3 cm band rather than identical to the millimetre.
Who owns the mould once it is made?
Our OEM and tooling page sets this out in full: how long we hold a mould, what happens when a line is discontinued, and the difference between a mould you paid for and one we developed. Settle it before production.
How tight a tolerance can you hold?
Name the single dimension that must be controlled and we will tell you before you order whether we can hold it. We would rather refuse a tolerance in writing than accept it and miss it on 200 pieces.
What happens after we send the drawing?
We read it, come back with questions in one message rather than five, and quote within two working days of having complete information. If something will not cast well, we say so then, with the reason.
Have a drawing, a sketch or just three photographs? Send them through the request a quote form, or message us on WhatsApp or Zalo at +84 926 199 999. Tell us the quantity, the destination port and the one dimension that must not move, and you get a real answer rather than a holding reply.