What to Put in a Drill Point Die RFQ So the Quote Comes Back Right

Most drill point die enquiries get answered with a question rather than a price, and the question is nearly always the same one: what machine is this running on? A quote without the machine named is a guess, because the die that produces your point geometry has to sit in your tooling holder, at your shut height, at your forming speed. Two shops can quote the same screw drawing and deliver dies that differ in shank dimensions, back relief and hardness, and only one of them will drop into your pointing machine without a re-fit.

The rest of the delay is usually caused by omission rather than error. A die maker running an engineering review before quoting needs about nine facts. Send seven and you get a conditional price with caveats. Send all nine and a competent shop can come back with a die configuration and a firm number in one pass. This is what those nine are, why each one moves the quote, and how to package them so the reply is comparable across suppliers.

The three ways into a die enquiry, ranked

There are three legitimate starting inputs, and they are not equivalent.

The old die. The strongest input by a distance. A physical die, or clear photographs of one, carries every dimension that a screw drawing omits — shank diameter and length, back relief, the mounting features, and any correction a previous supplier made after a fit problem. If you are replacing tooling rather than developing a new screw, lead with this.

The screw sample. Second best. A finished screw contains the point geometry as built, including the details that a drawing rounds off. A die maker can measure a sample and work backwards. What a sample cannot tell them is your machine, so it should not travel alone.

The drawing. Necessary for a new development, and weaker than buyers assume for a replacement. A screw drawing describes the product, not the tooling that forms it, and a shop working purely from a drawing has to make assumptions about shank dimensions and relief that may or may not match your holder.

ZLD Precision Mold publishes two entry points that match this shape — send a drawing, or send photographs of the screw or the old die — with the enquiry then running through engineering review, quote, sampling, trial production, adjustment and stable output. That review step is where an incomplete RFQ turns into a week of email. Filling the nine fields below is how you skip it.

The nine fields

Four of those deserve expansion, because they are where buyers most often supply something that looks complete and is not.

The die code, and when it is enough

Where a supplier publishes a full series chart, the code is shorthand for a whole row of dimensions — how to read that chart is worth ten minutes before you write the enquiry. ZLD's L1–L7 system, for example, maps each die code to an IFI #4–#14 or DIN ST2.9–ST6.3 screw size along with drill diameter, point and wire diameters, flute length and die style. Quoting against a code from that kind of chart is fast and unambiguous — for standard sizes.

The trap is a code that is nearly right. If your screw differs from the chart row in one dimension, quoting the code produces a die that is correct against the chart and wrong against your screw. State the code and the dimension that differs, and mark it as a deviation rather than burying it.

Point style, spelled out

Point style is the field most likely to be summarised into uselessness. "Standard drill point" is not a specification. Give the style designation your plant uses, the drill diameter, the flute length and the point diameter, and if the supplier uses its own style letters — MA, MB and MC in ZLD's system — ask which of theirs corresponds to yours rather than assuming a letter means the same thing across shops.

The machine, in full

Make, model, and the tooling holder or die block arrangement if you know it. Photograph the die pocket with a scale rule in frame if you are unsure how to describe it. Screw plants routinely run machines that have been re-built or re-tooled over decades, and the machine's nameplate does not always predict what is in the holder today.

Quantity, in two numbers

Give the quantity for this order and the expected annual volume separately. They answer different questions: the first sets the price for this transaction, the second tells the supplier whether to recommend a harder, longer-running and more expensive die. A shop quoting one set with no annual figure will quote the cheap option, and you will conclude that it makes cheap dies.

How to photograph an old die so it can actually be quoted

This is worth doing properly, because it converts a weak enquiry into a strong one for the cost of ten minutes and a phone camera.

1. Clean the die first. Solvent, then dry. Forming lubricant hides edge condition and fills the flute detail.
2. Shoot the working face square on, not at an angle, with a steel rule laid in the frame for scale. Fill the frame with the die, and use a plain matte background.
3. Shoot the shank and the back separately. These are the fit-critical surfaces that a screw drawing does not describe.
4. Photograph the ID stamp or engraving. Old dies usually carry a supplier code, and that stamp is often the fastest route to an exact match — a shop that has made that pattern before can identify it immediately.
5. Shoot a worn area close up if the die is retired, and say what killed it. A die maker who can see the failure mode can propose a material change instead of copying a design that failed early.
6. Send raw files, not messaging-app compressions. A photograph flattened to 90 KB loses exactly the edge detail that was the point of sending it.

Ship the physical die if you can spare it. Photographs are a substitute for the die, not an equal.

What the RFQ should ask them to return

An RFQ that only asks for a price gets a price, and a price alone is not comparable across suppliers. Ask the reply to contain seven items, and say so in a numbered list — a supplier that answers all seven has done the engineering review, and one that answers three has not:

1. The die code or configuration proposed, with the dimensions that define it, and any deviation from what you sent flagged explicitly.
2. Material and hardness range — the HSS grade, or carbide, and whether a coating is included or optional and at what price.
3. The basis for any set-life expectation, stated as an assumption about your wire and speed rather than as a promise. A supplier that gives a set-life number without naming the wire is guessing.
4. Sampling time and production lead time, separately. ZLD states sampling at 3–4 days for standard items and 5–7 days for custom, with production at around 10 working days — those are the company's own figures and worth confirming for your specific code when you send the spec.
5. Price for one set, and price at your annual quantity. The gap between the two tells you a good deal about how the shop is structured.
6. Packing and rust prevention for export, which matters more than it sounds for hardened steel crossing an ocean.
7. What happens if the die does not fit. Re-cut, replacement, or nothing — agreed before the order, not after.

Comparing replies then becomes a matter of reading a table rather than reconstructing intent, which is exactly the discipline described in why quotes for the same spec come back different. The wider habit of writing a specification a Chinese factory can act on is covered in how to write a product spec sheet for a Chinese factory.

Four things to settle before you attach a drawing

These are commonly unstated by small tooling suppliers, ZLD included, and all four are worth one email:

• Accepted file formats. Ask before you send. A shop that works from STEP will not thank you for a native format it cannot open, and a flattened PDF drawing loses the dimensions that make it useful. Sending both a neutral 3D format and a dimensioned PDF is the safe default.
• Confidentiality. If your screw design is proprietary, ask whether a non-disclosure agreement can be signed before drawings are received. Where nothing is stated publicly, ask directly rather than assuming either answer.
• Tolerance convention. Where your drawing is silent, whose default applies? Ask what tolerance the shop will hold on unstated dimensions, and get it in the quotation.
• Quotation validity and currency. Small tooling quotes often carry no stated validity period. Ask for one, and ask whether the price is held on reorders of the same code.

Common questions

Do I need a CAD drawing at all if I have an old die?

No. For a replacement, a physical die or good photographs plus your machine details is usually a stronger package than a drawing, because the die encodes the fit dimensions a screw drawing never carries. A drawing becomes necessary when you are developing a new screw, or when you need the supplier to work to a dimensional standard rather than to a copy.

How specific should I be about material if I do not know what I am currently running?

Say so, and describe the application instead: wire grade and diameter, screws per set today if known, the substrate the screw drills, and your line speed. A die maker choosing between an HSS grade and carbide is balancing screw material, output volume and die-life target — give it those three and let it recommend, then ask why in the reply. An unexplained material recommendation is a flag.

Should I send the same RFQ to several die makers?

Yes, and send it identically. The value of a multi-supplier RFQ comes entirely from the replies being comparable, which means the same nine fields, the same seven requested return items, and the same quantities. Changing the enquiry between suppliers because one asked a good question is a common and self-defeating habit — update all of them.

How many rounds should it take to get a firm quote?

One, for a standard code with a complete RFQ. Two, if the shop needs to see photographs of the machine pocket or a physical sample. If you are on round four and the questions are still basic, the issue is usually that the machine, the wire or the quantity was never stated — check the original enquiry before blaming the supplier.

What to ask the supplier next

Use this as the body of the enquiry. It is short enough to paste and complete enough to quote from:

1. Die code or screw drawing attached; deviations from the standard chart row noted separately.
2. Screw standard and size (IFI or DIN designation), point style, drill diameter, flute length, point diameter.
3. Wire grade and diameter as run in production.
4. Pointing machine make and model, with a photograph of the die pocket.
5. Current set life in screws, if known, and what ends a set today.
6. Quantity for this order, and expected annual quantity.
7. Material preference — HSS grade, carbide, coated — or a request that the supplier recommends and explains.
8. Delivery terms and destination port or address.
9. The seven items you want in the reply, listed explicitly.

ZLD Precision Mold fits this format directly: its stated route into an enquiry is a drawing, or photographs of the screw or the old die, with an engineering review before the quote, and its own request is for screw size, point style, target volume and material preference. Its L1–L7 chart covers IFI #4–#14 and DIN ST2.9–ST6.3 with SKH high-speed steel or tungsten carbide and an optional coating, and trial orders start at one set — so a complete RFQ can end, in the same thread, with a single trial set on your machine rather than another round of questions. For the broader picture of how fastener tooling is bought out of China, sourcing industrial fasteners and their tooling sets the context this enquiry sits in.